#Rwby after season like... 6 or 7

[froggies-bloggies]

i dont actually know if the music will be taken off spotify, im just preparing for the worst :(

ok I wrote out a whole paragraph and then had to delete it because I thought it would cost them something to keep the songs up but I don't think it actually will

That being said, I'm not sure who owns the copyright, and it might just be easier for them to remove the songs than continue paying out whoever the rights holder is, and I'm not sure if that was their parent company, RT itself, or the artist themselves, I imagine that it was too confusing they might get rid of it, but from what I've seen it's a passive income source

But if the money is going to say, tracadero/Jeff Williams as the rights holders, they'll probably stay up, if it's not, it's very likely that they'll be sold and who knows what will be done with them then, probably best to download them if you haven't already

[alfryco]

RT 3/7/24 Stream Notes

alright, in erlande's stead (@monarchisms) i'm gonna try my best to make a semi-coherent post about what info went down on tonight's stream

most important thing: Rooster Teeth is still working and in production for the next 60 days so it's not like y'all will wake up tomorrow and RT and all of the content will just be gone, we do have time

Any info regarding RT and the shutdown will be coming from the RT website directly, and secondarily in discord and the some of the subreddits (i don't think they specified which subreddits tho)

They are going to try and be as transparent as possible with everything going forward in regards to what's happening with RT, they (the staff and management @ RT) don't want anybody to be caught off guard

After the news came out yesterday Chelsea said the next thing they will be focusing on is to figure out how to keep doing the things they love, which i took to meaning that they don't want to stop creating and will do their hardest to fight for that regardless of shitbag WB

They are aware that people are worried about how they will be able to support everyone after RT dissolves and so there is talk of there being a "one stop shop" for all of the social media handles for everyone that works with and @ RT for easy finding so fans can still support people

As we get closer to the end, more news will come out about what will be happening with all of RT's content and cast

WB is keeping The Roost (which is a network of podcasts) running to see if there is any type of sale opportunity to be made from it, if there are no buyers then WB will be shutting it down - along with the people that operate The Roost behind the scenes

Everything brought up today in the stream will be made into a post for easy reading and digestibility

In regards to FIRST memberships RT will do their best to refund everyone in the upcoming months, though you only qualify if you have a 6-month or 12-month plan for that, but there is a lot of legal tape they have to go through since they have so many fans across the world and in different US states so it will take some time

The new season of Camp Camp and the bonus RWBY content will still be getting posted throughout the last 60 days

another note: there are people in the community right now working on archiving everything in case WB decides to delete everything

[pyxilatezero]

Need I say more?

I think the people, objectively, have spoken.

if I were to add in my opinion you’d see that I contributed a few fanfics to the mix

Main reason for my dislike of White Knight: I hate Jaune and Weiss is my favorite character, so I think she deserves better. I know some people won’t say this is a valid reason but Jaune originally and currently isn’t written very well. You basically have to give him his own episode to flush out his plot line, (like in the first season and every season afterwards where he’s important) and he’s not a main character so he takes up screen time. (They do the same with Oscar and the rest of JNPR Instead of doing a JNPR episode, they do each of them individually with sprinkles of plot in between) Honestly, a relationship between him and Weiss would be a bad idea. Case in point:

Volume 1 White-knight Moments:

Jaune unsuccessfully flirting with Weiss (+1)

Volume 2 White-knight Moments:

Jaune unsuccessfully flirting with Weiss (+1)

Volume 3 White-knight moments:

… PYRRHA! (-1)

Volume 4 White-knight moments:

… (No interaction; no points awarded or deducted)

Volume 5 White-knight moments:

Jaune does a common courtesy and saves Weiss’s life (does not count; he would react the same for anybody- ‘nO hE wOULdn’T’ shut up Victoria if any of your friends were dying you’d save their life) [+0.5]

Volume 6 White-knight moments:

…

Volume 7 White-knight moments:

…

Volume 8 White-knight moments:

…

Volume 9 White-knight moments:

Weiss admires Jaune over the fact that he’s mature, and supports him like a good friend after Ruby runs away. He reverts to his old form, and we never hear from them again. (+2)

Total score: 3.5/9 (trying to be generous, I really am)

Main reason for liking Whiterose: Enemies to friends to lovers is an adorable trope, and they get a lot of screen time together in the first few seasons. Also, Monty himself shipped them. While I won’t say Whiterose is objectively better than White Knight, I am going to say that when I include my own opinion, it is better. Weiss and Ruby’s relationship feels more like a slow burn than Yang and Blake’s. We get scenes that could be interpreted that way in almost every season since Volume one. Let me go through them, and to show how unfair this is, I’m not allowed to add more than 1.5 points:

Volume 1 Whiterose Moments

Ruby and Weiss are off to a rocky start, but slowly warm up to each other as time goes on, and they get closer. They have a mildly, could-be considered romantic moment where Weiss makes Ruby coffee so she can stay up to study. (+1)

Volume 2 Whiterose Moments

In the food fight, Ruby dramatically catches Weiss when she falls and pretends to cry over her. (Not really much, but it’s something). Ruby and Weiss consistently pair up to get things done throughout the season, especially when looking into information about Cinder. (+1)

Volume 3 Whiterose Moments:

Supporting each other when Winter gets there (that is Volume 3, right?), excellent teamwork in the first stage of the Amity Arena battle, and Weiss’s concern for Ruby when she disappears. (+1)

Volume 4 Whiterose Moments:

Thinks about each other, but otherwise, nothing. (No points awarded or deducted)

Volume 5 Whiterose Moments:

Weiss remember’s Ruby’s coffee taste. While this could be something any friend does, they spend time together, reflecting over beacon, and Weiss helps Ruby’s sister Yang through an implication that she’s doing it for team RWBY, but especially their eccentric fluffball of a leader. (+1.5)

Volume 6 Whiterose Moments:

Ruby saves Weiss on the train, Weiss saves Ruby in the battle against the mech, and they spend time together in the village with the grim. I should give two points here but I’m loyal to my word. (+1.5)

Volume 7 Whiterose Moments:

Ruby and Weiss sitting together during training, and Weiss supporting Ruby when the team splits up. (+0.5)

Volume 8 Whiterose Moments:

Supporting each other all throughout the volume by working together, and acting as teammates and partners. (+0.5)

Volume 9 Whiterose Moments:

Ruby supports Weiss after her being upset about the fall of Atlas. (Jaune’s interaction with Weiss, -1 point- would have been two, though)

6/9

In any scenario, Whiterose wins. Im sure other people could come up with reasons to disprove me, or say I’m biased (I am, this is in no way objective), but these are the things I saw with my own eight eyes because I own three pairs of glasses, and heard with my (admittedly failing) teenage ears.

I’m sure I’ll get flak for this from both sides of the shipping community, because admittedly, the RWBY fandom can be toxic (but it’s almost any fandom at that point) saying I either graded White Knight too harshly or I gave too many or too few points to Whiterose, and I also did all of this off the top of my head, so I apologize for my many mistakes. I have two last statements:

Rosegarden: 0/9

Oscar is 14 and Ruby is 17. If I, the same age as Oscar as of 2023, would not date Ruby at that time, it’s probably wrong. When it comes to relationships for younger people, it’s best to avoid age gaps larger than 2 years. It’s also best to avoid relationships altogether until you can at least go for a learner’s permit. I rest my case.

edit 3: alright, some people have corrected me on the age part, apparently he’s fifteen. I don’t hate Rosegarden, but something about Ozpin and Oscar being the same person makes me really uncomfortable (again, as someone who is younger). Thats the only reason I didn’t give it any rating- it just feels too close to, well… I don’t really have to say it. Especially when the whole point of things is that Oscar and Ozpin are becoming the same person.

Bumblebee: 8/9

It’s canon, bro. It does feel slightly forced at times, but they’re a strong couple who supports each other and helps each other through trauma. You go girls, lesbians all the way (insert lesbian pride flag here)

edit: got someone sending in a message about neither ever going to be canon. You’re right, but thank you so much for crushing a high schooler’s hopes and dreams. Have a nice day

edit 2: I prefer icerose over whiterose but I’ll get what I can take (canon ruby x ice Queendom Weiss). This is just an overall argument.

