#Ruby took on the role of being a parent

[gglitch1dd]

Us & You pt 5

DILF Kirishima Eijiro x Teacher Reader

Context: Kirishima Eijiro has done everything to forget Bakugou Katsuki in his life and just focus on his daughter, his amazing and loving daughter. The light of his eye. Due to an incident, Eijiro meets you, a teacher at his daughter school who he can’t help but fall for. However, as his daughter grows older and questions start being asked, it feels like the peace he tried to cultivate is slipping through his fingers.

Note: Prolife vs Prochoice, friends to enemies to strangers. Katsuki is TRANS!!! (AFAB)

PLEASE NOTE BEFORE READING THIS SHORT SERIES: There will be some deep discussions about morality, children, abortion arguments pertaining to Pro life vs Pro choice as well as the father’s role in raising a child/conceiving a child. It also deals with the struggles of being a single parent. It’s very messy and very much real life. Katsuki is Trans in this story (mostly cause I couldn’t find another character to be Sachiko’s mom and you’ll see why).

[PART 3] [AO3 Link] [PART 4]

You sat on the couch with Eijiro, his hand moving up and down your thigh as the both of you watched a movie on the TV. It was just the two of you this afternoon considering Sachiko was gone to stay over at a friend’s house for the day. From what you heard from Sachiko, it was rare for her father to allow her to go over to other people’s houses especially if him or the Kirishimas didn’t know them personally on an intimate level. She had apparently never gone to a sleepover, which after you took some time to think about it, you understood Eijiro’s fears.

She was a young girl, and you knew yourself that sleepovers at friend’s houses, even when you trusted them, was not always safe. Especially if there were adults or older individuals there that you weren’t aware of. You were glad that Eijiro had that rule to protect his daughter.

Eijiro leaned over to kiss your jaw, making you giggle as you were pressed up against his side. He seemed really touchy today. You weren’t sure what it was, but you couldn’t complain. “Eijiro, you aren’t watching the movie.” You reminded him.

“Hm?” He asked as he placed another kiss to your neck. Half of you was sitting on his lap but you felt him pull you more and more on top of him. You giggled at his lack of attention to the movie at all. “I’m more interested in you right now.”

His large hand travelled up your thigh even more, you wore loose shorts today that allowed him to slip his fingers further up your legs. You felt him grab at your skin making you suck in a breath but allow as you turned to look at him. His ruby eyes were half lidded as he looked down at you, focused on your being. You took in a deep breath, your eyes looking him over.

Eijiro was in nothing more than grey sweatpants and was otherwise shirtless, allowing you to freely gaze over the large expanse of his muscles. It was times like this you were reminded of how big your boyfriend was. He was absolutely huge. With broad shoulders and large muscles that were more meant for sweeping you off your feet than anything. You felt so small in his hold, almost dainty. You shifted your legs a bit as you tilted your head up to kiss his lips.

He let out a hum in gratitude, as his hands tightened around your body. His lips quickly moved to dominate yours, pulling you close and keeping you there. You wrapped your arms around his neck as you pulled yourself closer to his body, with a stuttered breath. You felt his sharp teeth nibble on your bottom lip, requesting access. You nodded your head breathlessly, as he easily took that opportunity to devour you.

He easily picked you up and settled you on his lap fully, allowing you to face his body as your thighs rested at either side of him. You ran your hands through his dark black hair making him hum in pleasure at the feeling of your hands on him. One of his hands moved up your body to feel the curvature of your back. You sunk down into his lap but gasp at the feeling.

You separated the kiss, a line of saliva connecting your lips as you looked down to where his tented cock was. You were then reminded of how much you loved his sweatpants. You glanced back up at him, trying to figure out how he was feeling. He nodded his head to you, wanting you to do as you please.

Was this it?

You looked back down at the imprint of his cock. Despite Eijiro being all for your pleasure, and having eaten you out multiple times, you had never actually seen his cock before. All you knew was that by the imprint in his sweats and the feeling of it against you, he was hung. You bit down on your bottom lip as you moved your hand up and down his shaft that seemed to only be growing hard at just your gaze.

Eijiro let out a groan as he felt you grasp his cock with your hand. He tilted his head back as he shifted, you felt him buck his hips just slightly. “Y/N…” He groaned.

You weren’t even paying attention to him as you had all your attention on his sex. He was thick. Really thick. You hadn’t even seen it out of his pants, and you felt a rush of fear go down your spine, but then it was quickly replaced by excitement.

Your hand moved to his waistband but then his phone rang. You turned to it.

“Who is it?” He asked, although you could see it in his eyes that he just wanted you to continue and ignore the phone call.

You reached over and grabbed his phone to see who was calling. Your eyebrows raised. “It’s Misaki’s mom.” You let out softly. Your eyebrows furrowed. “I thought you agreed with her that you’d pick up Sachi at half past four?”

“I did.” He sighed as he sat up. You handed him his phone. “Maybe Sachi isn’t feeling well or something.” He reasoned before picking up the phone. “Kirishima Eijiro speaking.” You refrained from touching him as you stared down at his crotch. You wondered how on earth that happened. You also wondered if this whole exchange meant he was comfortable with sex now? You surely hoped so. “What did you just say…” The low tone immediately snapped you out of your lewd daydreaming as you looked up at Eijiro. He had gone stiff, his eyes wide as his grip on his phone turned tight. You looked at him worried. “How on earth did you manage to lose her?” Your eyes widened at the news. “Well, I don’t care if there were many kids at the park! She’s my only daughter and you lost her!? How long has she been gone?” All you could hear was distressed crying from Misaki’s mom on the other side. You could imagine how scary it must be to lose someone’s kid especially when left in charge of them. You had gone through the same thing when Sachiko disappeared at the family derby event.

You saw Eijiro bring a hand to the bridge of his nose as he took a moment to think. “Okay. Okay. Just breathe. Stay there encase she comes back. I’ll find her.” He put down the phone and you quickly got off of him.

“What happened?” You asked urgently.

Eijiro stood up without hesitation. “Sachiko’s missing.” He told you, moving to head somewhere else in the house. You quickly followed after him. You could tell by his large strides and furrowed eyebrows that he was worried. “She hasn’t been seen in the past twenty minutes.” Eijiro walked into his office and immediately moved to the other side of his desk to where his laptop is.

“So how are we going to find her?”

Eijiro switched on his laptop and quickly signed in. “I’m going to track her.” He answered simply.

“You have a tracker on Sachi?” You asked surprised.

“No, her watch has a tracker that just so happens to be on Sachi.” He stated nonchalantly as if that wasn’t the exact same thing. He opened up a little app that looked more like a gaming app than anything. Suddenly a little icon appeared that said “Sachiko” with a baby photo of her. She had cute chubby cheeks with wide eyes with beautiful lashes, she was made out of chubby little rolls as she sat on the ground looking at the camera. You would have wanted to coo at it all day but there were more pressing matters. Soon the page turned into a map of your city and a little icon appeared on the other side of the city. Eijiro’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked at the location, she was in. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“What doesn’t make sense?”

Eijiro hesitated. “How did she get all the way there?” He asked his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “If she was taken, she would have hit the panic button that’s attached to her watch. I don’t know how she got there.” He motioned to the map.

You moved to zoom in to the map. Your eyebrows furrowed. “Isn’t that the Bakugou building?” You asked as you pointed to where her little icon was. “What would she be doing there?” You turned to look at Eijiro. The large man had frozen in his seat, fear in his eyes as his pupils shrank. He looked to you, asking a silent question that you almost instantly picked up on. You stood up straight. “She can’t know, and I doubt he would want to see her.”

“Then why is she there?”

Kirishima Sachiko held the straps of her small backpack as she walked through the hallways of the Bakugou building. She followed the group of children around her age that were there for modelling clothes for the brand. She was silent as she spectated everything around her, certain marks that she would use to remember her way out.

She felt bad for having to leave Misaki but her friend understood what she was trying to do. She had to be quick. In and out. Then she could head back to the park or back home. She knew her father would most probably be angry at her, but this was one thing she had to do by herself, cause she knew he would never allow or tell her otherwise.

Sachiko turned to the elevator, just managing to disappear away from the group as she clicked the second highest floor. She wasn’t too far away from the top so it wouldn’t be a long ride. Once the elevator gave out a sound, she stepped out and walked straight to the desk infront of a set of doors. It seemed to be a secretary’s desk.

Sachiko walked over to the secretary who looked up from his laptop. His eyebrows raised in surprise. “Hello little girl. What are you doing here?” He asked surprised as he stood up from his desk to walk over to her. “Did you get lost from the others?”

She shook her head as she gave him a smile. “No. I’m Kirishima Sachiko, I’m here as a representative of the Kirishima Diamond company. My dad said I’m supposed to be part of the photos, but I’m supposed to check in with my uncle Bakugou.” She told him with a soft hiccup. She was glad her father wasn’t here the else he would have known she was lying right out of her front teeth.

The man raised an eyebrow not that convinced. He could admit that she did look like a Kirishima, but she was a kid after all. “Aren’t you a little young to be a representative of a company?”

“I’m just here to see my Uncle Bakugou.” She told him once more.

The tall man sighed as he adjusted his glasses. “Mr Bakugou didn’t tell me he was receiving a guest. But since she was let through…” He grumbled. He moved to the door as he knocked before opening it. “Mr Bakugou, you have a guest here.”

“Who is it?” Sachiko heard a gravelly voice ask from the other side.

The man glanced back at Sachiko before looking back through the door. “A Miss Kirishima Sachiko. Apparently, she was told to check in with you when she got here.”

There was a beat of silence, which made the young eleven year old girl nervous that she might have come all the way here for nothing.

“Send her in.”

The secretary’s eyebrows raised in surprise, but he turned to Sachiko with a smile. “Looks like it’s your lucky day, Miss Kirishima. Bakugou-san never wants to see anybody.” He opened the door wider allowing her through.

“Thank you, sir!” She chirped out with a kind smile as she bowed at the waist. She walked into the office, allowing the doors to close behind her.

Sitting at a large desk with a tablet in hand was a man with ashen blond hair and piercing crimson eyes. He lacked facial hair nor was he as big as her father, but he was pretty handsome. There was something about his eyes that were so feline, piercing and almost made her feel like she had done something wrong.

Crimson eyes stared at each other.

Katsuki frowned at the sight of her. She looked like a doll. She stood in a ruffled light blue dress with white stockings and black shoes, with a red backpack. Her hair was cut short, just barely touching her shoulders as she stared back at him with eyes that made Katsuki feel like he was staring into a mirror.

Suddenly he felt sick.

He let out a shaky breath as he put down his tablet. So, it really was her. He had talked to her briefly at the derby, just thinking of her as one other many of the Kirishima children that he probably just didn’t know about. He didn’t think it would actually be it… her. He reached over to the phone on his desk. “Please call Kirishima Eijiro and tell him his daughter is in my office. Allow him clearance up…” Katsuki’s eyebrow raised. “He already called? Huh.” He put down his office phone as he turned to look at the young girl in front of him. He leaned back in his chair. “Your father is looking for you.”

“I figured.” She let out softly, her voice was gentle as she spoke to him. “I’m sorry for the lack of warning Bakugou-san, and good afternoon too.” She bowed at the waist formally, her left hand over her right. Katsuki watched her with a harsh glare. He could see the conservative Japanese upbringing from a mile away. He could see it in her manners and her voice. It was something that he only saw in Eijiro whenever he interacted with elders or people that were not his friends. Formal, proper, rich. He wasn’t sure if he liked it or not. “My name is Kirishima Sachiko, we met at the derby two weeks ago.”

“We did.” Katsuki acknowledged.

“I’m just here to ask you a few questions.” She told him honestly. “If that is alright with you…” Katsuki didn’t say anything or give her a sign, so she continued. “You know my father?” She asked softly.

“I did.”

She hesitated. “You both went to the same university, right? The two of you were close?”

“We were.”

“Then…” She seemed scared to ask her question. Her grip on the straps of her backpack tightened as she tried to keep her composure. “Do you… do you know who my mother is?” She asked softly. “I’ve already tried every one of Daddy’s friends but they won’t tell me.”

So Eijiro really kept his word?

Katsuki was silent for a long while. He sighed. It was better he got this over and done with and was frank with her so that she would leave him alone. He wasn’t sure why ghosts from the past were now suddenly haunting him after nearly twelve years of him being free from this. He pushed himself out of his chair and stood up. “You don’t have a mother.” He told her frankly. “But I do know who gave birth to you.”

Her eyes lit up, almost in excitement. Katsuki saw the same expression that Eijiro would make whenever he got excited about something. Katsuki hated that expression on her face. “You do?” She asked, stepping forward. “Do you mind telling me who she is?”

Katsuki moved over to the other side of his desk. He leaned back against the hard wood as he folded his arms. “Not she, he.” He corrected her, making her eyebrows furrow in confusion. Katsuki swallowed down hard, trying to ignore the lump in his throat. Years of trying to erase the very thought of her and her father all gone now that she stood in front of him. “I gave birth to you.” She paused. She blinked twice and tilted her head confused in the same way her father would. God, she was just like him. “I’m transgendered, kiddo. So the bonnet doesn’t really match the engine.” He tried using a euphemism to explain it to her.

She took a moment, nodding her head as she took it in. To Katsuki’s surprise, he didn’t see disgust or anger on her face. She seemed to be taking a moment to think it over in her head. “H-how did that happen?” She asked.

“Me being transgendered? I don’t know, trauma I guess.” He shrugged, scratching the back of his head.

She shook her head. “No, not that. I mean me. How did I happen?”

He raised a single eyebrow. “Your father never told you about the birds and the bees? Or what do they call it? Giving a man your umbrella?”

A soft blush went to her face. “Daddy never told me, but Miss Y/N explained it to me after I got my first period.” She revealed to him.