[kanohirren]

rwby fans really are a different breed huh

imply the show could be improved in any way and they'll get on your case telling you that you're actually a hater if you don't just swallow whole the hot garbage mess that shawcross and luna pull out of their butts when writing a season because they didn't plan out the show from the start and just make it up as they go.

and to all the people who say "whaaat of course they planned it out from the start you just don't understand their vision" you're right about one thing, I don't understand their vision but I don't think they do either. In the Volume 3 Commentary video, it's said that Monty only came up with the Maidens after Volume 2. The Maidens that proceeded to become the driving plot point for the rest of the series to this day didn't exist in anyone's plans when writing the show at the start. Not satisfied? How about the fact that Neo wasn't written in until volume 2 because Monty decided that Torchwick needed a henchman. Neo had like ten minutes of screentime pre-volume 6 but became one of the most popular characters so they decided to make her a major antagonist, even the main antagonist of volume 9. That DEFINITELY wasn't planned before the show started.

I think the show could have been so much better if the plot was planned out from the start and honestly a reboot feels like the way to go to me. Too many times, the writers feel like they're not writing to actually tell a good story but instead they're writing to try and get a reaction out of people. Looking at you, bumblebee. Blake and Yang had one (1) interaction in Volume 2. In Volume 3, Blake runs away at the end as isn't reunited with team rwby until the end of volume 5... but somehow by volume 6 they've somehow become a thing? Literally just shawcross and luna seeing bumblebee being a popular ship in the fndm and going "here you go guys! enjoy!"

It seems like their goal when writing is just to make the audience do this meme

"Whoa, bumblebee! These two characters are canon now and they totally interacted beforehand!"

or alternatively, "Whoa, Neo/Penny is back!"

I could make an entire other post about all the lost potential they had with the plot points that had been set up. Penny the robot girl is killed in volume 3 but surprise she's back in volume 7! That's not an issue per se but imagine the juicy angst steak if Penny's memory had to be wiped or rebooted because they essentially made a new Penny (being a destroyed robot and all) and so she'd forgotted Ruby, her only friend and Ruby thinks she knows Penny but this Penny is essentially a different person. But nope, Penny remembers everything and is a superhero now or something.

Oh and don't even get me started on World of Remnant. If your show can't explain your own lore in a way that isn't making separate lore videos to try and make your world make sense, there's a problem there.

I think this post is long enough though so I'm just gonna leave it at this: I used to really enjoy the show but as it went on the bad writing became harder and harder to ignore and I think the show would greatly benefit from a reboot because nothing of great value would be lost if they never finished the current series. The show had some really good ingredients but the cooks tried too hard to make something unique and ended up with something "technically edible" but not really all that tasty (and fans will insist it was perfect how dare you say anything bad about it but oops there I go looping back round)

[dragonotaku-justineverything]

My goodbye to Rooster Teeth.

I know this isn’t exactly recent news anymore, but yeah. Rooster Teeth is closing. It hit me hard when I heard that. I’m not going to lie, I haven’t watched much of their content at all in the past 6-7 years. Not since I was just starting college back in like 2018/2019.

I was also late to the party in the first place. I didn’t start watching Rooster Teeth until like 2013-2015? I believe it was the Minecraft let’s plays with Achievement City or the Rage Quit Series that got me started. RWBY, one of my all time favorite shows, came later. And after that, it was the podcasts, and Red vs. Blue. I only got to about season 15 I think, but it was definitely awe inspiring.

But despite that, RT was a huge part of my teenage years. I would come home from school and just watch countless videos from them. Sometimes stuff all the way back to their first years of creating things.

Now, it's all kind of just... over. I kind of feel like I've known some of them for so long, it hurts hearing this happen to them. Geoff especially hurt me... I cried as soon as I heard him on their response video thing. That man put his life, mind, heart, body, and soul into that company and now it's just gone. That feels so wrong to me. I hope all the employees will find great ways to keep following their passions and express all the creativity that they have shown over the last two decades. I know that no company can really last forever, but that doesn't make this any easier.

Obviously, I don't know what's going to happen to their intellectual properties, but I hope they don't end, RWBY in particular. It's been such a long journey for its creators and fans, this just can't be the end. I really do hope that it's continued. If not by Kerry or its other current writers and animators, then someone else. I heard that dillongoo, a former animator from RWBY (who makes really cool animations on youtube too), was interested in possibly buying the rights to RWBY which would be fitting in my opinion. We will all just have to wait and see.

In the meantime, I went and downloaded as much RWBY content as I could find and also some RT Animated Adventures because I don’t know what’s going to happen when the official shutdown comes. If the website and youtube channel gets shut down too then I don't want those to be lost for good. I wish I could download a lot more to save it all, but I just don't have that kind of time or storage space

I don't know what will happen in a few months after they're officially shut down, but regardless...

ROOSTER TEETH!

Thank you for the 21 years of joy, sadness, laughs, tears, comfort, suspense, adventure, inspiration, and family you gave us.

I wish you all the absolute best in your futures!

[kitkatopinions]

Every single volume, Jaune becomes more and more proof that rwde posters in general aren't just "wishing a man was the protagonist" and "liking macho alpha men" like anti-rwde posters frequently say.

At the start of RWBY an argument could've been made that Jaune didn't fit the standard male power fantasy because he wasn't buff and battle-hardened and confident and knowledgeable. This argument would've been flawed because there's also a known male fantasy of being nerdy underdogs who get the girl anyway (like with Pyrrha) and who are still treated like they're super important, but it's still an argument that could've been made in the first three seasons.

Then an argument could've hypothetically been made that Jaune has non-romantic female friendships and shows deep emotions and stuff in RWBY volumes 4-6 and therefore doesn't fit a traditional mold of standard male fantasies despite having grown into a 'more built, strategist, leader role' and still getting special focus and attention. This would've been a flawed argument, because Jaune's emotional turmoil was built on Pyrrha's fridging and resulted in him taking on and holding his own against Cinder, and his lack of romantic relationships was more built on Pyrrha being his 'forever fall.' Very 'action hero who lost his wife' style of writing.

Then an argument could've been made very unconvincingly in volumes 7-8 that Jaune might be now getting played as a very muscley attractive guy that milfs lust after that keeps a cool head in arguments, but one could still argue that he was still not as experienced or skilled as Ruby, and also that he was less of a 'macho man' than the bearded older guy in charge of things that Ironwood was, and that Jaune's anger issues from the last few seasons had started winding down. Obviously this argument wouldn't be convincing, and wouldn't be a real counter argument to how he was being used and how his progress just read like a 'zero to hero,' 'kid who used to be a gangly nerd is now super desirable and cool' fantasy, but it could hypothetically be made.

But then in volume nine, Jaune becomes not only a bearded older man with all this information who is in charge of a village, but he also becomes a much more angry and prone to snapping person than ever, his emotional outbursts are now built on the deaths of two more women in Penny and Alix, and he quite literally becomes a hero of a novel he used to love as a kid, while Weiss openly is into him. Weiss, who is the girl he originally was perusing way back when who wouldn't give him the time of day. Jaune literally screamed in the face of a seventeen year old victim blaming her for stuff that either she wasn't at fault for at all or that he's at least just to blame for, and didn't get called out and instead got coddled and treated with more sympathy than Ruby. The fact that he got deaged back at the end just makes me think that the writers are intending to make him and Weiss get together eventually but didn't want there to be a twenty year age gap between them, despite the fact that he still has the memories of twenty years.

But yeah, Jaune always gave big 'male fantasy' vibes, but every single season it got worse and worse and he got more and more male fantasy vibes until he's become an angry macho man with a beard screaming in a teenage woman's faces and getting nothing but sympathy over it. And he's only gotten more and more focus and attention. So by all rights, if rwde posters actually wanted a man to be a protagonist and wanted macho manly men to be more in focus and treated as good and for them to get attention... We'd all be on board with Jaune and want more Jaune and like Jaune. Instead, with every single season, rwde posters in general dislike Jaune more and want him less. Whereas there's actually RWBY fans who do love and worship Jaune and want him around more and more and like half the fandom at this point are Jaune fanboys, but nobody actually pays any attention to them because apparently the real crime is thinking Ironwood's fall to villainy was badly written. XD The whole "Rwde posters just want men to be the protagonists and they love macho alpha men" is completely fake. It's a made up lie based in nothing that people throw around because they're mad that rwde posters don't like the writers' choices when it comes to Ironwood. XD

[howlingday]

I just realized: If we look at all three arcs, the heroes only got one solid win. The first arc ends with the Fall of Beacon. The Second arc had them win. The Third arc ended with the Fall of Atlas and Mantle. I would like to think the Vacuo Arc would have ended in a win, but I'm not sure.

Alright, let's break it down, Volume by Volume, big fight by big fight.

Volume 1: Emerald Forest, Jaundice, Dock Fight

Three wins and plenty of room to grow.

Volume 2: Paladin Fight, Beacon Dance, Mountain Glenn

Win with collateral damage (that everybody was pissed about), one loss for the good guys with the data stolen by a disguised Cinder Fall, and one win for everybody at Beacon Academy, this time with somehow more and less collateral damage? I guess it was more contained than entire highways and bridges being damaged.

Volume 3: Vytal Tournament, Battle OfBeacon

Oh boy... This is where the losses start to stack... RWBY and JNPR made into the finals, but... Well, by the end, Penny and Pyrrha died, Team RWBY got separated, Yang lost an arm, and Beacon Academy and the CCT network was disabled. This coming from a previous volume where there was a joke about Ruby getting words wrong.

Volume 4: Volume 4...

This is the point where we learn the dynamic of RWBY Volumes, which is with the flow of seasons. Volume 1 was spring fresh with new beginnings, Volume 2 was action-packed summer adventures, and Volume 3 was drastic and horrible changes like the leaves in autumn, leading us to Volume 4, which hit us non-stop with L after L after L. Yangst, Weiss being abused, Blake having her kitty pity party, and Team RNJR (IT'S JNRR) having to survive Tyrian Callows, the Nuckelavee, and the harsh reality of being huntsmen and huntresses... Oh, and also the Brother gods are real.

Volume 5: Battle for Haven, Menagerie

By the end of Volume 5, everything starts looking up. The White Fang disbands after failing to assassinate the Belladonnas, Ruby and her friends manage to fend off Cinder's group, the good guys learn new abilities and limitations, and Cinder gets dropped off a cliff by Raven. Overall, a good Volume. A couple losses, but still a lot more wins.

Volume 6: Knock, knock! Who's there? It's REALITY!

And... it's gone. The wins. They're gone. Sure, we end this Volume with Adam's death and Ruby's group escaping to Atlas, but... this was also when RWBY stopped looking like young heroes and more like trouble-maker teens with good intentions doing more harm than good. And they don't get any punishment, really. Not to mention that we also learn the truth about Salem and Ozpin. Not many Ls, but only because they're still cooking.

Volume 7: You lost, but you won, but you still lost

Starting off, we have Team RWBY and group getting captured by the Ace-Ops, serving as a sort of marker for where they'll by Volume end. Until then, we have Team RWBY failing to stop a public massacre, a rigged election, and end with martial law being established over all of Atlas. But hey, at least we stopped Jacques Schnee, got out licenses to kill, and some sick-ass upgrades to our old gear!

Volume 8: I want off General Ironwood's Wild Martial Law

OKAY! So we start off with Penny being pressured to do something she doesn't want to and NOBODY is talking about it like adults. Even fucking General Ironwood isn't backing down. But then again, he's probably still riding the high of shooting a child and suffering from the low that it wasn't a kill shot. But yeah, this entire Volume was just low after low after low after LOW. There is no positive to this Volume. No Ws for anyone. Now get back on the bus. It's time to go to Saturday detention.

Volume 9: Guide~! My~! Way~! Out~! I'm what inspired the fairy tales~...

Real talk. You listening? Okay... I will say that V9 isn't the best Volume. Compared to V2 or V5, it's barely squeezing in at third. However, THIS is my absolute favorite Volume. In terms of Ls and Ws, there's definitely a couple Ls, biggest of all to Ruby, but she also gets the biggest W of the entire Volume. V9 has the best moments, the best music, and even the best villain of the entire series, even if they weren't even main antag level. Everything about Volume 9 served it's purpose as a spring chapter. It's coming out of the cold winter and into the new beginnings of spring.

That said, I understand that this being said AFTER RT already announced their shutdown, but I think the show says it best. Never lose hope, keep moving forward, and remember that victory is in the simple soul.

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

[itsclydebitches]

If Ruby is still depressed in v10 (if it, yknow, happens) but just being communicative and healthy about it, I'll forgive v9.

If she's back to normal and they really did resolve depression on the level of a suicide attempt with 'she's ok now because the afterlife gave her a pep talk' I will tear and bite

Yeah what even (if anything) is going on with Volume 10 nowadays? I've been out of the loop for a while and yet it simultaneously feels like I haven't missed anything...

I personally will not be retroactively absolving Volume 9, even if Volume 10 knocks it out of the water. I've been playing that game for years: "Well, maybe if they finally do this, that, and the other thing we'll have a cohesive narrative!" Yeah, that ship has sailed. They needed to start that work back in Volume 6, Volume 7 at the latest, and things have just consistently gotten worse instead. In this age of full season drops and crazy fast release dates, I'm continually reminded that RWBY is an episode-by-episode show that, whether for creative purposes or commercial, has always taken its time. That produces a very different viewing experience and, for me at least, it means that what we get feels like it has more weight, simply by virtue of existing as the only new RWBY content for a significant, set amount of time. Just like it can be frustrating to hear fans dismiss literal years of worry over bumbleby because they finally kissed in Volume 9, dismissing the horribly handled suicide allegory after 9-ish month of sitting with it because our hypothetical Volume 10 might make something of it doesn't work for me. Yes, there's always something to be said for giving stories time to capitalize on ideas, but we're still left with the impact of those choices now. Far more significantly, I feel like I have a good sense of when a story simply needs more time to flesh out a complex idea (the 2nd season of Good Omens immediately comes to mind) as well as when the issue is indeed a matter of "This is a complex, as of yet unresolved conflict that viewers may not personally like, but that doesn't make it badly written" (again, Good Omens). RWBY, unfortunately, is neither of those things. The first half is a writing disaster and they've consistently shown that they can't pull it together in the second half.

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Thursday, September 12th

ANGELUS: Early 20's by the cars. What is this — Chicago? (sees Angel standing on the other side of the street) Oh, no. I remember this. I remember this place. I gotta get out of here. FAITH: Why? You freaking out? ANGELUS: It's coming. (a car speeds around the corner down the street in front of them) Again. FAITH: What's coming? ANGELUS: I can't do it again. I won't! (Angel runs into the street right in front of the car.) FAITH: Angel, get out of the road. (Angel continues until he's completely across the street. A small squeaking sound can be heard. Angel turns around to reveal that he's holding a tiny Pomeranian puppy.) ANGELUS: (throwing a fit) Doh! FAITH: (giggling) Dude, you just rescued a puppy.

~~Orpheus~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Sexyme Street by MamaBewear (Angel/Spike, Puppet Angel/Spike, M)

Proposals by TheClowniestLivInExistence (Darla/Drusilla, M)

Tea With Milk In by evesock (Spike/Drusilla, E)

As You Purr by VoronaFiernan (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Unmake Me by tempestt (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

A Sword in the Man - ch. 3 by Desicat (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

[Chaptered Fiction]

And Then There Were Two - ch. 3 by Murderpart1 (Willow/Vamp Willow, Not Rated)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer vs. La Blue Girl - ch. 1-2 by Muhabba (Buffy/multiple, other pairings, E)

After Life - ch. 4 by Alwaysandforevermylove (Buffy/Faith, E)

Recompense - ch. 15 by Moonkid10 (Buffy/Faith, M)

Dear Journal - ch. 7 by desicat (Buffy/William Pratt, M)

Horrorshow - ch. 24 by vampbrat (Angel/Spike/Wesley, Spike/others, E)

Infinitely - ch. 69 by Laragh (Willow/Tara, M)

In Case You Haven't Noticed... - ch. 35 by Sdhuskerfan (Buffy/Giles, E) COMPLETE!

Midnight At The Lost & Found - ch. 4 by The_Crazy_Knight (Buffy/Giles, E) COMPLETE!

A Ripple In Time - ch. 24-45 by CheekyKitten (Buffy/Spike, E) COMPLETE!

A Taste of Buffy - ch. 4 by Maxine Eden (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Getaway Gang - ch. 2 by violettathepiratequeen (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

The Degradation of Duality [Series Part 2] - ch. 50 by Ragini (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Waiting for You - ch. 20 by honeygirl51885 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Through The Keyhole - ch. 7 by Geliot99, cd85 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Getaway Gang - ch. 2 by violettathepiratequeen (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Waiting for You - ch. 20 by honeygirl51885 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Eyes Forward, Monster - ch. 6 by Desicat (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Zombydale Gates, CA - ch. 1-2 by veronyxk84 (Buffy, Spike, T) COMPLETE!