He raised an eyebrow. She already had her menstrual cycle? Had it been that long? Katsuki sighed, scratching the side of his head. “Well, yah. Birds and bees happen and then you happened. Congratulations.” He spoke monotonously.

“Did… Did you and daddy love each other?” She asked.

Katsuki hesitated. He looked away from her. A red croc key ring sitting on his desk. “In some way or another.” He answered softly.

She took another moment. “So then why… why aren’t you together? Why don’t I have a mom… well… other dad?”

Katsuki didn’t like her questions. He didn’t like her presence here and he didn’t understand why on earth he had to explain this all to her. Clearly, she was here without her father’s permission, and clearly she wanted answers.

If she was old enough to understand birds and bees, she was old enough to hear the truth.

Katsuki sighed, detaching himself of all emotions as he looked to her. “You were a mistake.” That one phrase had the girl freezing. “A reckless mistake Eijiro and I did. We weren’t ready for children, and I certainly did not want a child. Unfortunately, your family doesn’t share my sentiments when it comes to bodily autonomy.” He moved his hands to rest back against his desk. “So your father and I had an agreement and thus you were born and I am to play no part in your life.”

She let out a breath before tilting her head confused. “Bodily a-autonomy?”

“An abortion, kiddo.” He stated it simply. “I’m not sure your father would have allowed you to know what it is, considering how conservative your family is, but it’s when someone doesn’t want a kid and so they get rid of it before the foetus is born. Your father’s family didn’t want that despite what I wanted and thus here you are.”

Sachiko was pale, not a single thought in her head as she tried to digest all of this information. Her eyes dropped to the ground as she swallowed down hard. “So… you never wanted…” She wasn’t sure if she could say it. “B-but I’m your child.” She whispered softly, tears in her eyes. “Every parent should love their children. Don’t… did I not mean anything to you?”

“Oh, you did.” Katsuki acknowledged, nodding his head certain of that. “You did. You meant approximately three hundred thousand US dollars. That’s how much your father paid me to keep you. So, in exchange of that ridiculous amount of money as well as birthing you, your father lost his dreams and ambitions, resigned to working for his father which he hated the idea of, and became a dad, stuck with you. So if that is all your questions, I have a meeting in thirty minutes that I’d like to prepare for.”

Sachiko stared back at him, her eyes wide in the same way that Eijiro looked at him the day Katsuki told him to move out of his life. Sachiko looked down with a shaky smile on her face. “I see.” She whispered. She shuffled as she bowed her head to him, closing her eyes. “Thank you for your time, Mr Bakugou.” She whispered.

Katsuki knew he was being harsh, borderline inhumane, but if he wanted her to leave him alone, he’d have to take such drastic measures. This would be something for her to learn so that she would not come into his life again, and so that they could live their separate lives as agreed upon.

He opened his mouth to speak but the sound of his door opening, took his attention. Borderline sprinting into his office as Eijiro who had a scowl on his face. His eyes moved to Sachiko and instantly they eased. “Sachi.” He whispered as he moved over to her. You quickly came into the room as well, staying by the doorway. Katsuki raised an eyebrow, wondering who on earth you were exactly. Maybe her nanny? Eijiro crouched down in front of his daughter and took her by her shoulders. “Sachiko, are you okay?” She nodded her head speechless. He kissed her forehead and looked back over to Katsuki. “Go to Y/N please, and wait outside. I’m coming now.”

She silently followed his order as she walked over to you. You brought the little girl into your arms as you closed the door, allowing Eijiro and Katsuki some time alone in over a decade.

Once the door was closed, Eijiro’s face dropped as he scowled. He looked to Katsuki. “What on earth did you say to my daughter?” He asked with a low growl.

Katsuki raised an eyebrow. “No hello? How are you? How have you been the last twelve years?”

“Answer the question, Bakugou.”

Katsuki let out a tsk, as he stood up off his desk. He pointed a finger to Eijiro. “Your daughter came to me, Kirishima. She found her way through security and up the building just to come and talk to me, to ask who her real mother is.”

Eijiro’s face fell at that news. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know but he had to. “And what did you say?”

Katsuki put his hands on his hips. “I told her the truth.”

“You did what?”

“I told her the truth!” Katsuki repeated with a glare on his face. “I warned you, that after that… she was born that she and you were to never come into my life again!” He shouted at what used to be his best friend. “So I told her the truth, that I never wanted her and that she was here only on the pure grace of God that I decided to take up that deal with you.”

Eijiro’s face twisted into something close to disbelief and disgust as he took a step back. He almost wanted to refuse to believe it but Katsuki had no reason to lie. “How on earth could you say that to a child?!”

“She wanted to go digging in graves, she found what she was looking for.”

Eijiro looked down at the blond in disbelief. He let out a scoff as he frowned. “How can you have such hatred in your heart for someone that has done nothing to you?” He asked. He motioned to the door. “She’s a good eleven year old girl, who’s apparent only sin against you was being born!”

“Only sin?” Katsuki asked with a tilt of his head. “No, she ruined me!” He shouted as he took a step closer to Eijiro. “You have no idea what it was like being forced to carry that child and have it change your body to its will.”

“Forced? Katsuki you weren’t forced to do anything!” Eijiro shouted.

Katsuki let out a loud cynical laugh, stepping back as he turned away from Eijiro for a moment. “Eijiro, you forced me to carry it!”

“Don’t you dare call my daughter and ‘it’! I gave you an alternative!” Eijiro corrected. “I gave you another choice, a way that I could have my daughter and it would have no ties to you. You chose that alternative. I didn’t force you to do anything.”

“Yah, you only bribed me into having a child!”

“If it was the only way to keep her alive, so be it!”

“Keep her alive!?”

“Tell me Katsuki, why could my daughter not be human enough for you to keep her? Is she only human now that’s she’s older?”

Katsuki tsked as he looked away from Eijiro. He shook his head as he furrowed his eyebrows looking away from Eijiro. “Well I hope you’re happier now.” He spoke snidely and lowly, not answering Eijiro’s last questions. His hands gripped his biceps as he walked back to behind his desk. “And real good job by the way, raising her to be such a prim and proper princess. I almost didn’t feel judged.”

Eijiro frowned. “Did my daughter say anything that insulted you?” He asked, wanting a straight answer. “Did she show you any hate or admonish you in any way shape or form?”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. “Please, it doesn’t matter. I could see that Kirishima upbringing from a mile away. Tell your parents they did a stellar job.”

“A good upbringing that taught her to be kind and respectful?” He asked with a tilted head. “Stop trying to villainise an innocent girl in your life! Unlike you Katsuki, I am happy.” He put a hand to his chest as he looked to the blond. “I really am.” Katsuki looked back at his old best friend. Eijiro didn’t have an inkling of regret on his face. His eyebrows were furrowed as he looked straight at Katsuki. “I’m happy with my daughter and my girlfriend and my family. I have no regrets.” He stated as he moved to turn around to leave. “I hope one day you’ll find it in your heart to not have any either. And for what it’s worth…” He paused at the door as he looked at what was once his best friend. “I hope you know that the best thing you have ever made was her.” Eijiro left the room, deciding to leave the past where it was.

Eijiro closed the door of the apartment as you took Sachiko by the hand. You had been trying to talk to her but she hadn’t responded beyond nods and shaking of her head. Whatever happened in there was greatly affecting her. You looked down at her worried.

“Sachiko.” At the sound of her name, the eleven-year-old girl paused before looking up at her father. Eijiro moved to stand in front her, his eyebrows furrowed as he looked down at her with a frown on his face. “You deliberately left the park without adult supervision or consent. Do you know how dangerous that is? You could have been in danger. How on earth did you even get to the Bakugou building in the first place and why didn’t you tell me you wanted to know who gave birth to you? I could have talked to you.”

“No, you wouldn’t.” She let out softly as her eyes were down casted. “You never want to talk about it. You always just tell me that every kid is different.”

Eijiro paused. He sighed, knowing she wasn’t completely wrong. “Still. If you wanted to know exactly, why didn’t you just ask me directly? Do you know how worried Y/N, Masaki’s mom and I were for your safety? This isn’t-”

“Then why don’t you just get rid of me!” She shouted up at him. Eijiro’s eyes widened in shock. She had never shouted at him before. Tears fell from her crimson eyes as she looked up at her father with a broken expression. “I know you never wanted a kid anyway! I’m a mistake, right?”

Eijiro’s arms fell to his side as he looked at her confused. His face scrunched up in pain on why she would ever say that. “Sachi…” He tried taking a step forward to her but she took a step away from him, closer to you.

“No!” She shouted. “I know I make life difficult for you! You’re always worried about me, and you never get time to hang out with your friends or do anything you like with me here! Why-why did you even spend all that money for him to keep m-me?” She sobbed as she hiccupped, trying to catch her breath. “You would have been happier if I were never born!”

“Don’t say that.” Eijiro said with a serious expression as he crouched down in front of her with his hands on her shoulders. “Please, don’t ever say that.”

She let out a hiccup as she rubbed her eyes. “But it’s true, Daddy.” She let out with crippled cries, her face pink as she was overcome with emotions. “At least t-that way…” She hiccuped. “I wouldn’t be able to make life difficult for you.”

He shook his head. “No, it’s not true.” He denied it. He carefully moved his large hands to cup her round face. Her jaw shivered with quite cries as tears came out of her eyes. He moved her black hair out of her face and wiped the tear marks from her eyes. “Sachiko.” He started speaking softly. You saw a gentle smile come onto his face as he looked at her with so much love in his eyes. “You are the best thing to have ever happened to me. Intentionally or not. You gave me purpose that I never knew I needed in my life. Life felt so much brighter ever since you came into it. Do you know the first moment I loved you?”

She shook her head with a sniffle. You took out a tissue and gave it to her, allowing her to wipe her nose.

Eijiro smiled broadly, tears in his eyes as he leaned to put his forehead against hers. “The moment I heard your heartbeat at seven weeks. Sachi, you weren’t even born, and I had enough love for you that it made my chest hurt.” She let out a soft whimper as tears fell out of her eyes. He let out a gentle laugh. “So many people love you, I love you, Y/N loves you, your grandparents and aunties love you. Sachi, you aren’t a mistake. That’s why I named you Sachiko.” He reminded her. Tears finally fell from his eyes as he looked at her with a genuine smile. “You’re my little miracle.” She hiccupped as she nodded her head, rubbing her eyes as she tried to stop her tears. “The reason I wake up every morning and Did you do your affirmations today?” At the question, she couldn’t help but chuckle and smile but she shook her head. Eijiro shook his head with tsks. “Come on, you know the words.”

Sachiko she closed her eyes for a second before opening her crimson eyes again. “My… my name is Kirishima Sachiko… daughter of Kirishima Eijiro.”

“Yes, you are.” He affirmed for her, rubbing her soft knuckles with his thumb as he smiled up at her. “Go on.”

“I… I am constantly growing and developing into a g-good person. I am b-beautiful, I am strong, I am smart and I am talented. I kn-now my values. I am as strong as a mountain and as proud as a dragon. I am a Kirishima, worthy, l-loved and true.” She finished.

Eijiro smiled broadly, pride brimming in his eyes. “That’s my girl.”

She burst into sobs as she fell into his arms. Her arms wrapped around his neck as she cried. He chuckled as he held her in his arms. He tightened his grip around her. He looked up at you, and you smiled with emotional tears of your own. You nodded your head as you picked up her backpack.

“There, there, you can cry.” He told her as he comforted her. He picked her up easily in his arms. “How about you take a nap, hm? Naps always make me feel better.”

Eijiro laughed as he stood up and took your plates to the kitchen. You leaned back into the couch as you looked out at the dark night sky.

After the fiasco of Katsuki and Sachiko finding out about him, things sort of went back to normal which you were grateful for. It was you, Eijiro and Sachiko. However, Eijiro had been acting odd for a bit. He was odd in a way that you couldn’t really put a finger on it. He seemed to be giggly recently, and a bit nervous. All until tonight, when he invited you over with Sachiko out at Akari’s house.

“Y/N.” You turned to look up at your boyfriend who walked over to you. He carefully motioned for you to stand up, offering his hand to you. You raised an eyebrow but took his hand standing up onto your own two feet. He gently guided you up onto your feet.

You watched your large boyfriend guide you away from the comfortable couch and to who knows where. “Eijiro, where are you taking me?” You asked skeptically as you looked back at him.

He shushed you sweetly with a smile on his face. “Don’t worry about it, my love.” You hummed, not taking a word he had just said seriously. He chuckled as he guides you forward. His ruby eyes focused forward, a gentle look in them that had you wondering what he was planning right now.

You opened your mouth to speak but then your eyes caught on something making you pause. You were standing in the doorway to Eijiro’s bedroom, but it seemed totally different. There were roses everywhere with low lighting and special candle light. You looked around his room with wide eyes at the romantic set up he seemed to have made all himself. “Eijiro…” You let out softly. “What… what is all of thi-”

You turned around to face him but your boyfriend had disappeared. You looked down and your eyes widened. Sitting on one knee was Eijiro. He wasn’t nervous, he wasn’t anxious, he was sure. His eyes were sure. His face was sure. He let out a breath but smiled up at you, as he took your hand. “Y/N.” His large hands, large thumbs rubbed over your knuckles as he kissed your hand.

“E-Eijiro, what… what are you-”

“I know that I came with a lot of baggage,” He started off as he looked up at you. “I came with a little girl who had never known a mother in her life, some trauma and apprehension too. You deserve far better and yet you allowed me into your life. Initially, I was scared, but I’m not scared anymore. Y/N, you are one of the few good things in my life. You are wonderful, you are kind, you are such an amazing mother to my baby girl, and I couldn’t have asked for anything more from you. You did this all effortlessly. You didn’t have to begged or forced. You were patient with us, and you were at our side when all this chaos was happening. I…” Suddenly out of his back pocket, you saw a velvet box. The lid was flipped up and staring up at you, with beautiful diamonds was an engagement ring. “I know we haven’t been dating long, not even longer than a year but, I’m sure about this, I’m sure about you and I wanted to ask you this before I lose myself. L/N Y/N, would you do me the honour of marrying m-”

You didn’t even let him finish as you wrapped your arms around his neck and kissed his lips. Eijiro’s eyes widened in surprise before a chuckle stumbled out of his lips as he wrapped his arms around your arms. He smiled against your lips as he wrapped his arms around you, pulling you closer. You were crying as you held him. Disbelief giggles stumbled out of your chest as you couldn’t help but smile against his lips as you giggled and cried.