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork: [FANART] Control by girlpire (Angel/Darla, very NSFW)

Artwork and video: Spike Study (to match his girl >:3) by lunchtimebedamned1997 (Spike, worksafe)

Artwork: “It’s Summers Blood” by pocketsizedann (Buffy, Dawn, worksafe)

Artwork: 🖤 "With others I live, with you I exist..." 🖤 by o-cm-draw-o (Buffy/Spike, mildly NSFW)

Artwork: Fanart rec: [prints by] @artbychayne : SLAYERS recced by practicalsmagic (Buffy, worksafe)

Fanvid: Anthony Head in 1997 (He is the same age here as the first season of BTVS) – @buffyannegiles on Tumblr (worksafe)

Moodboard: [green colors] by buffyannegiles (Buffy, Giles, worksafe)

Collage: Collage #156 DHT - Listen to Your Heart - Edmee's Unplugged Vocal Edit by thedecadentraven (Buffy/Spike, worksafe)

Collage: Collage #157 by thedecadentraven (Buffy, worksafe)

Collage: Collage #158 by thedecadentraven (Buffy/Spike, worksafe)

Edit: Hunger by raffaella-cerullo (Faith, worksafe)

Gifset: Buffy and Faith meeting pre-Sunnydale by whatisyourchildhoodtrauma (Buffy/Faith, worksafe)

Gifset: EARSHOT and we're all like that. we all have our little internal iagos, that tell us... by detectivedawnsummers (ensemble, worksafe)

Fanvid: buffy & angel | haunted by lostlcve (Buffy/Angel, worksafe)

Artwork: Team RWBY Say Why You Should Watch Buffy by MattanzaMFedora (Team RWBY, worksafe)

[Reviews & Recaps]

I'm rewatching Buffy the series (S3E2) and I hate everyone but Buffy in this episode... by ohumokay

Season 5 Episode 10 What A Bizarre Message by friendofathena

PODCAST: Buffy S7E10: Bring on the Night by Booze & Buffy

[Recs & In Search Of]

RECS: Spuffy Fic Recs — August by veronyxk84

RECS: Spuffy Fic Recs — August by veronyxk84

RECS: [post Chosen Buffy x Faith fic recced - see the discussion in the replies] by ao3fics-lost-and-found

ISO: unsuretryhard seeks proof this soundtrack song was in the series: Hepburn - I Quit (Buffy The Vampire Slayer Video Clip Version)

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[sapphicgoblinblog]

I kinda love how the lyrics to the opening of RWBY always state how the situation is behind the scenes for the people who worked on it.

RWBY volume 1: "Prepare for your greatest moments. Prepare for your finest hour."

RWBY volume 2: "There's a point where it tips. There's a point where it breaks. There's a point where it bends and a point we just can't take anymore" also "no bridges left to burn"

(TW) Very depressing lyrics below...

RWBY volume 3: "The cost of trusting you's obliteration" also "Misery and pain for all"

RWBY volume 4: "Now it seems we were just pretending" also "Inside we're torn apart"

I gave up on watching the trainwreck after season 4. Things just kept getting worse and the lyrics seem to suggest so too.

RWBY volume 5: "Helpless and doomed"

RWBY volume 6: "No hope, no path"

RWBY volume 7: "Leave your fantasy"

RWBY volume 8: "We failed to stop our own demise"

RWBY volume 9: "Why should I fight to connect with a world I cannot exhume?"

YIKES!! These lyrics get extra depressing and it seems like the world within RWBY was never going to last. It seems like the people running the show have completely lost hope in their series as they very well should because the corporate overlords destroyed their art. The only hope for RWBY is to restart time back to the season 3 prior to the doomsday event that caused such a calamity to unfold.

[princess-of-the-corner]

One thing to note about RWBY is that it REALLY "grew the beard" over the course of its runtime.

Volumes 1-3 were animated in Poser (software that wasn't intended for use in animation), with rougher backgrounds and more simplistic writing related to complex themes. They were also only ever intended to be an extended prologue to the ACTUAL show, with the Big Twist of the Volume 3 finale being that the climax was actually just the inciting incident to the show's ACTUAL conflict.

Starting from Volume 4, the crew switched to Maya (software that's intended for use in animation), got better at writing more complex topics (the White Fang is treated more sympathetically than in the "Beacon Arc"), and Jaune was actually an interesting character for the entirety of the "Anima Arc" that lasted from Volumes 4-6.

Volume 7 is probably the best season of the show (I don't have a Crunchyroll account and so I haven't had the chance to watch Volume 9 in its entirety yet, even if I know what happens there). It deconstructs the whole "America Saves the World" trope with Atlas, and has some pretty good political satire that wound up being eerily prophetic. Also, Robyn Hill is one of the best characters the show has ever introduced.

Volume 8 contains both the best and worst moments of the series. V8C1-V8C11 features some of the best storytelling and most tense action from the franchise ever, but V8C12 has the overall message of "Okay but, the people who dehumanized Penny over her mechanical body KINDA had a point, let's fix what isn't broken!", V8C13 is a pretty descent villain episode, and V8C14 is by far the most offensive piece of media I've ever been subjected to. But still, up until those last three episodes, it was basically flawless.

I've heard Volume 9 is pretty good, but I'm side-eying everything involving Jaune because I honestly DESPISE the direction they took his arc in. But if we ignore EVERYTHING related to Jaune's role in the Volume, I like basically everything I've heard about it.

RWBY: After the Fall is a very good spin-off novel focused on popular side characters Team CFVY and shows what they've been up to since the Fall of Beacon in Volume 3. it also has a really interesting gimmick, as every other chapter is a flashback to something that happened in Team CFVY's past, further fleshing out their minor roles in the show.

RWBY: Before the Dawn is actual garbage. Sun's character arc (wherein his hypocrisy from the show is actually acknowledged and challenged) and Coco's and Velvet's shiptease are probably the only redeeming qualities. Taking this book into account actually makes Ironwood's reluctance to call Vacuo for help look REASONABLE. 2/10.

RWBY: Roman Holiday is a prequel novel focused on Roman and Neo, but Neo is the true protagonist here. The first few chapters leading up to their first meeting alternate between their perspectives, with the book being largely Neo focused after they finally meet.

RWBY: Fairy Tales of Remnant is an anthology of in-universe fairy tales. You can read it at any point in the series, but the further into the series you are when you read it, the more hints to RWBY's overarching plot you'll notice. While all of the Fairy Tales are works of fiction, some of them are dramatizations of actual events in the shadow war that RWBY's plot revolves around.

RWBY x JL: Super Heroes and Huntsmen is a 2-part film series wherein Team RWBY teams up with the Justice League. Part 1 features the Justice League visiting Remnant (kinda) during the events of Volume 7, and Part 2 features Team RWBY visiting DC Earth after the events of Volume 9.

There's also some ambiguously canonical comics published by DC, as well as 2 explicitly non-canon RWBY/DC crossover comic series. One features alternate versions of the Justice League cast who were born on Remnant, another features Remnant and DC Earth fusing due to Salem tricking Lex Luthor into helping her by playing off of his hatred of Superman. Neither of these crossovers are in continuity with the crossover movies.

Fascinating actually

[the-path-to-redemption]

Salem! - mylittlerwde

ask meme

Long Post Ahead

SALEM

What are my top four favorite non-romantic relationship dynamics for them? - She and Tyrian got me in a grip, bro. They are so Bloodborne-coded, you have no idea. I also like the one she has with Watts, as little as we have, because he doesn't actually worship her, she's just a matron for his goals and she likes the developments he brings, a good evil partnership (even though she's still very much in charge). I also like the antagonistic relationship she has with Ruby, and how she taunts the poor thing about Summer. It was good, despite all of the flaws. Finally, I fuck with her and the Hound tremendously. God, what a fucking nightmare it was lmao, with how she just treats it better than her lackeys, almost motherly, until you realized that there is a person in there, there is a Silver Eyed Warrior that she captured, tormented, and disfigured in that Grimm. Man, when the horror hits like this, I almost forgot I hate the way CRWBY writes lol.

What season were they at their best and why? - O O F. I seriously cannot pick one, because wow the good moments she has just fucking comes and go without any consistency huh. Well, if I have to choose based on overall enjoyment? Probably 7 or 8, because they actually let her go full-on horror monster, and boy do we need that.

What season were they at their worst and why? - Uhhhhh, I would say...6? Because the way they wrote her backstory and how it went was wack. I love the evil bitches from the start, I do, and I was one of the people who never saw Salem as a good person even before she turned Grimm. But the narrative of Lost Fables was lame, and her complexity was nonexistent because "noooo my man died wahhh :((((" and I...I wish that by itself extended into more? Like, she was sad that what she thought was hers was taken from her, and that spiraled into a need to control the world instead of just like, destroy it for a man that she still murdered when he rightfully gtfo, I guess. Her character trope and the way it all went down are ideas that have been executed better, look no further than the character Father from Fullmetal Alchemist.

How would I rank their outfits from worst to best? - Well, seeing as how both of her outfits just reeks of Orientalism and sexism, both of them belong in the fucking trash. But if I have to rank them, the OG comes first, then her "war" outfit because....what was even there, bestie?

I'm not doing anything H*rry P*tter related, so this ain't gonna be a thing at all.

What do I think this character would be like if they were on the opposite side (good characters are bad, bad characters are good - Huh...Now that's an interesting thought. I thought she would be like Ozpin at first, but then I was leaning more towards her being a hermit trainer who watches over the world in the shadows instead of being a Headmaster, while the Headmasters themselves are either her close friends or studied under her before going into their Huntsman career. I can also see her having her own Huntsman training sect where her students have a unique style of Grimm hunting and Dust utilization due to her being a magician, but upon descending into the world they must never find her again (Baoshan Sanren from Mo Dao Zu Shi is a good example of this trope). A really low-key person.

If I suddenly had control of RWBY, what would I want to do with this character after the events of V8? - First of all, erase Vol 9-. In all seriousness? I would have her kickstart that world domination already, and keep up that level of high stake for the characters to actually deal with. Salem has become a high-level threat, and that would've made the tension not just between the main cast, but them against the world because of their actions, be more interesting. And obviously, have her just fucking blow Cinder apart already. That bitches literally did shit for you but steal the work other lackeys did for you, Salem, just kill her.

[sir-adamus]

the thing about all of this is that yeah, Ruby’s only 17 but also

she’s only just 17

like with the timeline we have from volumes 1-3, Fall comes during the second school semester (”with more exchange students arriving and the tournament at the end of the year, our second semester is going to be great!”); Ruby was only 15 for the majority of the first three volumes (and we can only definitively say she’s 16 after the timeskip to Winter in the volume 3 finale), and volume 5 ends on the full moon before the Fall semester was due to start, not even a year after volume 2 started (which tracks as when we see Patch in the stinger of that volume, it’s still Summer colours, not the Fall colours we saw during volume 3, as the semester covers the turn of the season)

volume 6 starts 2 weeks after that, spans maybe a week, and then we’re into volume 7 - which means it’s still Summer, at that point, it hadn’t even been a year since Beacon at that stage, and Ruby’s still 16

the timeskip during volume 7 covers Arrowfell (which given context clues, happens not long after RWBY become fully licensed), After the Fall (SSSN showing up at the end means it’s been some time since the beginning of volume 6, especially as it’s mentioned in the sequel that Sun insisted they take the scenic route) and Before the Dawn (which starts a month after After the Fall ends and spans at least a few weeks)

meaning the Fall of Atlas has to come just over a year after the Fall of Beacon, and Ruby is, presumably, only just 17 years old

and then the back half of volume 7 all the way up to where we are in volume 9? 4, maybe 5 days

it’s been fucking rough

[destinygoldenstar]

Which Love Triangle Is Worse? (Ninjago Vs Total Drama)

Hey, this is called a sponsor, right? For advertising something? Why don’t we try it? For a book?

Destiny’s Burden. An original story by yours truly.

The world of Destiny takes place a century into the future, where Earth and all its morally questionable implications were wiped out for the sake of a utopia.

The beloved savior, Mary Sue, rescued everyone from extinction by creating a world system that would change all of humanity.

Destiny, from all the Chosen One stories you’ve heard, is the dominant force of society. Those who’ve praised Mary Sue have been granted a loving world of kingdoms with the clearest right and wrong, and lives of great fortune. Those who’ve rejected her ideals were cursed to become the Dark Lords, the villains and the black of the stories that would come.

When certain children come of age, they are granted a destiny of their own, abilities of a Chosen One, and given clear stories for them to follow and train for. Stories that would bring peace to their wonderful world, against the Dark Lords who dare to try and change it.

A generation of Chosen Ones begins with Charlie Sue, the descendent of Mary Sue herself, being assigned the task of becoming the savior of the entire land after a group of Dark Lords steal power.

With the help of a few Chosen One friends, Charlie must train for the day he claims his place as Destiny’s savior.

And if Destiny really is that pleasing of a utopia.

An original fantasy action story by yours truly. Questions are free to be asked in messaging me, and followers of my blog will, in time, get a chance to beta read parts of the story and give much needed feedback to make this a great passion project. More info coming soon.

Now, onto the post.

You know, this was easier to decide than I thought.

I know, it didn’t sound like it would at first.

Okay, lets think of a better intro...

Both of these cartoons means quite a bit to me. 

I already talk about Total Drama on my blog quite a bit, to the point where I think some of my followers think I’m a TD blog. I’m not. There’s other stuff I talk about. In fact, there’s even more I could talk about with TD, and opinions I have yet to share. 

However, it is an absolute CRIME in my head that I have not talked about Ninjago as much as I do with TD. I mean, I made a Skybound review awhile back, which holds up on my opinions, but that’s about it.

Why do I say this? Well because, I have the LAMEST childhood over. I did not grow up with Total Drama. I watched it when covid hit and I had nothing better to do. I didn’t even watch Avatar The Last Airbender until last year, which is NUTS. 

I was more so into MLP as a kid, but I stopped watching it around Season 6, not through any puberty hit, but because my parents HATE me watching MLP. (For reasons I don’t get.) And I was also bullied heavily for liking MLP, so...

I also was obsessed with Minecraft Story Mode. (And I did make a few posts about it. They’re old, though.) It’s sad to me what happened to that series...

I also binge read the Sailor Moon manga, and I have all the books still. I watched the 90s show too, but... I honestly did not like it.

I would say, ‘what a surprise, the book is better’, but you’d be shocked to hear the Sailor Moon fandom say that the 90s anime is superior. For me... no.

Then I had one brief RWBY phase. And I mean BRIEF. In actuality, I don’t hardcore hate the show, but the one aspect of the show that prevents me from getting into it is it’s awful protagonists. I dunno, maybe I’ll make a post about that topic, because it’s astounding to me how bad their protagonists are.

And if you know me, I more so tend to have more to talk about when it comes to the flawed shows rather than shows with perfect writing. I said it over and over again, YES, I’ve watched ATLA, and Arcane. Those shows are amazing. Do you want me to praise those shows like the 7 billion other people on planet earth have?

Okay, I’m getting off track.

But there’s one show in my childhood that I distinctly remember being a part of my childhood more than any of these: That’s Ninjago.

I remember when I was around eight years old, and my sibling and I would tune in every week to watch an episode on Netflix. And I don’t even like the shows my sibling watch. But we both bonded with this show specifically. I think it has to do with this being the first show I’ve watched that wasn’t just one episode adventures. This was a show with substance, with story arcs that branch for multiple episodes, with characters to follow. Something I was not familiar with at the time.

Also Zane. Best boy. No I’m not taking criticism.

Before I even made my Tumblr account, I would write private essays talking about Ninjago. They’re terrible. 

I have huge memories of this show. I WANTED to talk about this show for awhile, but couldn’t figure out what to talk about.

And then in my creative writing class, we were talking about tropes we hated. 

My teacher said ‘the love triangle’. (I didn’t have that on my list, surprisingly)

It seemed like everyone, besides myself, hated the love triangle trope. And it seems very valid.

Like, just pick one love interest, darn it!

So that got me to make this post. Why a contest between these two shows?

Well they both have a love triangle that the majority of the fandom hates, they’re both known for destroying a relationship people liked, and they both take place in their Season Three.

And also, everyone hates these plotlines, so I wanted to ask myself, are they really that bad? More importantly, which is worse?

That’s what we’re here for.

Keep in mind, this is my POV on these plotlines. There’s obviously gonna be disagreement and I would love to hear your opinions when reblogging.

Also SPOILER WARNING FROM HERE ON OUT. IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED EITHER OF THESE SHOWS AND DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED, DON’T CLICK ‘KEEP READING’. Watch the shows, and then come back.

But there’s one key factor that I think makes people lean to one argument:

Bias

My first claim is that it has to do with nostalgia of the show that springs our reactions.

When I watched the Ninjago love triangle as a kid, I was confused, cringing, and angry.

When I watched the Total Drama love triangle when I’m older, I was just like ‘okay, so we’re doing this.’

So obviously, there’s a great line of bias. As a kid, your brain hasn’t fully developed, so when bringing up a concept that isn’t black and white, and emotionally damaging, you’re gonna get heavy results. 

It was the same for when Zane died in Season Three. I was a kid. I was TICKED.

Looking back now, that was an expertly built up scene and one of the best payoffs to a character arc in the show. 

‘Animation is for babies’

And yet you have this:

“Are you working for Silco?”

“Fuck you”

-Arcane. (And that’s the LEAST adult thing in the show)

It’s the same thing with shipping.