Eijiro blinked, thick lashes brushing his cheeks as he stared at you with wide ruby eyes. He searched your face. “So that’s a-”

“YES! Eijiro, yes, I will marry you!” You affirmed, nodding your head as you pulled him into another kiss.

Eijiro wrapped an arm around you as he pulled you in tighter. He let out a stuttered breath as you deepened the kiss. Your hands moved to the back of his head, feeling his locks and baby hairs at the back of his head as you did so. He groaned as he bit your bottom lip and slipped his tongue into your mouth.

You were perfect, you were perfect for him, you were perfect for his girl, you were perfect in their lives. All he wanted was you and right now he could barely think past his tight boxers.

He pulled back with a heavy breath. “Wait… wait, wait, wait.” He breathed out heavily.

You looked up at him, waiting on whatever he had to say. “Do you still want to wait?”

“God no.” He shook his head firmly denying it. He leaned forward, closer to you, his eyes hooded with lust and want. “No, I want to be as deep inside you as possible.” You felt a rush go down your back at the look in his eyes as you tried to stifle a giggle stupid smile. “But I want to do it with you wearing my family diamonds, with my ring on your finger, treated like a real Kirishima wife should be treated.”

-Glitch1d

[mostmagical]

for @zodoods, I hope this lives up to expectations 🙏

Words: 4k Summary:

Marinette knew she tended to get tunnel vision when she was focused, but luckily her boyfriend Chat Noir was always there to watch her back as they fought Monarch. With their enemy having disappeared, however, they decided together that it was finally time to reveal themselves. In public. Face to face. It's a little silly to have to introduce yourself to your own boyfriend, but after all, it wasn’t Marinette’s fault that she never knew her boyfriend’s name. (Adrien has never been to school, and Marinette doesn't know him.)

Marinette hadn’t known her smile could be so wide. Staring at herself in the reflection, she couldn’t be bothered to worry about the awful dark circles under her eyes, or the frizzy mess of her hair. Everything could be covered or smoothed over, after all. None of that really mattered. Not when her whole world was about to change.

Today was the day.

“Today,” she breathed the word to herself. “Tikki, can you believe it’s today?” she asked, turning around to look towards her kwami.

Tikki giggled from where she sat atop the dresser. “You and Chat Noir have only been planning it forever,” she replied.

The smile was beginning to make Marinette’s cheeks ache. “We have.”

For months following the disappearance of Monarch, Ladybug and Chat Noir had been planning and mentally preparing to finally reveal their identities to one another, eventually coming to the conclusion that they were both ready for it just a week prior. She could still see Chat’s goofy smile in her mind’s eye, clear as day.

“So, we’re really doing this?” he had asked as they sat atop a rooftop together. “For real?”

“For real,” she had replied, excitedly nodding her head. Taking his hand in hers, she had pressed three rapid kisses to the back of it, trying to impress all of her enthusiasm and all of her love into his skin through the suit. “I can’t wait to meet you, mon Chaton,” she had promised him.

His face was rosy, with that big, beautiful smile of his stretching out his cheeks. “Neither can I, my Lady.”

Marinette let out a low squeal at the not-so-distant memory, pressing her hands against her hot cheeks.

She was going to meet her boyfriend. For the first time.

Well, not exactly the first time, but first enough.

They had plans to meet at a little café just a few blocks from the Grand Palais. He had surprisingly been a bit apprehensive at first, but she assured him everything would be okay. Marinette promised to wear the rose he had given her in her hair, and she was going to look for the boy wearing the scarf she had made him on his pretend birthday (and then he could tell her his real birthday!).

She couldn’t wait.

This day was a long time coming, and Marinette had plenty of fantasies to prove it. She wanted to hold her boyfriend’s hand in public, kiss him and go to the movies, all without a crowd of people taking photos of them. She wanted to goof off and be silly with him, all without worrying about being a hero, or acting like a good role model. She wanted to take him over to her house, and have him meet her parents, and stay for dinner without the threat of a supervillain interrupting the desert.

And after today, all that could finally be reality.

She got to work applying her makeup and wrangling her hair, not wanting to waste another second. Although she was notoriously late for most events, this was something she hoped to actually arrive early to. The ruby red dress she had laid out the previous night while she should have been sleeping was the last to slip over her head, perfectly matching the scarlet of Chat’s rose tucked behind her ear. The knee-length skirt fluttered to and fro as she took one last scrutinizing look in the mirror. Everything had to be perfect for her not-so-first impression.

Once she was finally satisfied, Marinette tossed her purse over her head. As soon as Tikki was settled and comfortable, she at last headed out.

There was a skip in her step the entirety of the walk, completely out of her control.

Although excitement was certainly at the forefront of her emotions, she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge that little seed of nervousness. What if he didn’t like her? (He would.) What if he wasn’t as kind as she thought, and his personality was nothing more than a front? (Impossible.) What if his nerves got the best of him, and he didn’t show?

With her heart thundering in her chest, she turned the last corner to bring the café into view.

Her eyes zoned in on a mop of blond hair instantly. It was neat and combed back— completely at odds with the wild wind-blown look she was used to seeing on her boyfriend, but something in the way her stomach twisted and swooped inside of her told her that she may have spotted him. Taking slow steps closer, she traced the curve of his posture with her eyes as he sat hunched over the tiny café table, gasping slightly as she located the familiar shade of blue peeking from his collar.

It had to be him. It had to.

A chorus of giggles broke her concentration, drawing her eyes to a gaggle of girls a couple tables over. They were whispering excitedly and pointing in the direction of the same mop of blond hair, all with cell phones raised. A sudden wave of heat ran up Marinette’s spine as she realized they were ogling him.

She wasn’t surprised that girls were looking at him. Chat Noir was the cutest, most handsomest boy in the world, so of course they would. But that was her cutest and most handsomest boy in the world.

Her slow steps quickly evolved into a fast walk until she was right beside him, at which she practically threw herself onto the table, bodyblocking the girls’ view. The boy visibly jumped at her entrance. She glanced at his face for his reaction, but his eyes were covered by large sunglasses, effectively hiding any expression of recognition. Face feeling suddenly warm, Marinette stood back up straight and cleared her throat, casually drumming her fingers against the laminate surface.

“H-hi. I’m looking for my kitten,” she said, uttering the code phrase they had planned to use to confirm each other’s identities.

The boy smiled, instantly easing her worries. “I saw a little bug on the flyer.”

A grin spread across her cheeks before she could stop it, giddiness overflowing to the tips of her fingers. “I found you,” she murmured, just quiet enough to be just for him.

He stood from his seat, still smiling, and Marinette thought he was going in for a hug until he stepped around her. She was only confused for a second before he pulled out the chair on the other side of the table.

“Oh.” So the gentlemanly thing wasn’t an act after all. Accepting the gesture, Marinette turned to sit, feeling him push the chair in behind her as she did so. “Thank you.”

He simply hummed, before returning to his own seat across from her.

“So, um–” Not really sure where to start, (how does one introduce themselves to the boy they’ve been dating for two years?) Marinette figured the basics should go first. She almost wanted to laugh as she realized she was essentially on a blind date with her long-term boyfriend. “I’m Marinette,” she said, tugging at her bangs before pushing them behind her ear.

“Marinette,” he breathed. Breathed, as in he actually sighed her name when he said it. Marinette thought she might melt. “That’s a beautiful name.”

She wondered how dopey her smile must look to him. “Thank you,” she replied. “And you are?”

Thin blond eyebrows raised over the rims of the glasses, before dropping back down out of sight almost as quickly as they appeared. He laughed. “Okay,” he said between chuckles. “I’m Adrien.”

Marinette wasn’t quite sure what was so funny, but his laughter was just as contagious as always. With a giggle, she stuck out her hand. “Nice to meet you, Adrien.”

His returning smile was soft. “Nice to meet you, Marinette.” He took her hand, and turned it to rest atop his on the table, running smooth circles over the back of her palm with his thumb. The feeling of his warm skin on hers was foreign and exciting, setting off yet another flurry of butterflies in her stomach.

“You still wear your pigtails,” he stated.

Naturally, her free hand trailed to her hair. She smiled as her fingers brushed the velvet petals of the rose. “They’re kind of my armor,” she replied with a shrug. “All the better for you to recognize me.”

The corner of his lip twitched, but the soft smile remained unchanged. Part of her wondered if he was still nervous about meeting. Hoping to ease his worries, she grinned.

“And I’m glad to see you don’t wear whiskers,” she joked.

He laughed again, and that seemed to be enough to lower the tension in his shoulders, to Marinette’s relief. “You’re right, I don’t,” he said. “I have a clean public image to maintain, you know.”

Marinette furrowed her brows, trying and most likely failing to hide the confusion on her face. It was surprising; Chat Noir was definitely the type of person who would grow “whiskers” just to commit to the bit. To each their own she supposed. Mustaches did seem to be more supervillain-y than superhero-y, after all.

“I do have to ask, though, what’s with the glasses?” she asked, moving the conversation along. “They’re so big, they’re covering half your face. Any plans to take those off?”

“Well, I–” Adrien’s head turned minutely towards the girls at the table behind her, barely perceptible to anyone who wasn’t looking for it. “I don’t know.” His hand pulled at the scarf where it crossed over his black t-shirt.

“Please,” she insisted, putting on her best baby-doll eyes. “How unfair you get to see all of my face and I can’t see all of yours.” She held his hand tighter, imploring but hopefully he knew it was still light-hearted.

“Marinette, it’s just–”

She pulled out her secret weapon: the pout. His mouth instantly stopped moving.

“I’ve never really seen your eyes before,” she added. At his answering sigh, she felt a bout of pride swell in her chest. Victory.

Hesitantly, he removed the sunglasses and folded them on the table, all the while looking shyly up at her through golden lashes.

Marinette’s pulse quickened as she finally— really— met his eyes. Such strange feelings of déjà vu ran through her when she caught sight of how green they were. It was the first time she had seen his whole face, and yet it already felt so nostalgic and familiar. It was almost as if she had seen him before, and she supposed she had, in her dreams at the least.

“Gorgeous,” she sighed, unable to stop her tongue from embarrassing the rest of her.

All the regret she might have held drained out of her, however, when she saw how pink his cheeks went in response. His dropped jaw slowly curved into a small smile, and those pretty green eyes closed in half moons as he replied, “Thanks for the compliment.”

Was this really the same boy?

Marinette snorted. “What? No cheesy remark about how you knew I wouldn’t be able to resist you?”

“I’m just far too stunned by the beauty in front of me to think straight,” he said, mouth pulled sideways. “I daresay you could outshine me anyday.”

There he is.

She rolled her eyes in response, but she couldn’t deny the coils of warmth that spread across her skin. With a fond shake of her head, she brought one elbow to the top of the table to cradle her chin in her hand.

“You know, you’re taking this really well,” Adrien said, the smirk fading back to a humble smile. It was odd seeing him so reserved. “Better than I thought you would.”

“Taking what well?” she asked. Her heart squeezed in her chest as she recalled his apprehension from the night before. She attempted to keep things light, sliding into a teasing tone as she conspiratorially whispered, “Did you think I wouldn’t like you without the cat ears, mon Chaton?”

“Well, no, that’s not exactly—”

She cut him off, making sure to speak with all the sincerity she could muster, “Because there is no universe where I wouldn’t like you.” With a coy wink, she added, “Believe me. I checked.” She grinned with pride as her fingers squeezed his on the table, feeling as though she had one-upped him in cheesiness.

Again, his mouth hung open slightly as he processed her words, but soon morphed back into the soft smile. His head tilted to the side. “You always know what to say to make me happy, my–” The corners of his lips twitched, his intended endearment clear to both of them— “my Marinette,” he said instead, pulling their joined hands up to brush his lips against the back of her palm.

Dimly, Marinette registered the sound of a squeal from somewhere behind her.

“But, um, no.” His countenance took on a much more nervous expression, his free hand drifting back to play with the nape of his neck. “I meant more–” He paused, waving his hand awkwardly towards himself.

“What?”

His brows furrowed, mouth open and clearly poised to explain himself, but he was interrupted by a waiter arriving to take their orders, and the moment was surreptitiously forgotten.

As the date went on, conversation flowed freely between them. Marinette learned so many of his favorite things, what he was studying in school, that he was an only child just like her, and of course, his birthday, time and year. So many things that she would normally have naturally learned over time, which was something that she took for granted in her other relationships with family and friends. It was odd, but wonderful that this absurd blind date was just another unique experience that they could share together.

She would have been more than happy to talk to him forever if she could, but a trill from Adrien’s phone stopped their conversation short.

His eyebrows turned down as he read the screen. “How did it get so late?” he pouted, just as cute as before when he wore cat ears on his head. “I’m sorry, Marinette, but I have to go.”

Her smile was sympathetic, barely holding herself back from mirroring his pout. “That’s okay,” she replied. “We’ll just have to have our next date sooner.”

The answering smile on his face made it all worth it.

Adrien’s fingers flew across his keyboard for a second, before another trill responded. “My bodyguard says he can take you home, though!” he announced happily. “So we can spend a little more time together.”

Marinette couldn’t stop the confused noise from escaping her mouth. “Your…bodyguard?” she repeated slowly.

“Yeah!” He looked up from his phone, lips softly quirked upwards. “And don’t worry; he may look mean but he’s the kindest man I’ve ever met.”