Kids media are given the simplistic idea that romance is absolute. That you have one person destined for you and it will all work out.

A love triangle is... complicated, for kids heads.

So when another guy a character is in love with enters the picture, kids are gonna be confused and relatively act negative towards it. Despite the fact that love triangles... do actually exist in the real world?

Anyone remember Hamilton? Of course you do.

This is why we tend to hate Love Tringles in my eyes.

But I want to be as objective as possible with this, and discuss each storyline and their problems. So lets coin toss and decide which show we start with.

*Flips coin*

*Gets Heads*

Ninjago, it’s your lucky day.

I guess it’s fitting since I watched this show first.

Ninjago (Jay, Cole, and Nya Love Triangle)

Ninjago is a show produced by LEGO, which tells the story about a group of ninjas being assigned to face against the evils of the titular world. It’s also LEGOs biggest TV show to date.

This is more of an action superhero show than anything, and I think that’s gonna be the biggest difference here. Both shows I’m talking about have different priorities.

But I’m just focusing on the love triangle.

This plotline springs in its third season, Rebooted. It’s an eight episode long season, and the plotline gets introduced in the premiere briefly, and stays relevant all season between the three characters involved. It gets carried over to season four in that third episode, and it’s mentioned briefly in the premiere of season six. Then it ends.

People tend to hate this love triangle for a certain reason:

Why?

WHY was this love triangle needed?

I tried researching what was going on behind the scenes when the decision was made, but I could not find anything. I may be bad at research though.

My best guess is this:

Ninjago was originally supposed to end after Season Two: Legacy Of The Green Ninja. However, from the success of the show and insane toy sales, they made the decision to continue the story and make a third season. The task of continuing a story you designed to end is... daunting. For any writer.

So my biggest assumption on why they decided to do a love triangle was because they were still struggling to figure out what to do with the story of Ninjago from where they intended to end it.

I don’t hate Rebooted. Rebooted has its moments. But the season also carries a lot of lows, and this is one of them. It’s why I think most of the fandom sees this as a mid tier season overall, and pretty mixed.

So lets give context to the love before the season:

Right from the pilot episodes, one of the missions of the newly formed ninja team was to rescue the fire ninja Kai’s sister, Nya. 

And the lightning ninja, Jay, says this:

“We’re saving a girl? Is she hot?”

Right off the bat, and before they even met, the writers implied that Jay was gonna have a thing for Nya, the most major girl character in the entire show.

Jay and Nya properly meet in the second pilot episode after Kai rescues her, and they exchange their favorite colors. It so happens to be blue. Flirting.

Right off the bat, there is no hate each other until they love each other bull, there is no will they or will they won’t, from the moment they met, these two have had a thing for each other.

In fact, we don’t even really do a ‘will they or will they won’t’ with them, because the flirting carries over in the proper first season of the show.

So much so that their big milestone in their relationship is in Episode 8.

Yeah. That’s quick. It’s almost impressive.

Basically, that episode has Jay trying to impress Nya, Kai tricking him into giving his sister an allergy (like the great brother he is), and despite this, Nya accepting his proposal to go on a date. Unfortunately, Jay gets his finger pricked on a snake fang, and it’s worse sounding than it sounds when you know the context of the show. Wacky hijinks ensue when their secrets of their identities clash, with Jay being a nobody from a junkyard, and Nya being a Samurai ally to the ninja and wanting to keep that a secret because of some sexist bull. 

But by the end of the episode, they make up, confess their feelings, and become an official couple.

From there, there’s minimal drama between their relationship for the rest of Season One, and all of Season Two. It’s just been them flirting and praising each other, and being supportive. 

There was also an episode where an evil clone of Jay kisses Nya, and tells the real Jay about it, which makes Jay so mad that he essentially MURDERS him. 

Compared to Total Drama, and due to different show circumstances, this is actually a very tame thing to do.

So, Jay and Nya as a couple, pre-Rebooted, has had next to NO issues.

Now you might be wondering, if that’s the case, WHY IN THE NAME OF HECK did they decide to throw Cole into this? Where did he fit in all of this?

Well, I just rewatched all of Season One and Two for this post, and in terms of Cole and Nya interactions... there was nothing.

I’m not kidding. These two have not had ONE interaction with each other pre-Rebooted. The most is when Nya is talking to all the ninja, not Cole specifically.

So why would Nya suddenly have a thing for a guy she never talks to, when she has a good relationship with Jay?

And whatever you Total Drama people who haven’t watched Ninjago are thinking, it’s even dumber than that.

So in the premiere of Rebooted, they go to this sci-fi tour at the new Ninjago central tower... thing. The ninja are left doing plot stuff with Cyrus, and Nya is left to take care of kids and be a chaperon to a field trip. Little girls find this ‘perfect match’ machine, which is SUCH a real thing in the real world (sarcasm), and they make Nya try the machine.

And her perfect match is said to be Cole.

THAT is how Nya gets feelings for Cole.

Told you it was dumber than you think.

She did not gain feelings for Cole through any interaction with him, or other people pressuring the concept, or even her current boyfriend being any wrong to her. 

No.

It’s a freaking. MACHINE.

So right at the next time Nya is focused on, she is flirting with Cole. She mistakes him referring to the students with their kids, she gives him the looks, and she’s also holding hands with him.

Yeah. Nya is essentially CHEATING ON HER BOYFRIEND.

And again, she’s only doing this because a MACHINE SAID SO.

It’s not like she’s even trying to hide it, as Jay catches them. 

This makes Nya look horrendously unlikeable in the season, as you’d expect.

Why is this so OOC for her? Because there was ZERO prompting for this to happen. None. 

At most, you could say that Jay’s ego made her feel lesser of relevance, but to Ninjago’s credit, they do address that... IN SEASON SIX. 

So that’s not an excuse here. We’re talking about BEFORE Skybound.

Until Skybound, and I guess Tournament of Elements, Nya hasn’t had an issue with Jay’s ego. Again, in the episode where they hook up, she tells him that he doesn’t need to impress her. And they both agreed on such. 

In the third episode of Rebooted, it’s revealed that PIXAL is the AI of the machine that did all of this. Not only does she not apologize or tell Nya that she should let her heart decide, but she encourages the cheating and to dump Jay.

To be fair, I don’t really hold PIXAL accountable for the love triangle. At this point in the story, she’s just a robot doing her job, and knows little about showing humanity. And she just woke up from a near death experience, so yeah, I think it’s safe to say that she was numb when she told Nya this. PIXAL is really not trying to harm anybody, or say anything personal, she’s just saying what the program of the machine told her to say.

However, Jay hears PIXAL claim that Cole is Nya’s perfect match, explaining that Nya was indeed cheating on her, and it absolutely ENRAGES Jay.

So much so that when an unexpected Cole walks into the room, Jay physically tries to beat him up. 

They were friends before, and had some playful teasing in the first two seasons, but now it’s gone.

This is, deemed by many fans, one of the WORST scenes of the entire show.

I don’t blame them. I hate this scene too.

Even if you take the so called build up out, the scene is accompanied by awful dialogue and puns, so... there is NO ironically enjoying this either.

So from then on, Cole and Jay hate each other and spend the rest of the season fighting over Nya. To be fair, past this episode, it just turns into spiteful comments, and doesn’t escalate to any physical fighting until Season Four. 

And it’s not like they’re trying to kill each other. Quite the opposite in fact. (Jay does oblige in saving Cole from getting lost in space, no hesitation)

So yeah, this season, because of the love triangle, assassinated all three characters involved. And mind you, I LOVE Ninjago’s protagonists. I LOVE these characters. So when I say they’re OOC here, I mean it.

I already talked about Nya and how this was out of character for her. Because the sexist BS is the biggest pet peeve I have with Nya. Otherwise, she’s very compassionate, assertive, and a girlboss with a very strong character arc throughout the entire show.

Jay does have a right to be angry. After all, he was cheated on. But I think he’s mad at the wrong person. He never blames Nya for this at all, and only pins it on Cole as a heartless monster. That’s odd to me, because Nya cheated, and he SAW THAT. I thought he would yell at her at least once, but no, instead he demands she picks him like an egotist. That’s what someone possessive would do, and Jay has NEVER done this before.

Besides, if you think about it, he’s only mad because PIXAL, an AI, said he was no good for Nya. In that case, he should be mad at PIXAL too. Sure, I said that PIXAL couldn’t help it, but if I were Jay, yelling at her would be warranted. 

But nope. It’s all Cole’s fault, even though Cole was kind of a victim of circumstances.

Speaking of, why is Cole even into Nya?