That certainly wasn’t something Marinette was worried about, but now she felt like she needed to be.

She tried to cross the appropriate wires in her head. Okay, so Chat Noir, famed superhero of Paris and wielder of the power of destruction, had a bodyguard in his everyday life. And that bodyguard apparently drove him places?

Perhaps she needed to collect more evidence.

Too busy thinking to come up with anything to say, Marinette mutely nodded her agreement.

Having already paid the bill— well, Adrien paid, despite her protests—, the two stood from their seats and headed down the sidewalk. Marinette followed Adrien closely, too busy sweeping her eyes across the busy street to spot this ‘mean-looking’ man to notice Adrien’s knuckles bumping into hers. She finally looked up at him when he laced their fingers together and squeezed. His green eyes almost seemed to shimmer as they looked into hers, and Marinette could feel all that wound-up tension melt away in response.

The spell between them was broken by a sudden honk.

Adrien was the first to break eye contact, turning back towards the street. “Oh! There he is.”

Marinette followed his gaze. Her eyes widened as they landed on the sleek sedan that had pulled up to the curb in front of them. She didn’t know much about cars, but she knew enough to identify the logo of a luxury brand. The car was well-washed and shiny, unlike most of the vehicles that parked along the dirty city streets.

A burly man emerged from the driver’s side door, and walked around the car. To Adrien’s credit, he did seem a bit scary, based on sheer size alone, but Marinette supposed her Papa was probably about the same size. She figured if the man smiled a bit more, he would come off much friendlier. He greeted the two of them with little more than a low grunt and a nod, before briskly opening the rear passenger side door.

Marinette froze in place as she waited for one of the others to move. She couldn’t for the life of her understand what was going on. Was Adrien going to drive and this man was graciously letting her have the front seat?

“Marinette?” Adrien cleared his throat. “Are you ready to go?”

She blinked a few times, looking back and forth between the open door and her boyfriend’s face. “Um, yes,” she replied nervously. “I’m ready.”

He bowed his head, gesturing with his free hand towards the open door. “Then, after you, my lady.”

The familiar name quelled the voices in her head long enough for her to step forward. “Thank you, my prince,” she teased in response.

Though she did step in first, she held fast to his hand, pulling him along with her. The inside of the sedan was just as clean as the outside. Small tablets nestled into the back of both front headrests, and a far fancier screen than Marinette had in any of her devices at home was centerstage on the dashboard. She could feel her eyes widening as she took it all in.

Chat Noir was rich.

Chloé Bourgeois rich, maybe.

That was… unexpected. Admittedly, she never imagined Chat to have a high-class upbringing (if she could even call Chloé’s that). She had always envisioned him as a rough and tumble sort of kid. He would take soda over wine any day. Canned tuna over caviar. He had never turned up his nose to fast food, or cheap nosebleed seats at a concert, or acted like he was any better than anyone else.

No, Chat– Adrien— was amiable, gracious, and an appreciator of the little things–

“Marinette?”

She whipped her head around to meet her boyfriend’s gaze, having been yanked from her thoughts. “Yes?”

Adrien seemed to be holding back a laugh, clearly having recognized her thinking face. “Your address?”

“Oh!” She leaned forward in her seat, directing her attention to the driver. “12 Rue Gotlib, if you’re sure you don’t mind.”

Adrien’s face lit up in the rearview mirror. “That’s just around the corner from us!”

“Really?” She was reminded of that flash of déjà vu she had felt upon seeing his face for the first time. Maybe they had met before. Most people who lived in the 21st arrondissement got their baked goods from her parents’ bakery, and Marinette often worked the front counter. They must have had at least one encounter before as their civilian selves.

It was almost a shame.

She would have loved to know that her favorite person was just around the corner.

He tightened his grip on her hand as she turned back to face him. “Almost too good to be true,” he said, echoing her thoughts.

All lamentations of lost time were forgotten at that, and she chose instead to be happy in the moment they had now. She smiled, squeezing his hand back.

They were content to spend the short ride in comfortable silence after having spent the majority of their time together with endless conversations. Adrien’s bodyguard didn’t ask any questions after Marinette gave her address, so she saw no reason to try chatting with him when she could cuddle into Adrien’s arm instead. The world was pink and fuzzy, and the only leather pressed against her skin was that of the car seats. Feeling the rise and fall of Chat Noir’s breaths through warm cotton was a wholly different, welcome experience.

The ride was too short, however, and before she knew it, they had pulled up in front of her family’s bakery.

Adrien’s short intake of breath pulled her eyes upwards, and she noticed him staring at the sign with eyes full of wonder. “Whoa, you live so close to the boulangerie,” he noted.

Marinette grinned. “Well, yeah, I live above it,” she said, delighted when his head whipped back to face her. “My parents own it.”

His eyes looked about ready to bulge out of their sockets. “You do?”

She pointed to the sign. “And I designed the logo. Tom and Sabine Boulangerie,” —she turned the finger towards herself— “Tom and Sabine daughter.”

Adrien’s face was painted with the most excitement she had seen from him all day. “That’s so cool! They have the best macarons— I’ve had some at events when we get catering— and I’ve asked Nathalie a few times, but, well–” His face was a bit pink as he paused. “You’re amazing, Marinette.”

“I’ll have to bring you some macarons next time I see you,” she giggled.

His eyebrows danced over his eyes. “Now I know why you’re so sweet.”

“Oh, hush.” She lightly shoved his shoulder. “Takes one to know one.”

Following some pointed clearings of the throat from the driver’s seat, they eventually got out of the car and Adrien walked her to her door. She left him with a quick kiss and a promise to text him later.

The remainder of the day went by in a blissful blur. Dinner, homework, and television with her parents faded into the background as she slipped lovingly into her daydreams. Adrien was too busy to talk, but he had sent her a few hearts and memes throughout the evening, and she looked over all of them with her chest fit to burst. Before she knew it, it was time for bed and they were texting each other good night.

It wasn’t until the next morning that Marinette realized the true shift the world had undergone.

The incessant buzzing of her phone was an unwanted wakeup call. Marinette blindly slapped her hand against the mattress until her fingers met the smooth plastic of her phone case. She slowly cracked her eyes open as the screen lit up again with notifications.

New Message - 🦊Alya🔥(32), Missed Call - 🦊Alya🔥 (2), New Message - Adrien ♥️🐈

Wondering what was so desperate for Alya to be blowing up her phone so early, Marinette quickly responded to Adrien’s “Good morning <3” in kind before opening the floodgates. She was immediately treated to a number of news articles, all caps messages, and photos. Photos of her and Adrien.

Her fingers flew through the slideshow of photographs: Adrien waiting alone with those ridiculous sunglasses, herself haphazardly draped over the table, Adrien kissing her hand, the both of them stepping into his car. She paused on one of the last photos. It was of the two of them, hand-in-hand as they waited for their ride. Adrien’s soft eyes that had mesmerized her up close were just as soft from a careful distance.

She blinked rapidly as she processed it all.

How did Alya get these?

Scrolling back up in her conversation history with Alya, she looked at the articles again, scanning over the headlines: “Adrien Agreste - Dating?” “Adrien Hits the Town with Mystery Girl!” “Who Caught the Eye of Adrien Agreste?” “Agreste Son is Growing Up!”

…Agreste?

The conversation shot down to the bottom as another text from Alya came in: CANT BELIEVE YOU DIDNT TELL ME????

Faster than she could process, Marinette swiped away from her messages to plug “Adrien Agreste'' into her search engine. A shocking thousands of images popped up, all of her boyfriend in various poses and campaigns— including one with the bowler hat she had designed for a competition run by Gabriel Agreste.

A banner notification popped up at the top of her screen, Marinette’s finger tapping it automatically.

Adrien ���️🐈: I have a photoshoot until around noon, but do you want to get ice cream after?

Marinette dropped the phone as everything suddenly became clear.

Perhaps maybe their civilian relationship wasn’t about to be quite as low-key as she thought.

[wixhing0nastar]

Abuse Narratives in RWBY: Yang Xiao Long Edition (Feat. Ruby Rose)

We've all witnessed and talked about Blake and Weiss being abuse survivors for years. Blake escaping from Adam and Weiss escaping from her father were both huge, impactful events that have shaped the narrative of the story in many ways.

Yang on the other hand has managed to fly mostly under the radar with the abuse she's suffered up to this point. Her jokey, happy-go-lucky facade tricking the audience just as well as it has her friends and family for years.

(Note: this is going to be a long post, so strap in. Also this is your warning I am not going to be holding back in my criticism of Tai, so if you don't want to see me go into detail about how exactly he abused Yang, I highly suggest turning back now).

TL:DR: Yang was neglected and parentified (aka: abused) as a child and that’s the root of a lot of the issues that she’s currently struggling with in Volume 9 and a large part of her healing is going to be centered around her relationship with Blake going forward.

Let's start by establishing what exactly I'm referring to when I say that Yang has been abused. Because while I'm certainly referring to her being neglected after Summer's death, I'm more so referring to the years of Parentification that was caused by said neglect (in addition to the verbal and emotional abuse hurled her way).

Let's start by defining what exactly Parentification is since it's where most of Yang's current problems stem from.

[Parentification is] a disturbance in the generational boundaries, such that evidence indicates a functional and/or emotional role reversal in which the child sacrifices his or her own needs for attention, comfort, and guidance in order to accommodate and care for the logistical and emotional needs of a parent and/or sibling. (Hooper, 2007b, p. 323)

Ruby establishes in Volume 9, Chapter 1 that Yang was the one who raised her. It's important to note that in the context of her saying that, she's telling Yang that Yang was the one responsible for her moral development as a kid.

Research has shown that the building blocks for morality are generally in place by the age of 4. However, "children need adults to help them at every stage of childhood to nurture these seeds into full development." (Harvard, Raising Caring, Respectful, Ethical Children, p. 1) With "childhood" commonly considered infancy to age 12.

Using this we can reasonably assume that Yang was Ruby's primary caretaker or at the very least co-parenting with Tai from the time of Summer's death to at least age 14 (when Ruby was 12)... which mind you, is already over a decade total and only three years before the show starts.

Now that we've got some of the science out of the way, let's start looking at the show itself to see just how bad the situation was.

Burning the Candle

This iconic scene actually paints a fairly horrifying picture of Yang and Ruby's early childhood when you start to break it down.

I waited for dad to leave the house.

Meaning that by that point, probably only a few months after Summer's death based on the timeline Yang establishes, Yang already knows Tai will reliably leave her and Ruby alone without supervision for extended periods of time in order to pull this off.

I must have walked for hours.

Meaning that it likely took several hours for someone to even notice they were missing in the first place. The fact Qrow knew exactly where they were indicates that Yang either left a note or clue about where they were headed and I'm willing to bet the only reason it took Yang that long to walk was because she was like two feet tall at the time (since Patch is like... a tiny island... which brings me to the next line...

A toddler asleep in the back of a wagon

Again, to clarify, Ruby was a toddler. Toddlers are between 1-3 years old... meaning this all happened when Yang was a maximum of (and likely, based on their physical appearances) 5 years old.

So to summarize, Tai was regularly leaving Yang, his five-year-old, home alone and in charge of her three-year-old sister... which would be horrifying to think about on its own but this is Remnant.

Which means that Tai was regularly leaving his grieving five-year-old at home alone when they didn't live inside a kingdom's border and there were known wild Grimm in the area... who are attracted to negative emotions.

Wow... I wonder why Yang felt the need to try to diffuse the tension with humor and keep everyone in high spirits all the time. It’s almost like it was a life or death situation growing up. (/s)

Anger, Fear, and Burn

Before jumping into the next big narrative piece, let’s talk a little bit about Yang’s semblance, Burn, and how it works. Because it’s important to establish before starting to dig into Volume 4.

Let’s start with how Ruby describes it:

Don't worry! With each hit she gets stronger, and she uses that energy to fight back! That's what makes her special.

Notice how Ruby doesn't mention anything about Yang needing to be angry to use her Semblance? In fact, while it’s unclear if this is entirely true, it has been stated previously that Yang’s powers come in part from her hair and no one has refuted that claim in like 8 years so it holds some weight.

Moreover, recent volumes have actually been hinting that Yang likely doesn't even need to use her anger to activate/maintain burn. And that she just does so out of habit more than anything.

Now, why exactly would someone intentionally limit themselves by tying their semblance into in emotion like that? Well, first let’s answer the question, why anger?

And well... anger is a secondary emotion.

A secondary emotion is an emotion fueled by other emotions... masking your feelings of sadness, hurt or grief with anger can be easier than experiencing the primary emotion.

And moreover,

The feelings that anger commonly masks include fear, anxiety, guilt, shame, embarrassment, betrayal, jealousy, sadness, hurt, and worry. (Alta Loma, Understanding Anger as a Secondary Emotion, Web, emphasis added).

Fear is, of course, a bit of a running theme in RWBY, there was a whole speech and song about it at the end of Volume 7, after all.

But more than that, there've been two people on two separate occasions who've called Yang out for being scared when she's posturing: Ren and Raven.

And while Ren was pointing out that she uses humor to try to deflect when she’s scared, when Raven said this to Yang she was absolutely outwardly angry... and Yang admits to being scared in the moment yet still standing there.

Also note that humor = friends/winning, anger = enemies/losing.

Which makes you wonder, what was happening growing up that made Yang instinctively react to fear of danger with anger and planting her feet instead of running away? For that let's go back to what we learned from Burning the Candle and the V5 short real quick.

We know there are living Grimm on Patch. Maybe not as many as elsewhere, but both times we are given glimpses into Yang and Ruby's childhood on Patch they are attacked by Grimm, which isn't a great sign.

How old do you think Yang was the first time she or Ruby had a bad day and attracted one of them on accident and she had to fight it off on her own (because she couldn't run, she had to protect Ruby)?

How many nights do you think Yang would spend reading Ruby stories and telling her dumb jokes to get her to laugh to try to make sure they weren't attacked? How often did Ruby have to force herself to be okay? For both their sake?

Volume 4

Now let's talk about Volume 4, aka: when Tai had the chance to step up and didn't.

Now right off the bat he's okay. There's nothing inherently wrong with him bringing her the arm and being excited at the thought because he doesn't know how she's going to react to it though it is a little weird he opened her mail without permission.

The rest of Yang's first V4 episode, however, makes it very clear both to us as the audience and Tai that Yang isn't doing okay... but Tai doesn't do anything to attempt to help her.

Which is why what happens in the next episode is kinda messed up.

Yang wakes up from a nightmare about losing her arm in a seriously traumatizing event and goes downstairs when she realizes there's a distraction people are over.

Then we get the fight and despite Yang laughing it off in the end... honestly Tai is being very condescending towards her, which Yang even points out. Like, someone made a slightly adult joke in front of her and he flies off the handle and starts a fight with her and starts making digs about her not being a real adult ready for the real world and let's just break that down before dealing with the actual problems in this episode.

Yang, as established, has been fulfilling the role of parent (while barely getting any parenting herself) for years. She's been fulfilling the role of an adult since she was 5! And at this point in the show she's also legally an adult. So not only is it condescending, it's also untrue.

Then we get this line.

I guess you lost some brain cells along with that arm.

Not only is this beyond callus, Yang is clearly actually upset by this.

And notably, she only treats it as a joke after Oobleck dropped his cup. AKA: after being reminded that they aren’t alone in the room.

(And remember, Yang uses humor as a coping mechanism).

And both Oobleck and Port can clearly tell that this wasn’t appropriate at all and immediately following that, they pointedly step in to ask Yang how she is doing with everything.

Which Tai has not done.

And Yang opens up to them! And she tells them that she’s still struggling and coming to terms with what happened to her. Which in turn causes Tai to finally talk to her about it, but he’s being pushy about her getting back out and “being her new normal” and even refers to her PTSD as moping when she just got done saying she’s still trying to process and recover.

And it’s again Port specifically who steps in and gives her some genuine advice without trying to push her her into anything she’s not ready for and then Oobleck joins in and they go out if their way to ham it up to make her laugh.

So overall, Tai’s being extremely dismissive of the trauma that she’s gone through and minimizing her feelings at every turn.

Which then leads to this scene...

Which is when Tai’s dismissiveness starts to make sense (and I’ll come back to this when I’m analyzing the last episode).

Let’s break it down. To start, Tai knows that Yang is going up to her room, they pointedly have her call out goodnight from upstairs so Tai knows where she is physically and what her intentions are.

Secondly, there’s no way that Tai doesn't know you can hear people talking from the front door from Yang’s room. He’s owned this house for like two decades minimum at this point.

So when Oobleck and Port ask after Ruby, there’s no way he should assume Yang won’t be able to hear everything he says. And he very much lays the burden of Ruby’s safety at Yang’s feet. He’s not going after her because he has to “look after some things.”

AKA: Yang.

And then she comes to him literally the next day wearing the new arm and wanting to train and he doesn't question her at all, even though 12 hours earlier Yang was very much not ready?

We then don’t see her at all for five episodes until we get the scene where she’s training with Tai and honestly, his advice is kinda horrible.

To start, even he says his advice is based on watching her Vytal Festival fights, meaning that everything is based on watching three matches.

He points out she uses her semblance to win every fight after the qualifiers (which is true), and Yang rightly points out that everyone uses their semblances to help them win. Then Tai says this:

Because not everyone else’s is basically a temper tantrum.

Not only is this very unlikely to be true, but even if Yang does need to rely on her anger to activate her semblance, calling it a temper tantrum isn’t accurate at all.

In fact, the way Yang uses her semblance takes a great deal of emotional regulation to pull off. She not only is able to make herself angry enough to use it at will, she’s also able to stop using it at will. Meaning Yang is capable of instantaneously switching from one emotion to another.

That’s not a temper tantrum, that’s someone with superb emotional control choosing what emotion to feel when it’s most appropriate.

Furthermore, the “what happens if you miss” comment is so ridiculous I don’t even know how to start other than saying we literally saw exactly what happens when Yang misses her first attempt in Volume 2! When her semblance is being revealed! And the answer is... she gets another shot.

And if they’re stronger... like not using the thing that makes her ridiculously powerful is certainly not going to help.

And honestly... Yang doesn’t do what Tai says. He says it’s useful in a bind but Yang doesn’t use her semblance only in emergencies from here on end. In fact, what she actually does is pick up some tricks from Pyrrha and she starts hiding her semblance from people!

And noticeably, Tai isn’t the one who tells Yang to fight smarter. That’s a line of thinking she develops on her own between the first and second times she faced Adam.

And then Tai takes credit for her “suddenly” getting better like she hadn’t successfully hit him so hard he needed to take a pause and the fight he did win was only because he attacked her when she was being vulnerable with him... her father who she’s of course not going to assume is going to attack her while she’s opening up to him... because she wouldn’t do that to Ruby.

And then we get to Yang’s last (real) episode of the volume when she’s setting out to get Ruby. Remember when I said Tai’s dismissiveness started to make sense and we’d come back to it? Well we’re back to it.

Note how Yang pointedly doesn’t tell Tai that she’s leaving, despite him having indicated to Port and Oobleck that the only reason he wasn’t also going after Ruby was because he was staying with Yang?

And how in the end he doesn’t leave with Yang to go find Ruby even though supposedly the only reason he hadn’t was because he wanted to make sure Yang was okay? And now Yang’s going after Ruby? Alone?

Paired with how pushy and condescending he was acting towards her in the other two Volume 4 episodes he was in, on top of having neglected and parentified her for at least a decade, this really reads as him wanting Yang to get better so he can shove her out the door to go after Ruby, and not him caring at all about her as a person.

(Which is why I really struggle to feel bad for him in his V8 scene... if he was so worried he could have been there).

Yang’s Actual Temper Tantrums

Let’s address these really quick before moving on to the final section. We’ve actually seen/heard of four different instances where Yang actually was having something resembling a temper tantrum while using her semblance.

I’m going to start with the Neon fight because it’s the easiest. But Neon as a character relies on knocking her opponents off balance by getting under their skin in a fight. She tries to make them angry and yes, it does work on Yang in this instance. But that’s Neon’s whole thing, in any other match up Yang would have been fine.

The other three times all had to do with her hair (namely, when Junior gets her hair in her trailer, when the ursa gets her hair in the Emerald Forest and... in V4 when Tai refers to her having a rough first haircut).

Going back to the bit about how Yang’s powers, in part, come from her hair and this actually makes a lot of sense in the context of Yang’s childhood. If she was regularly in charge of protecting Ruby and some of the finite power she did have as a kid was because of her hair, of course she gets freaked out by losing some... and we’ve already talked about Yang using anger as a mask for fear.

Bumbleby and Volume 9

So let’s talk about where we’re going now, because of all three of the abuse survivors in this show, Yang is the only one who hasn’t really been confronted with and forced to deal with it yet.

Because at the end of the day, being parentified and neglected for years has left Yang scared to open up emotionally and more than that, uncertain of her identity outside of being Ruby’s parent.

Because up to going to Beacon, that was basically Yang’s entire life. It’s entirely possible the only reason she went to Signal was to learn how to protect Ruby better all things considered.

Which is why the development between her and Blake is so important this volume. Yang desperately needs to be valued as something other a caretaker and protector and so far they’ve been emphasizing the fact that Blake loves Yang because she’s a goofy dork who makes her smile, not because she’s strong enough to level a mountain.

And while Blake’s relationship with Adam was abusive, unlike Yang, Blake does have a framework for health relationships thanks to Ghira and Kali and she’s worked through her own trauma from being abused romantically enough that she’s in a place emotionally to help Yang start working though hers. Starting by giving Yang a person she can trust not to leave who also isn’t and has never been dependent on her to muck up Yang’s healing process.

Because there’s a difference between someone choosing to stay and someone not having any other choice because they were/are dependent on you. And (absolutely no shade to Ruby here) she’s already had someone in the latter position choose to leave her anyways.

In Conclusion

Yang was abused as a child and into her late teens and is in desperate need of some type of unconditional love and affection that she doesn’t feel there are strings attached to in order to finally begin healing...

And therapy, but they’re a little low on that for the foreseeable future.

[hadesisqueer]

My favorite scene in volume 7 is in episode 5, the entire talk between Weiss and Winter.

They were just training and Winter semi-compliments Weiss' progress, sorta in a pompous, tough-teacher way, and Weiss just smiles and teases her, which surprises Winter.

After Willow became depressed, Winter took Weiss under her wing—writers confirmed she also tried to take Whitley under her wing as well, but Jacques made sure it didn't happen—. Winter basically took on the mother role for Weiss while being barely more than a kid herself.

The situation it's way different than with Yang and Ruby, because while Yang also became some sort of sister-mom to Ruby they were also closer in age. And Yang wasn't Ruby's mentor: Qrow was; her uncle was her teacher and the person Ruby, along with Summer, that she looked up to him growing up that she got a scythe just like him.

Winter and Weiss are different: Winter is about five or six years older than Weiss. They didn't have an uncle Qrow that Weiss could look up to and learn from; Nicholas Schnee was most likely dead by then, and while I'm sure that Willow probably was Winter's teacher... She wasn't emotionally available. Therefore, Winter didn't only have to be sorta like a mom; she also was Weiss' first teacher, her mentor, the one that taught her how to fight and how to use her semblance. Winter wasn't just a sister, she was some sort of mother figure and an authority figure in Weiss' eyes. That's why she acted extra formal and pompous in volume 3 when Winter arrived. Weiss always saw Winter as more than just her older sister: Winter was her idol, her mentor, and she wanted her approval, just like a kid wants approval from her favorite teacher or her parent, she wants to make Winter proud.

That's why Winter looked so surprised when Weiss teased her in volume 7, like a normal sibling would. In volume 3, Weiss would have never done that. And that's why Winter chuckles; she realizes how much Weiss has grown, that she no longer does things to seek Winter's approval, and that she doesn't really need Winter to be a mentor anymore. Winter can just-- be her sister now. And Winter drops the formality as well, and she starts talking to Weiss not as a student or a kid, but as her equal, listening to her opinion and never brushing it off, confiding in her. And that was something I really liked.

[transsunwukong]

randomly thought about something that hasn't really occurred to me before: the difference in how yang expresses her confidence depending on who she's with. we all know and love her attitude when she's dealing with some stupid asshole, but that's more of an intimidation tactic than anything else - it's just her style. what i wanna talk about here is more about who yang really is when she's not putting up a front. not consciously, at least.

it's apparent in a lot of moments, but i wanna highlight this by comparing 4 specific scenes, all about the concept of (her) strength:

in v4c9, she has her talk with tai after their sparring match. it's pretty clear that yang and her father have a lot of mutual respect for each other in spite of their complicated history. i feel like tai is the only person who can really get away with criticizing yang on something so personal and essential to her identity as her fighting skills, especially with how much of an inspiration he's been to her on that front.

and she listens, because she knows he's right (even if she's sad and a bit sarcastic about it) - but also because, at this point in the story, she's still recovering from the lowest low of her life and her dad is currently the only one she can seek solace in. that's what this scene is all about! you can tell she's not happy with letting her guard down and being lectured/psychoanalyzed like this, but this is the one place where she can do so guilt-free.

her time back in patch is as much of an opportunity to reconnect with her family and sort out everything she's been dealing with alone in her head, as it is a literal recovery and training period. it's sad to see yang like this, but she's not really self-deprecating here - she just finally has a breathing room, and someone there to listen, who already knows and understands her better than she does herself sometimes, which i think is a really important part of it.

in v5c14 and probably one of my FAVORITE scenes in the entire show, it's the other way around, as yang is the one confronting her other parent. this scene beautifully mirrors her previous conversation with tai and shows how much she took it to heart.

the whole back-and-forth between yang and raven is so good. there's just something so satisfying about yang finally tracking down her mom, being the one to ruin everything she's planned up until now, standing her ground and calling out raven on her hypocrisy and cowardice in such a tense moment without letting her feelings get the better of her - and ACTUALLY getting through to raven. "yeah, i'm scared, but i'm still standing here. i'm not like you, i won't run." what else can i say?

and of course it's not until raven has left and yang retrieves the relic herself that she falls to her knees and cries. this isn't yang putting up a front to scare someone away, this is yang taking matters into her own hands because she knew she was the only one who possibly could. this is yang choosing to be the bigger, braver person, knocking some sense into someone who failed at that responsibility her whole life, because there was no other option.

even though she WAS terrified and heartbroken, raven didn't -deserve- to see her cry.

in v6c7 after That Whole Ordeal, everyone's still a bit on edge. this is such a small blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, but i think it's still relevant to point out.