Like I said, they haven’t talked before this. Cole has shown no signs of liking Nya, in fact, he seemed to support Jay and Nya as a couple. This is especially strange because Cole is the kind of character who knows exactly what he wants. If he was into Nya, he would’ve said so right away, especially before Jay even got with her.

The worst part is, the rest of the season only consists of Nya trying to decide who she likes, and the other two trying to fight for her affection. I don’t think they even mention the cheating after this. And again, it goes absolutely nowhere until Season Four, Episode Three.

In that episode, Jay and Cole are forced to fight each other by Clouse rigging the titular tournament. They’re actually not okay with this until Neuro, a guy who can read minds, escalates their rage. Then they’re okay with beating each other up with a ton of rage and grief towards each other. 

Before the match, Lloyd tells them to remember who the real enemy is. He is referring to Chen. This is the driving force to the rest of the fight.

In a fight scene that is actually visually pleasing, ngl, Cole and Jay go all out until a random point in the middle where Cole decides, ‘hey, you’re not my enemy, and I never even liked Nya, so yeah, I’ll just sacrifice myself so you can stay in the game, symbolizing how you won this love triangle.’

And they make up.

Despite the little effort and prompting beforehand. Like I said, they only did this because Lloyd said so. So why are they making up now if they hate each other so much?

And then any love life plotline with Cole completely drops, and Cole is left with no love interest until Master of the Mountain. Cole and Nya have some scenes together after this, but it’s clear that they’re just friends and it never goes anywhere. And in Skybound, the love triangle is just treated as the plot device that broke up Jay and Nya, as they get back together.

So did the love triangle really amount to anything besides that?

No.

You can wipe out this plotline entirely, and not much changes. The villains don’t take advantage of that specifically, and they forget about it afterwards, with no build up beforehand. 

Yeah you could argue Chen and Clouse took advantage of it, but they were after the ninja because they were spoiled the behind the scenes drama of their little game. They were threats, and an alliance, which their games try to discourage. So they would’ve set Cole and Jay up against each other anyway.

I fully understand why people hate this plotline, as it’s used for unnecessary drama. Unlike Total Drama, which uses titular DRAMA as a part of the plot’s torture, Ninjago has no reason for their drama to be unnecessary. This is not a torturous scenario Ninjago is living in, this is an action show!

I guess I can appreciate that Jay and Nya were able to recover from this and get back together. They even get married. My heart sings.

And at least in Ninjago, this plotline drama doesn’t seem to escalate, and people are able to forget about it.

Total Drama is a completely different story.

So lets talk about that.

Total Drama (Courtney, Gwen, and Duncan Love Triangle)

 I talked about Total Drama quite a bit on my blog already, so I’ll be brief.

Total Drama is about a group of teenagers being scammed onto a game show to try and become celebrities. Torture ensues. 

It’s far more treated like a reality show in cartoon form, I guess that’s the best way I can explain it.

Despite the fact that the love triangle here is HIGHLY loathed, even more so than Ninjago, and that I did headcanon posts of all three characters, I’ve avoided talking about the love triangle before this.

That fandom is THAT violent when it comes to this topic.

You will NEVER get the same POV about it.

So what I’m gonna say is guaranteed to tick off at least half of the people who read this.

PLEASE, just hear me out.

I don’t really ship either.

I haven’t been a hardcore Jaya fan either, but it’s the same mindset I gave to Duncney and Gwuncan. In the latter two’s case, it’s because they’re trapped under such awful circumstances, that being the show’s setting used to stress them out, screw up their heads, and torture them. And also the executives who forced this on the writers.

In the context of Total Drama’s writing staff, they didn’t want to do this either. They were forced to by the executives, who wanted to teach kids that breakups happen and you could end up with someone else.

That sounds like it has good intentions...

Until you find that the actual moral they delivered with the first breakup was that ‘If you break up with someone, the entire world will hate you. And you deserve it.’

I don’t think I need to tell you that’s a bad message.

To be fair, I’ve never been against either ship involved, so I don’t hate either.

But the canon circumstances?

OOF.

Let’s get this started:

So the first season of Total Drama is kind of a different story than with Ninjago.

Unlike Ninjago, which just had Jay and Nya as a couple and Cole was someone I assumed was ace (welcome to the club), all three people involved in the later love triangle had an established love interest and relationship.

Gwen, the third wheel and the Cole in this case, had a relationship with Trent, your typical guitar playing love interest and as generic of a love interest as you can get. But they get in a few shenanigans with Gwen being a stubborn loner, and Heather being Heather and doing one of my most hated story tropes, so they don’t get together until the end of the season. 

And then in season two, Trent gets his character assassinated and becomes possessive over Gwen, OVERLY so, and it causes Gwen to break up with him because as I said in previous posts, Gwen doesn’t know how to deal with relationships. 

And then the entire world treats Trent like a victim, that Gwen was the abusive one, and everyone hates Gwen.

And this is just the START of the Gwen social punching bag.

Then in season one, there was another relationship relevant to this topic: Duncan and Courtney.

They’re presented as your typical bad boy/good girl dynamic.

And they actually had fun chemistry. Ngl.

Duncan flirts with her, and Courtney tries to deny her feelings for him and masks it through lectures, claiming she hates his rude and rebellious behavior. Despite this, they keep having sexual tension, and they have a kiss in Episode 12.

You could say Ninjago has an advantage then, but keep in mind that Ninjago has 13 episodes in its season one, and Total Drama has 26 episodes. So I’d say they’re both impressive.

I would say that on an enjoyment standpoint, Duncan and Courtney, and Jay and Nya are very fun couples with fun chemistry. That’s why people liked them.

Jay and Nya however, barely had any drama going on in their relationship before Season Three.

Duncan and Courtney are a different story.

Like I said before, Courtney tried to deny her feelings for Duncan and masked it through lecturing her own love. It’s not until she finds out about Duncan’s more positive traits that she realizes she wants to be around him. Or rather, she can FIX him.

Yeah. Courtney is a fixer upper.

This is a trope in romance, and not a very good one if you ask me. Usually, I use the fixer upper to claim why a relationship would NOT work.

SHUT UP FROZEN.

And I don’t want to take this all out on Courtney and say she’s the problem. Duncan is a jerk as well. He’s a bully, he cares more about his image than being himself, and he also does stuff we’ll talk about in a minute. But in terms of the couple aspect, Courtney is the one raising the red flags in the beginning.

Now, I do think Courtney cares about Duncan and thinks she’s helping, but that is not the point. You can love your partner, and still abuse them.

Instead of these two working through their differences, Courtney just hands Duncan a list of things she wants to change about him, and is VERY strict about him following that. Prior to this, Duncan has annoyed her by trying to flirt with her, and she responds through lethal hits to the nuts, or physical punches, or mentally guilt tripping him. Prior to even that, she DITCHED him in his hour of her need for a million bucks.

Yeah, Total Drama LOVES romanticizing abusive relationships. That is a PROBLEM.

So Duncan, in his stress of the relationship, decides he doesn’t want anything to do with her anymore, and he votes her off the show, breaking them up.

And then he wins a million dollars, and they get back together.

“Now you’re saying that I’m a gold digger, but check my gleam up, hey go figure.” -Six

And then in Celebrity Manhunt, they publicly humiliate each other yet again, sue each other, and break up. So what was the point of them getting back together?

I heard people claim that in this same special, they have a kiss on the bus while bickering, so that means they’re back together.

If you want to see it that way?

Courtney did.

But let me ask you this: Where in this episode was that confirmed? Where did they agree to get back together?

Exactly.

Duncan never made it clear to Courtney that they weren’t back together in his mind. They had what you called a fling. Duncan does this. He is a horndog.

This is Duncan emotionally using Courtney for his own image. See, I told you Duncan wasn’t innocent in this.

Then there’s Gwen.

Unlike Cole and Nya, Duncan and Gwen actually DID have interactions pre-season three.

In season one, their dynamic started around the slasher episode, as they bonded over their shared enthusiasm for blood and gore in movies. They orchestrate the survival plan for the challenge, and betray each other, but I don’t think either of them took it that personally. They also helped each other/bickered in the castaway episode.

Their friendship properly starts in season two, where they have friendly interactions and help each other out in challenges. Gwen even picks Duncan first to be her teammate. 

It gets to a point where Trent, Gwen’s girlfriend at the time, gets jealous and thinks Gwen is hitting on Duncan. Gwen denies it and claims they’re friends, but no one believes her. In fact, when Gwen is sent to the Aftermath show and broken up with Trent, everyone accuses Gwen of dumping Trent for Duncan. Another reason why the show wants you to hate Gwen and absolutely no one else.

That is frustrating.