"especially since some of you are clearly stronger already." it's no coincidence that the focus is on yang here, when maria talks about her guilt as a failed hero/role model for the next generation, but it's even more important how yang reacts to it.

for one, yang can relate to maria's guilt (even if she really shouldn't have to). we know how important it is for her to be viewed as someone strong and reliable - as a protector of the people, as a friend, as a teammate, and ESPECIALLY as an older sister (this just in: self-destructive hero complexes aren't just limited to the team leaders!!). despite how much ruby looks up to her, there's still a part of yang that won't forgive herself for not always being the person ruby needed her to be, and the same can easily be said for her other loved ones. especially here in v6, when she's still not really There Yet when it comes to the old team rwby dynamic. it's a complicated time.

she says nothing, but you can tell she's interpreting this like it's pointed directly at her. when yang feels exposed like this, she tends to either dodge it with humor or lash out, so in a way it's refreshing to see her just kinda....sit on this, silently and out of view, even if it's not necessarily a good thing to sulk about.

and of course there's this little bit in v8c9, courtesy of ren and his WONDERFUL AND HILARIOUS VIBE CHECK ABILITY!!!!

yang, jaune and ren are all -friends-. not necessarily teammates or family, but very close friends who understand each other. and they may be in some deep, awful, super scary shit at the moment, but that's nothing they're not used to. it kinda does feel like Just Another Situation With The Bros.

of course yang tries to lighten the mood! that's what she DOES with her friends, and they know this! i don't think it even OCCURS to her that the others might take it the wrong way, or pick up on why she's doing it. i don't think that she, in the moment, really thinks about why she's doing it, either. this is yang after all! confident, cool, funny, bright and happy yang. right?

so when ren of all people is the one to call her out on it, it catches her off guard so badly that it takes her a few seconds to even process it, and then she can't help but sigh and smile. it might have been a little embarrassing for her, but above all i think it's actually a relief for yang to be seen like this, especially from someone so unexpected. a less outspoken friend who she might not be as close with as some of the others, but who can therefore genuinely relate and sympathize with her anxiety in this moment without making her feel too self-conscious about it.

it's nice. it's just really cute and nice.

[bestworstcase]

hi, found your post about Yang and Salem. Didn't know that she, out of all people in team rwby, is the one who foils Salem the most. Like she's the most normal member in team rwby.

Which led me thinking, Yang has a lot of parallels with the villains, notably, Adam, Cinder, and Salem. What do you think is the ideal route of Yang during volume 4?

well that’s the thing about salem, isn’t it? she wasn’t anyone special. her father was a lord in a world ruled by kings and queens, and he abused and isolated her so viciously that whatever notional privilege she might have had by virtue of noble birth was stripped away from her; after she and ozma murdered her father and escaped, she was a commoner. the raw magical power that sets her apart on remnant was commonplace then. there was nothing extraordinary about her at all.

but she was brave. passionate. determined. angry. she walked into the domain of gods and refused to flinch.

who does that sound like?

anyway, yang’s core allusion is goldilocks. too hot, too cold, too hard, too soft, just right. balance. compromise. scathing eyes ask that we be symmetrical, one-sided and easily processed. rwby is a story about complexity and nuance. every dichotomy is false. yang is a good person—good to the bone—but she’s also strong-willed and not inclined to be forgiving. who would she have become if, say, ruby died on one of those occasions they were left home alone as children? what would it have done to her if she watched adam kill blake during the battle for beacon?

it took millions and millions of years for salem to break. she tried so hard not to become a monster. cinder bowed her head and endured years of torture because rhodes told her it was the right thing to do. before adam lost his way, he fought to protect others; the first time he killed, it was in defense of his leader.

the difference isn’t as simple as a choice to be good or bad. yang has always had ruby and now she has blake and weiss, too, and—bluntly, her trauma is of a lesser order of magnitude than her villainous foils. yang has endured a lot of suffering—parental abandonment, childhood neglect, the vytal tournament and the battle that followed, losing her arm, being left behind by her sister and friends—but she wasn’t enslaved and tortured as a child. she isn’t the sole survivor of a genocide. she did not spend millions of years alone.

if you put yang in salem’s or cinder’s or adam’s shoes, would she have turned out different than they did? would she make better choices? would she still be a good person?

would she even know how?

and if you put salem or cinder or adam in her shoes, would it make a difference? if salem wasn’t alone, if cinder had even the smallest taste of genuine love, if sienna had seen adam’s increasing anger for what it was years earlier—would they still have become what they are now?

yang’s gone through her own personal hell and back, but she wasn’t alone. she had role models and a loving sister and a father who provided for them and at least made some effort to be involved—he read bedtime stories and trained yang, tai is far from the worst parent in the story. it was bad. it could have been so much worse. how much of a difference did it make for yang that she had these crumbs of support?

as the blacksmith says, even the smallest act kindness can change a life. no one is an island. everyone is responsible for their own choices, but sometimes our choices are limited by forces beyond our control. sometimes there is no right thing to do.

everyone has breaking points.

everyone has a limit.

yang… in addition to having all these villainous character foils, is also the heroic character most inclined to ask why. why did raven leave her? why did ozpin lie? why did he make the branwen twins into birds? why did raven sell them out to salem? why is she the spring maiden? why did blake run away? why did ozpin think it was okay to hide so much from everyone? why shouldn’t she and blake think critically and follow their consciences instead of blindly obeying orders? why is salem waging this war? why why why

yang isn’t the most empathetic character—she can get too tangled up in her own feelings to see clearly where other people are coming from. she isn’t the most compassionate, either—she can, in fact, be rather ruthless. but yang does care, a lot, about why people make the choices they do.

and i think that is because yang knows her own darkness. she sees herself clearly; she knows she’s capable of cruelty, of being vindictive, of hurting people in anger. the reason yang isn’t an angry person is she works fucking hard not to be. i think yang is self-aware of these similarities between herself and adam, or raven, and maybe even cinder and salem too, and the question of why she didn’t end up like them bothers her. what made her different? what saved her? if she could have been like them, then doesn’t that mean they could have been like her? why aren’t they? what made the difference?

so she keeps asking. why. why.

weiss helped her understand why blake ran, but yang has never gotten a satisfying explanation from anyone else. the resolution of ruby’s arc in v9 leaves her asking why summer chose to leave; the natural trajectory is toward answers. why did summer leave, and why didn’t she come back? why did raven keep her secrets? why has salem gone to war? why did ozpin hide so much? it’s all tangled together. it all needs to be answered together. i think, if the olive branch comes from the heroes, it’ll be yang who plants the seed—what if we just ask salem what she wants? it’s not like we have any better ideas. and if salem’s the one to make the first move, it wouldn’t surprise me for yang to be the most open to hearing her side of the story.

after all, yang’s the one who asked.

[atla-genderbender]

ATLA Gender Bender: Firelord Ozai

"You will learn respect, and suffering will be your teacher."

The principle behind this AU is to swap the genders of the main cast (Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Zuko) and other characters where it enhances the story. This means that most child characters, like Azula and Suki, are also swapped, but adults are swapped on a case by case basis. This is especially true for characters who had a formative influence on the main characters, like parents and other role models. If you swap a given character and their parent(al figure)s, this alters the character's personality more than swapping that character without swapping their parents. Sometimes this effect is subtle, and sometimes it is large. This is why I would avoid swapping the genders of a character's parents, unless it makes sense to do so.

In the case of Zuko's parents, I do not think it detracts from the story to swap their genders. I would even go so far to say that some things are enhanced by swapping both Ozai and Ursa. Female Ozai fits surprisingly well into the role of an "evil empress". "Urson" also works as a "papa bear" character. A female Ozai would contrast well with a female Zuko, serving as a "good queen" "evil queen" dichotomy. I also find it fascinating to think about what would change and what would stay the same if Ozai's gender was also swapped. 

I picture female Ozai being no less evil or sadistic as normal Ozai. Unlike Ozai, she would have to maintain the image of a good mother to her children, and a good daughter to her father. This is especially interesting if she is the first female Fire Lord in a line of male Fire Lords. She would be a queen who has to strike the perfect balance of femininity and power in order to please her court. A woman who possesses bewitching beauty to conceal a wicked, sadistic soul. I think she would be very narcissistic and cruel, obsessed with being beautiful and powerful at once.

I attempted to convey this through her design, which could be tweaked in many respects. To explain the rationale behind her design, the Fire Lords of Avatar draw from East and Southeast Asian influences. Firelord Ozai's hairstyle is Chinese inspired (see: atlaculture.tumblr.com/post/65…), but his clothing is Burmese inspired (see: atlaculture.tumblr.com/post/63…). As such, I decided to base the hairstyles of female Fire Lords on East Asian hairstyles worn by female rulers.

It feels inevitable that female Ozai would be compared to Wu Zetian. I wanted to minimize these comparisons, and make it clear that female Ozai is not supposed to be a representation of Wu Zetian. Doing so would unfairly demonize a real historical figure. Still, I could not resist including a couple of elements inspired by Fan Bingbing as Wu Zetian in "The Empress of China" (see: dwvyw8kf1avne.cloudfront.net/s…). This is what inspired female Ozai's red makeup, and the stylized phoenix headdress that she wears. Other design elements are not inspired by Wu Zetian, but other portrayals of powerful queens and empresses in Chinese dramas. Namely, Empress Du Feihong in "The Glamorous Imperial Concubine". I hope that the final design is so stylized that it is clear that she is not supposed to represent a real historical figure. I attempted to simplify her headdress in a way that could be easy enough to animate while still making it clear that she is wearing a ridiculous amount of gold and rubies on her head. This is meant to contrast with female Zuko's design. Where female Zuko is humble, female Ozai is vain.

In the end, I am dissatisfied with the design I came up with, for reasons I will explain under "OUTFIT DESCRIPTIONS".

This design approach diverges from the design principles behind the one female Firelord shown in Avatar, that being Izumi. I took liberties with hairstyles, but did not change the masculine style of robes. I felt this would diverge too far from the pre-established rules of Avatar. Additionally, I think it creates an interesting contrast between a feminine hairstyle and masculine robes, especially if Ozai and "Zuka" are the first female Firelords in a long series of male Firelords.

The phoenix imagery actually makes more sense if Ozai was a woman, since the fenghuang is traditionally a feminine entity. I also think it would be cool if she was still named "Ozai", kind of like how "Ty Lee" is very feminine but has a masculine name. It would also imply that "Ozai" isn't the name she was born with, but a name she adopted for its meaning "large presence". 

I picture Grey Griffin as the voice of female Ozai. Specifically, how she voices adult characters, like Ming Hua in LOK and the female Viltrumite from Invincible. I don't think that she should have the same voice as Azula, but Grey Griffin could give her a venomous and vicious voice that would fit her really well.

OUTFIT DESCRIPTIONS:

1: Firelord Costume

I am dissatisfied with the hairstyle I came up with for female Ozai's Firelord costume. I have written previously about my concerns that viewers would conflate her with the real life Wu Zetian. In order to minimize these comparisons, I tried to make elements of her hairstyle abstract instead of authentic to real life costumes. However, I do not think I was successful in achieving my goal. When I first started drawing female Ozai, I knew little about hanfu, and have since learned more about traditional Chinese costumes. The crown that I gave her is clearly inspired by fengguan, which is a distinctly Chinese element. Given Ozai's affinity for phoenixes, I can't not picture female Ozai wearing some sort of fengguan. The design I came up with is flawed, as it is something that "looks Chinese" without being authentic to Chinese costume design. This could come across as offensive. The best approach would be to fuse the Chinese element of the fengguan with other cultural influences, so that the result is something that is not specifically Chinese. I took some time to try to come up with a better design, but to be transparent I am approaching creative burn out with this project and was unable to come up with a better design. I guess this speaks to my limits as an artist.

With all of this said, these designs are best viewed as a first draft and not the final product. These are meant to give an impression of what her character would look like, and could use more sets of eyes to review and improve the design.

2: "Phoenix Queen" Costume

In the second costume, her cape is somewhat inspired by Maleficent's cape in "Sleeping Beauty". Maleficent's appearance also helped inspire female Ozai's widow's peak and facial structure. As I mentioned before, her costume is inspired by the real life apsara. She has dressed herself in the image of a goddess of fire.

3: "Phoenix Queen" Costume, after removing crown and cape

The third costume is supposed to be how female Ozai would appear at the start of her fight with "Aangi". I intended for her to have the same body type as the female Viltrumite "Thula" from "Invincible". I also think that female Ozai's voice would sound like Thula's. I picture her as a warrior queen who spends a lot of time training, giving her an athletic and muscular appearance. I think she would appear more physically intimidating if she has some muscle mass on her frame. This being said, there are a lot of different athletic body types. A less bulky but athletic body type could arguably fit her better.

4: Appearance after being defeated by "Aangi"

The fourth costume is supposed to be how female Ozai would appear at the end of her fight with "Aangi". Since she doesn't have a goattee, I think "Aangi" would grab her by the gold part of her top. I think it would be cool and dramatic if "Aangi" ripped this part of her costume off. In the heat of battle, female Ozai loses the gold parts of her costume, and a waterbending attack by "Aangi" washes off her makeup, exposing her as a false goddess.

Her finger nails and toenails are painted and sharpened, to resemble the talons of a phoenix.

Like what I’m doing? Consider leaving me a donation via Ko-Fi.

[notmaplemable]

Reasons To Elderburn

Ruby: ...It just doesn't make sense.

Weiss: Not one bit.

Blake: What are you two stressing over?

Ruby: We're trying to figure out why Yang and Winter are dating. Since they have like nothing in common!

Weiss: Neither on a personal or hobby level. The only thing that they do is being a huntress, but that's really not much to bond over.

Blake: So you want to know what they have in common?

Weiss: Exactly.

Ruby: Do you know?

Blake: Well, they're both older siblings that due to their parents, either being unwilling or unable to, fully parent them took more of a parental role than they really should have had to.

Ruby: Huh...

Weiss: But is that really a good foundation to a relationship?

Blake: That's probably just what they used as a kind of ice breaker. They've obviously found other things to bond over since they started their friendship.

Weiss: Well... I guess that makes sense.

Ruby: At least they're both happy.

Blake: Also, they both have huge racks.

Weiss: Ah!

Ruby: *Sputtering*

[jj-lives]

Okay, so the thing is, Weiss, Yang and Blake have spent the last 8 volumes, 2 years I believe canon time, growing and dealing with their internal struggles. They went through hell, took the time to observe and feel and figure things out before stepping back into the team.

Ruby has never allowed herself to do that. When her team collapsed and were spread across Remnant, she jumped into RNJR and continued on her way. She just kept moving, kept doing what was expected of her. But who's expectations were they? Her own.

Ruby is young. She's only the age Yang, Weiss and Blake were when they started Beacon. This should have been Ruby's first year at Beacon, and instead she's already a licensed Huntress and is making decisions that people 3, 4 or more times her age aren't capable of. How many times has someone said whatever Ruby decides?

Not to mention she was more immature at the start of all this than any of her team mates would have been at her age. Yang raised Ruby, stepping into a parental role at an early age. Blake was fighting injustice and racial prejudices before Ruby could even talk, and Weiss was raised to think and breathe being an heiress; solitude being strength, independence a form of maturity, to show perfection even if everything was breaking around her.

Ruby was spared a lot of this. Yes she lost her mother, and she knows of the struggles Yang went through in an objective light, but I don't think she was old enough to really process the hardship, not with Yang and Qrow and later Tai protecting her from it.

She attended Beacon with the least experience of the real world than any of the other girls, and she was thrown into a leadership role that imparted this self need to act the part. People looked to her for answers so she gave them, and now that she has the time to process her failures without a knife at her back she's falling fast.

Ruby is allowed to break, heck she's entitled to it at this point.

[chittychittyyangyang]

“Knowing what it is to feel loved…”

So, I want to preface this by saying some of this is from my own personal experience as well as just kind of what I know from adopted people in general. While not outright stated, Summer Rose basically did adopt her, and the fact he was so young when Summer died, and she found out about Raven are both relevant. Because I feel like if Yang truly knew what it was like to feel loved on a deep, visceral level, she wouldn’t put herself in a position to always sacrifice herself for others. She wouldn’t martyr herself and have someone else feel the pain she has felt by leaving them behind.

The thing is, I don't think people understand how unlovable you can feel when you are adopted. Our society, puts motherhood on such a pedestal (and RWBY not existing in a vacuum we can assume there too), that it is so easy for a child to internalize there is something inherently unlovable about them that would make their own mother give them up. And you can just learn that as a kid even under ideal circumstances where others try to make you feel loved. Had Summer not left, Yang could have possibly lived a happy life without ever knowing Raven didn’t want her. But that’s not what happened. She had two mothers leave her and was left with a dad unable to take care of her and having to step up for her sister. No one ever stays, and Yang has to be the one to pick up the pieces.

When Beacon fell, Blake ran, Weiss’s father came and took her back to Atlas, and Ruby went off on her mission. Her own father says in ear shot he can’t go looking for Ruby because he has “to look after other things” while looking over to Yang’s room. As if she’s in the way of the daughter he really cares about because he out right states she reminds him of Raven. Speaking of, imagine growing up knowing your dad almost resents you for reminding him of the mother who left you, who you’ve been trying desperately to find, only to find out your father knew where she was and was intentionally keeping that information from you. Yang’s feelings of being unloved are so directly tied to being Raven’s daughter, and being forced into a parental role way before she should have been. I also mentioned with Blake in another post, that she did everything “right” with Blake, and she still left without even saying anything. “What if I needed her here for me?” Blake leaving her is just further proof that she must inherently be unlovable and not enough to stick around for.

Yang’s feelings seem so secondary to her that she finally finds Raven to help find Ruby. Yang gets to confront a woman who is nothing like the woman Tai eventually told her about, just for Raven to deflect and not answer the question of why she left. Yang’s feelings truly don’t matter right now because right now this is about getting to Ruby. Never mind, finding her trying to find Raven was how we were introduced to her character (Yellow Trailer). When Yang gets to confront her again, no one around, call Raven out on her shit, all but beg Raven to pick her over power and safety. Beg Raven to be a mother to her and love her, and Raven can’t. We, the audience, can see that Raven is conflicted and loves Yang as much as she can (which Yang can’t see because her back is to her), but it’s truly not good enough. It’s not what Yang needs. Raven might have been able to come up with an excuse before for leaving Yang, but now Raven is actively not picking to her face. Because in the end no one picks Yang.

But Blake did. Blake picked her all the way back in the Emerald Forest, and as far as we know Yang doesn’t know that. We don’t know if Yang knows that Blake ran to keep her safe. Yang doesn’t know Blake wanted her to hate her to further keep her safe. Everything Blake did was for Yang, but Yang doesn’t know that. Yang doesn’t know Blake is doing so well now because of Yang being in her life. Blake is in a perfect position to be there for Yang now and help Yang feel loved. Blake has gone through her journey and processing, and she’s seen and been demonstrated loved through her parents. We can only truly understand love when it’s been demonstrated for us. Yang has never had that, and Blake can be there to focus on her needs and show her what a good partner is like, because she knows what a bad one can be. Blake can take the lead and allow her to feel love in a way neither of them has felt before. It won’t completely fix Yang’s feelings of abandonment, but Blake can be there to help her hold that feeling so it’s not such a heavy burden.

[brokenbackmountain]

(old) bollywood actresses (1)

why am i making this post...... no reason apart from being incredibly queer abt women (not romantic not sexual but a secret third thing (fan)). join me etc.

ruby myers (stage name sulochana)

DADASAHEB PHALKE AWARD WINNER WHO CHEERED!!!!!!!!!!!

born in poona (now pune) in 1907 in british india, ruby myers was a silent film actress of bhagdadi jewish ancestry. she was approached by mohan bhavnani from kohinoor films, and though she was initially hesitant (acting was a very.... suspicious? dubious? profession for women at the time) she agreed with little knowledge of how to act. she ended up becoming a huge star under bhavnani, and then moved on to imperial film company, and became the highest paid actress in india at the time (5k/mo inr salary).

after sound got introduced, she took a break for a year (to learn hindustani which she wasn't fluent in) and came back with madhuri (1932)--- this is a remale of madhuri (1928) but w sound--- and became a star again. other remakes of her silent movies were bombay ki billi (1936) (remake of wildcat of bombay 1927), and anarkali (1935), a remake of anarkali (1928). unfortunately i don't think even one of these films survived.

she was also in a popular pairing with actor d billimoria from 1933-39. she faded into obscurity after their split.

she was also in another anarkali (1953), where she played salim's mother, and had a small role as a nun in dostana (1980).

she died in mumbai in 1983.

source

florence ezekiel (nadira)

born in 1932 in bhagdad, and living in nagpada (south bombay) after her parents moved for business reasons, nadira was a famous bollywood actress who usually played westernised roles (or anglo-indian ones). she is mostly well known for her role as julie's mother margaret in julie (1975) and maya in shree 420 (1956). the latter typecasted her in seductress roles. she has worked with several actors like sridevi (in julie), nargis (in shree 420), srk (josh (2000)).

fun fact! a filmmaker (idk who he was) once called her up for a role to which she replied along the lines of "not now i'm drunk and naked." he never called her again.

less fun fact! she was an alcoholic and had an alcohol-related liver disorder. she died in 2006 in a hospital in tardeo.

sources: 1 2

[iamafanofcartoons]

Qrow can't be Ruby's dad without breaking Yang's character.

There's apparently an element of the FNDM that really wants Qrow to be Ruby's dad instead of Taiyang. Even if Monty Oum came back from the grave to say no, Too many people ignored Monty while he was alive the same way that the Republican Party ignores the words of Jesus regarding feeding the poor and healing the sick.

First, to clear up some confusion:

The canon clearly establishes that Taiyang is the father of both Yang (via Raven) and Ruby (via Summer). Qrow's presence in Yang and Ruby's childhood is as an occasional surrogate parent for both of them, and as a role model specifically for Ruby, as he taught her his fighting style and she modeled her weapon after his.

Fatherhood in terms of paternity (who contributed the biological material needed for this person to be born) is a matter of blood and it can't really be changed. Ultimately, the canon is pretty clear that Taiyang is the person who slept with Summer Rose to create Ruby Rose.

Fatherhood in terms of parenting (the specific act of being an active parent with an active relationship with the kid in question) isn't something that's a matter of blood. We have every reason to believe that Taiyang was a father to Ruby, particularly because she refers to him as "Dad" and appears to have a good relationship with him.

That said, there isn't really a scene that spends time broadening that relationship to the same extent that Yang has scenes with Tai during V4.

Meanwhile, Ruby has MANY scenes with Qrow throughout V3 and after that indicate a lot about their relationship as niece and uncle.

All of the canon paints a pretty clear picture Tai and Qrow BOTH played a major role in Ruby's upbringing, especially in the absence of Summer as Ruby's mother and the absence of any OTHER mother-figure for Ruby, since Yang took over that job.

Ultimately, the big problem with any attempt at forcing Qrow to be Ruby's dad is that it clashes with another key relationship that already follows the same pattern of "who your parent is doesn't rely on their blood relationship to you": namely, Yang identifying Summer Rose as her mother even when Raven is the one who gave birth to her.

It's possible for Qrow to be an influential parent figure for Ruby without him being her literal parent, just as Summer was an influential parent for Yang without HER being her literal parent. To demand that Qrow be Ruby's literal father in order to justify his influence on her is to demand that Yang NOT consider Summer her mother, which... completely undoes Yang's character. It doesn't work.

So the TL;DR is that demanding Qrow be Ruby's paternal contributor IN ADDITION to a surrogate parent breaks Yang's entire story, aside from doing nothing to improve Ruby's story. 

Simply put: The theory is BAD WRITING; Which is why CRWBY chose NOT to go with it.

[estellardreams]

I've been thinking about so many seasons on the Sonic Ninjago AU and I'm dying to talk about the ones that are particularly interesting.

So... I'm pretty sure that based off of my art, Season 11 (which I think is underrated on both ends), Season 6 (Skybound, renamed Phantom), and Season 8 (Sons of Garmadon/Doom) specifically kept getting my attention. So... Let's talk about them.

A lot about them.

Season 6:

I cast Infinite in the role of Nadakhan for a few reasons. But the main reason is because of the "Wishing" plot line.

You see; Infinite comes from Null Space, which was disrupted due to the Dark Gaia incident (unbalanced energy). But he has the Phantom Ruby, a thing known to create illusions, from the get go.

So I twisted the wishing system so instead of a djinn it's a direct illusion to manipulate the wish into "coming true". Basically a false reality. Then Infinite would've crushed those illusions and break the ones he was tormenting.

And during this all, Infinite goes after multiple targets, but realized just how dangerous one of the Ninja was specifically, that being Tails. He was too smart for his own good, leading to Infinite capturing the kit during a fight and taking him to someplace, once again controlling the scenery using the Phantom Ruby and tormenting the fox with illusions. And this?

Infinite gave him that scar when Tails tried to fight back. Tails became half blind after that so when things were brought back to normal and the scar healed over, he just used a special blue contact to hide the fact he was blind.

His friends did try to rescue him, and Infinite began to torture them as well with his illusions. Once they gave in and "wished for it to go away", he'd trap them in the Phantom Ruby and grow stronger because of it.

And it was all up to Tails to rescue everyone and stop this before it got worse.

----

Season 8:

Oh dear... Eclipse and Shadow's relationship is definitely the most enticing part of this saga. So... I'm gonna be brief on the characters relationship and what roles the two take on.

Harumi and Lloyd. Harumi is the adopted princess after losing her parents when the Great Devourer attacked, and is also the secret leader of the "Sons of Garmadon", an organization made to ressurect Garmadon himself, Lloyd's father.

The thing is, the Garmadon they wanted to bring back was only the evil oni side, and they had to gather the three oni masks and gather DNA samples of everyone he's related to or had a strong connection with to bring him back from the departed realm.

And what happened before Garmadon was resurrected? Harumi manipulating Lloyd, soon backstabbing him and later capturing him, forcing him to watch as his father was brought back from the dead with him and his mother as hostages.

Yikes. Now with that in mind... Eclipse is Harumi, Shadow is Lloyd. They have a brotherly bond, except... Its all fake.

Eclipse is the secret leader of the "Sons of Doom", and has discuised himself as a hedgehog to blend in, along with special contacts to turn his sclera white and his pupils a more... "friendly" color. He acted up the role of an abandoned child that got brought in by the royal family and "adopted". After the false alarm for an attack, the Ninja are let in the castle and allowed to stay along with help protect the pendant of Deception.

Shadow took an interest into Eclipse, who weirdly felt like him... He could never explain it, but felt like he had a connection.

So when the two began to bond and become friends, they developed this sweet dynamic of being brothers who looked out for each other. And Shadow became a lot more open as Eclipse did the same. But it was all a ploy... A trap to lure Shadow in close for Eclipse to control.

And it worked.

Eclipse got the Pendant of Hatred, and Shadow realized what was going on when it was too late. The two fought but... This was the first and very few times Shadow hesitated to hurt someone. And it got him and his sister, Maria, captured.

Black Doom got resurrected after that. And Shadow lost the fight to him. He lost his powers, and Season 9: Hunted begins.

---

Season 11, Part 1:

Okay, specifically Metal Sonic and Sonic so I'll keep this short. Metal is not the Master of Metal.

It would've been a similar joke to "Shadow, Master of Shadow" but... By this canon's logic, a robot has never held elemental powers before. Until recently.

Metal stole Sonic's speed, making Sonic powerless and him strong enough to almost wipe out the rest of the Ninja Team. He keeps them locked away as he heads out to attack Station Square (Ninjago City).

And when he got his hands on the Forbidden Spinjitzu scroll, he was nearly unstoppable. That was, until Amy got her hands on her own scroll and managed to decimate him.

... And then she got sent to Boscage Maze.

Season 11, Part 2:

This iis what I call the Vine Chapter, since the first half is the Speed Chapter. Amy was discovered by Starline and hipnotized into becoming Queen Thorn, the ruler of the jungle.

And she committed so many crimes. She wiped out the Seedrian population. She overflowed the jungle so much many places became uninhabitable. Survival became a harder struggle with little sunlight and rain reaching to below the canopy.

And when the Ninja arrive, they quickly notice these odd corrupted plants and vines that seem to drain the life out of whatever they catch. They end up in a small village blocked off from the rest of the jungle, with Shadow soon heading off to find Amy after learning where she was: At the Queen's castle. He's unaware that Amy is the Queen, so it's definitely a shock when he does discover that.

Enter: Cosmo. The last of the Seedrians and taking the place of Akita, who was the last of the Formlings. The parallels between the two, even in canon, is unreal.

But Cosmo is seeking a sort of passive aggressive revenge against the Queen, training herself on how to use her plant magic along with tapping into more... Dark influences to do it. And Shadow felt like he's seen this before.

Because he was in a similar position: Training to use his powers and holding onto his darker influences to favor the Black Arm's success. So he knows where she's coming from and the two relate to each other somewhat over this.

And eventually the Megaflora, a creation Thorn made, attacks. Shadow gets captured and seperated from Cosmo, who almost dies, and is basically locked up in a vine wrapped tree tower. Hence... This sketch to image.

Vines to the limbs, keeping you trapped in place. And if it weren't for figuring out the plants weakness was Shadow able to escape. He confronted Thorn and tried to bring her back, but Starline's influence remained strong.

In fact, Thorn almost kills Shadow through strangling him using her vines! But before he died, she realized what she was doing and immediately released him, struggling to comprehend what she just did.

She notices the scroll. And rips it to shreds. And that's the end of it as she traps Starline, solidifying her regaining control over herself.

The damage is soon reversed by sheer energy and force, fixing the jungle for the most part. Now the main problem is returning home.

---

Now for a few small extra things:

Season 5: Dark Gaia. I'm not sure if I'll include the idea of getting cursed or not but... Werehog Sonic feels tempting. He'd be like Cole in turning into a ghost via a curse and remains like that for a while until Day of the Dark Gaia to reverse it.

Season 15: Seabound. I have no idea what I wanna do for it, but I wanna include shape-shifting Merlings. I just think they're neat.

Season 16: Starfall. If Lloyd gets an Oni form, I want Shadow to have his own charged up alien form at some point. Also... Gonna rewrite that season entirely if I ever get to that.

Season 4: Tournament of Elements. Didn't know where to put this but Robotnik's plan for the tournament is to steal the powers of the elemental masters, use them to rebuild the Death Egg, and roboticize the entire world. As to why the Ninja are there? Rouge got kidnapped when trying to spy on him. She's basically Zane in this situation.

[aihoshiino]

in light of the new chapter, I cannot put the phone call between a former b komachi member and hikaru (as well as the context under which hikaru murdered yura)

at this point i am confident that he considered yura unworthy of the role of ai and that it may have been a good part of his motive. (This suggests he sees ruby as acceptable??? I suppose??? Or maybe he sees that nobody has rights to being ai other than her flesh and blood??? The closest approximation of ai that still exists????) which makes me wonder how he positions the existence of the twins within his worldview and whether he has an expectation of them playing out a special role of bringing him and ai's existences to a conclusion.

In general I am sooooo curious as to what Hikaru thinks of the twins... we sort of get a little snippet of his mindset when he visits Ai's grave and comments surprisingly warmly about Ruby growing up so pretty, as is to be expected from her parents' daughter, but we've had literally nothing else since.

A big part of that is just that present day Hikaru is kind of an enigma in general and we know very little about what's going on in his head, but it is really interesting that his thoughts and feelings about the twins in specific are something the manga has been so quiet on when his || this close to direct contact involvement with the movie is hanging over this arc...

TO, UH, ACTUALLY TOUCH ON YOUR MAIN POINT THOUGH... I do think if Hikaru killed Yura, it likely had something to do with her climbing in fame but I don't know if it was directly to do with the movie. Even Yura didn't know what role she'd been given just yet - she was just told she'd been cast in something during that time period, implied to be as a publicity thing, which is a big part of what she's ranting about.

That said, I actually had the opposite read of Kamiki's motivations here. I think he took out Yura because she had the potential to surpass Ai.

Yura briefly flashes a hoshigan here and 'the real deal' is a phrase used to refer to Ai as well. This implies to me that Kamiki was worried that letting Yura continue to climb in the way she was going would have immortalized her as a performer that outshone Ai.

If Nino's words are to be believed, this may be why he had no issue - at the time - with Ruby filling that role. Because she wasn't capable of outshining her mom.

Which really makes you wonder exactly how Hikaru and Nino are going to react once this movie comes out...

[waheelawhisperer]

I always find it funny when people say Yang doesn't love Ruby enough or that she was wrong to be worried about her relationship with Blake in Volume 8. Like, are we watching the same show?

Yang loves her sister so, so much. She loves her enough to literally die for her - Yang's thrown herself directly into enemy attacks to protect Ruby at least twice on screen (during her Volume 5 Character Short and in Volume 8 against Neo). If you watch Players and Pieces, it's Yang who tries to keep Ruby from engaging the Death Stalker, and the expression on her face as she does makes it clear she's afraid for her sister. Yang is the one who first runs to Ruby's aid and the one who keeps trying to help her even when blocked by the Nevermore's feathers. She's so proud of Ruby just a few moments later, when Ruby starts taking more of a leadership role.

We know from what both the characters in-universe and the official guidebook that Yang took on a maternal role for Ruby, that she had to grow up fast and provide Ruby with support from a very young age. In the absence of a functional parent, Yang filled that void for Ruby despite the lack of anyone else to do the same for her. Yang has looked after Ruby since long before she ever should've been responsible for someone else, and the narrative has always framed it as an expression of love, rather than an obligation.

Yang's happy to have Ruby attending Beacon with her. Her introduction to Volume 1 proper is her gushing over how proud she is of Ruby for getting in 2 years early. She's not jealous, even though she easily could be. She tries to help Ruby make friends and break out of her shell, and one awkward moment where she expresses a desire to not team with Ruby (one of the few moments where she actually expresses the desire to have something for herself!) doesn't change that. IIRC Barbara described Yang as the type of person to teach someone how to swim by pushing them in the pool, and I think we see elements of this throughout the series, though I personally think Yang's a bit more gentle and patient than that statement implies. It certainly fits with the way Yang ditched Ruby on their first day at Beacon to go hang out with her friends. I think she does genuinely want some time to herself (as she has every right to, there is nothing wrong with a teenage girl wanting some space from her family, even when she loves them as much as Yang does and especially when she's had to spend so much of her life acting as an adult figure even though that is not a burden she should have ever had to bear), but I also think she's trying to get Ruby out of her shell and force her to interact with people and get over her nervousness.

Most of this is pretty surface-level stuff, easily gleaned from the text. This next one's a little deeper, and I think people tend to miss it: Yang going after Ruby is a huge character moment that really demonstrates how much she loves Ruby.

Let's start with a key element of Yang's characterization: her abandonment issues. We know Yang fears being left behind. We know she thinks that it's her fault when people leave her. We know she blames herself for it. We know she resents the hell out of the way the people most important to her always leave her behind.

It happened to her again after the Battle of Beacon. Everyone left her except her dad. Ruby fucked off to Haven and spent half a year walking across Anima like a teenage knight errant with only the vaguest of plans, taking three of Yang's friends with her (one of my least favorite Ruby moments, frankly. I know she needs to move the plot along, but damn, girl, the sister who's been there for you all your life needs you...). Qrow, her uncle, followed them (not a great Qrow moment, either, but at least he has the excuse of needing to follow Ruby, I guess, and goes to bat for Yang with Raven). Her mom never bothered to show up after her "one save" bullshit. Weiss was taken away from her by force. It's not her fault, but Weiss is explicitly not there when Yang needs her. She would've been if she could, but she couldn't and wasn't. And Blake... Blake ran. Blake had every right to run. Blake had every right to go home, to seek to process her trauma surrounded by the comfort and care that only her family could provide, to get the care she needed. Blake didn't do anything wrong... but she still hurt Yang. She still left, still wounded her partner in precisely the way that hurt Yang the most.

Yang lost her arm defending Blake. She had every right to want someone, anyone, especially someone she risked her life for, to be there for her when she needed support in one of the very few times in her life she's felt vulnerable enough to ask for it instead of internalize her own problems in favor of being strong for someone else (and yet, selfish, self-centered bitch that she is, Yang expressed her own desire to help and support Blake in the same breath when she had every right to want unilateral support). Despite her own horrific trauma, despite facing PTSD that still haunts her in the present day, despite everyone she loves except her father not being there for her (and Taiyang's support being conditional and bumbling), she still tries to be a source of strength for the people she loves.

The thing that spurs Yang's recovery isn't concern for herself. It's the realization that her father is stuck at home taking care of her instead of out there protecting her sister (not that her recovery does anything to change that, because Taiyang just lets his recently-traumatized and physically-disabled daughter head off to Mistral unsupervised while he stays at home and waters sunflowers for some reason. I really think the writers did Tai dirty). The reason she puts on the arm is to make sure Ruby is safe. She gets herself back into fighting shape and travels to a whole 'nother continent to protect Ruby despite still fighting her PTSD, as we see in her fight with Raven's bandits. She gives up her chance of building any sort of relationship with her mom, the mom she's been searching for for at least a decade at this point, in favor of taking the Branwen Taxi Service to Qrow, and by extension Ruby.

To sum it up, a recently-traumatized teenager with abandonment issues, who has had those issues torn wide open at the same time she suffered a crippling physical injury and had her confidence in her own combat capability shattered, powers through all of that with minimal support in order to protect her sister, and people still think Yang doesn't love Ruby enough or doesn't do it obviously enough.

As for why she has every right to be insecure about her relationship with Blake, to be worried about that instead of her relationship with Ruby... Yang and Ruby are siblings. Siblings argue and fight all the time. We literally see those two devolve into a big ball of violence during their night in the Beacon auditorium in Volume 1. Yang and Ruby each know the other loves them. Yang crossed a continent for Ruby. She knows their relationship will be okay.

Blake, on the other hand... Blake ran away from her already, and Yang isn't sure she won't do it again. Yang knows Adam abused Blake. She can reasonably assume that Blake will be afraid of her reaction to the fact that Blake disagreed with her on the next course of action, because Blake has told her what Adam did to her and Yang is emotionally intelligent enough to pick up on this even if Blake hadn't. Yang's also terrified that she will drive the people she loves away, and all of this combines to create a very real and reasonable fear that her actions have damaged her relationship with Blake.

Frankly, neither of these two ladies are in a good place right now. I don't think their relationship is very healthy at all - and that's a good thing! It tells an interesting story! I know people complain about Blake acting submissively around Yang, but I think it actually follows very logically from her previous relationship experience - it's how she was expected to act around Adam. Blake knows, intellectually and maybe even emotionally (eventually), that Yang is not Adam and won't treat her the same way. That doesn't mean she's developed the patterns of behavior that are appropriate for navigating a healthy relationship. All she knows is what Adam has taught her, which she falls back on because she doesn't have any alternative, and we saw in his character short how he manipulated and gaslit her. All she knows how to do is take the blame, assume any problems are her fault, and cut away the parts of herself that make her partner unhappy because she hasn't had the chance to learn how to do anything else, hasn't yet gotten the love and support she needs to heal and grow.

These girls need to have a talk about their relationship. I think it needed to start in Volume 7, that we needed to get more than the conversation in the truck when they were sent to arrest Robyn, but better late than never. I think it'll come in Volume 9, and if it doesn't, I'll be very disappointed. A lot of the people who complain about Bumbleby not being a perfect relationship immediately really just... do not have a lot of sympathy for traumatized teenagers who haven't gotten the help they need to overcome their issues yet, but I understand being impatient with the pace of their relationship when the show has been going on for so long out of universe.

[set-wingedwarrior]

I wanted to make a big-ass analisys on Tai, but I kinda don't feel like it. Have a summary instead.

In a few words, I think people on both sides are taking a very complex situation and giving it a black or white interpretation, which doesn't sit right with me.

My opinion, explained as simple as possible, is that Tai has been a bad and neglective parent not for lack of love, but for lack of ability in the given circumstances. He was a broken man who did the best he could, and still badly hurt his daughters in the process, sometimes by making terrible mistakes.

Taiyang was absent and Yang took over as the caretaker role for her baby sister, and that's not good for a child. That is indeed a textbook parentification case, which very often do take place when one parent passes away and the other is frozen by grief, but I wouldn't consider this a case of abuse as well.

Abuse to be called that has to be pretty extreme and consistent for a long time (honestly, internet is ruining the word by using it every time someone makes a mistake or when your friend treats you badly once), and let's be honest: we don't know how long Taiyang has been shut down. Yang doesn't specify it in Burning the Candle, nor is it ever mentioned by writers or such (at least to my knowledge). Considering what we saw of the relationship he has with his daughters though, I'd argue that it wasn't for the long time that people believe and that he stepped up at some point (I'm pretty sure their relationship would be much more ostile if he didn't).

"Why does Ruby say that Yang raised her then?" because she already had formed an attachment to Yang as parental figure. You can have multiple attachments as a child of course, but that also means that Yang simply couldn't step down from that role, even with Taiyang being back, because Ruby kept treating her like one (that's not to blame on Ruby of course, it was a natural response from her).

Now, let's not forget about intentions: it is true that abuse isn't always made with conscious ill-intent, but it's also true that not all forms of hurting are abuse. Considering everything from the little we know, I'd say Tai falls more into the neglect category, which can but doesn't always allign to the point of abuse (see again the point about consistency).

That's what I think but, truth to be told, none of us has enough information to make a proper analysis or statement. It is a very complex matter that in real life would require a deep study/analysis and lots of therapy sessions. Meanwhile Tai is a fictional character we barely see in the show he's a part of.

It is fine to speculate and discuss (in a civil manner please) and share our opinions. I'm not expecting everyone to agree with me or text me about how I changed their minds; I just wanted to share my opinion. But let's not pretend that there's some sort of real final answer or interpretation when we get so little to work with. Maybe not even the writers know clearly, and just had his character as a tool, who knows!

Maybe some day we'll get more information that will make me go "damn, I was completely wrong!", o maybe not. Honestly, I don't particularly care. But I'd like for people to chill, stop treating this as a trial, and recognize that different interpretations from different people with different experiences and backgrounds aren't a bad thing.