In the Celebrity Manhunt special, it’s revealed that Gwen DOES indeed have a crush on Duncan and just doesn’t want it to surface because he’s with Courtney. When she hears they broke up, she becomes interested again.

This is a year after season two, so we don’t know what happened that made Gwen change her mind.

Did Gwen and Duncan bond off screen?

That’s an even bigger possibility in this show than in Ninjago given the circumstances, but they never establish that they did.

Duncan quits Season Three at the start, but the producers track him down anyway. Before he returns, Courtney talks about how she misses him, and wants him back.

GWEN IS IN THESE SCENES BTW.

There’s also this exchange between Alejandro and Courtney in episode two that I noticed upon rewatch that I find interesting:

“Such witty remarks from such fiercely intelligent women. I’m both humbled and intrigued.”

“Nice try. But I’m with Duncan.”

“And what pity it is that you should give yourself to a quitter, who doesn’t deserve you.”

“That’s not-Duncan is-totally-you’re just- will someone hurry this camel up?!”

Obviously, Alejandro is playing her. He is the season’s bad guy after all. He’s taking advantage of the relationship strain. 

But consider how Courtney stutters when trying to defend Duncan? She’s trying to dodge any notion that Duncan would leave her. She thinks she’s doing the right thing, and can’t fathom the idea that she’s done something wrong. She doesn’t WANT to believe they’re broken up.

I’m shocked no one brings up this scene, actually.

During this, Gwen and Courtney, being on the same team, become friends from their shared hatred of Heather. Really, I think they just became friends because they’re the only non-simps, non-insane, non-horrible people on their team.

Friendships come from very unlikely places sometimes.

They didn’t really have any interactions before this. Cole and Jay had two whole seasons being on a team.

And then we get THE SCENE.

Duncan comes back, and immediately, Courtney lectures him for leaving her, then embraces him. He says that every time he ran from the cops, he thought of HER.

He’s staring at GWEN.

GWEN REALIZES THIS.

It brings her in a spiral of question late at night, and she’s clearly not thinking clearly. Are Duncan and Courtney a thing? Are they not? Does Courtney deserve him? Is Courtney a bad influence? Does Duncan like Gwen? Is Duncan interested in her?

Duncan shuts out any questions by coming into the bathroom to kiss her.

Thus, he cheats on Courtney with Gwen.

This can be interpreted in a lot of ways, but I think there’s two we can bring up.

One is the nature of Duncan’s character.

He is a horndog who cares about his image. He wants to be seen as a bad boy and not his true self. He wants is bad boy persona to be his true self. He wants validation from the people around him, so anyone who finds interest in that persona, he will bang. 

He’s not sweet good intended Nya. He’s quite the opposite.

But I don’t think it’s clear what his intention was. Was he trying to escape his situation with someone he trusts? Was he trying to spite Courtney? (I mean, All Stars implies that) Was he trying to start over with a new girl? Is he using Gwen? Does he actually love Gwen?

None of these questions get answered. We are given NO clear idea why Duncan did this. That’s why there’s such a division in perspective.

They could’ve at least had a confessional where Duncan explained his intent, whatever it was, but nope.

The other factor is the influence of the show.

This is the machine from Ninjago.

This is the PIXAL, if PIXAL was a sociopath.

The show fans assumed there was something going on with Duncan and Gwen, and they pressure them into trying to admit that being the truth. EVERYONE, throughout the year, pressure this. Geoff, Heather, fans, Chris, even Courtney herself. 

I talked about this in other posts, so I’ll be brief. The show screws up the morality of SEVERAL characters, to the point where they will do nasty stuff you wouldn't see them do in season one, where they were pure.

It’s very easy to assume that Gwen would only have feelings for Duncan because the show is pulling her strings.

But they don’t establish that either. That’s just my interpretation of it to try and make sense of this writing.

So take all of this with a grain of salt.

Gwen regrets the kiss afterwards, somewhat, well, only because afterwards Courtney goes on and on about how Duncan’s her boyfriend. I think Courtney’s just rubbing this in because she knew Gwen was crushing, and wanted to keep her away from him.

I guess you could say Courtney is Total Drama’s Tsundre.

That makes a lot more sense in a minute.

Gwen and Duncan discuss the matter of Gwen kissing Courtney’s boyfriend in a song. Duncan sings he has no regrets, and Gwen reminds him of Courtney. They both agree that they should stop with the secrets and come clean. They know what will happen, so it’s better to just tell the truth.

Then Duncan gets mauled by a bear, so they have to wait until after the challenge.

But then Alejandro figured it out and outs it to Courtney, ruining it.

Courtney IMMEDIATELY becomes bloodthirsty on Gwen, and next to EVERYONE joins Courtney in berating Gwen. (Except Cody)

This scene, alongside the Jay and Cole scuffle, hurts to watch.

But I will confess, I prefer to watch the Total Drama fallout scene, because I think the voice acting in the scene is better. You can feel Courtney’s heartbreak as she screams at her nonstop, and the sinister craziness awakening in her. And Gwen CRYING?! REGRETTING what she did?!

Come on, there’s at least SOME value here besides Cody getting a dub.

Even if it is little value besides Cody getting a dub.

From here on out, EVERYONE on the plane (Again, except Cody) HATE Gwen’s guts. They will not let her forget what she did. They will never give her a single iota of grey area besides ‘You suck Gwen, we hate you, the entire world hates you, and you deserve to be hated. Go jump off a plane and die so we can have a party about it.’

Gwen and Duncan even try to apologize, but no one takes it.

This is like Cole and Jay, only it’s not just Jay berating Cole, it’s EVERYONE.

I think I would’ve stopped watching Ninjago for years if that was the case, because that would’ve been PAINFUL to watch.

Courtney is the key factor of this hate club, and rallies everyone up to hate on Gwen and Duncan and try to remove them. Sierra, Heather, Tyler, Alejandro, who the last one WANTED to happen as he’s now in control of her. 

And unlike Jay, Courtney actually DOES berate the cheater for what they did. Deserved.

But then again, at least Jay doesn’t sing a song about trying to kill the other point of the triangle.

50/50.

To Courtney, this is all a serious betrayal. Gwen and Duncan were the only people Courtney allowed herself to open up to, and then they betray her. She has a right to be mad, but not a right to her actions driven by the madness.

For Gwen, Duncan is now the only person she can feel safe with. People tend to cling to the kindness in their life that’s the closest to them. This is why Gwen chooses to stay with Duncan and ignore all the hate she’s getting. She needs love in this moment. 

And then Duncan tries to play Alejandro by pretending to still be into Courtney. It’s an act, but still.

We never see on screen if Duncan explained himself and apologized to Gwen.

Ninjago had a whole season and three episodes worth of love triangle drama.

Total Drama only has three episodes.

And then it abruptly ends unconcluded. 

Courtney wanted to get revenge on Gwen by dumping her off the plane and making Duncan jealous of her.

Technically, she WON.

She gets Gwen out, and she, not intentionally, uses Scott to make Duncan jealous, which causes Gwen to leave him.

Sorry, getting ahead of myself.

Now lets address All Stars.

You could argue this focuses on the love triangle as well, and... kinda? But, All Stars seems to bail on EVERY plotline World Tour had. I have NO IDEA why this is, as unlike Rebooted, World Tour is a FAN FAVORITE SEASON. But they bailed on everything.

And it’s clear that the writers had no objective with giving the love triangle an ending. 

The season is more so focused on Courtney finding a new boyfriend in Scott, that she plans to use, Duncan being thrusted into a heroes position and wanting to be a bad guy again, and Gwen, once again, being hated by everybody around her.

Duncan and Gwen have NO romantic scenes together, and Gwen constantly shuts him out in favor of trying to make things right with Courtney. The girl she BETRAYED.

She also claims that Duncan was not Courtney’s boyfriend at the time, thus she didn’t do anything wrong...

I’m ASSUMING Duncan told Gwen that story to get her on his side. THAT would make sense of this phrase. BUT the writers never establish that.

And again, Duncan only gets jealous because Gwen’s ignoring him when he’s trying to help, and Courtney’s finding a new slave to give her the win. My assumption is that he’s trying to strike up a conversation with Gwen, considering Gwen wanted to make things right with Courtney, but again, no establishment that this is Duncan’s motive.

So Gwen gets fed up with that, and dumps Duncan, shutting him out of her life.

This scene is SO QUICK, that it feels like an afterthought. There’s no blowout, there’s no prompting, there’s no remorse for the action later besides one Duncan confessional, it’s just ‘okay, they’re broken up now, Gwuncan haters can chill the F out.’

Is that the motive? What about the people who liked Gwuncan as a concept and wanted to see more of them? 

Here’s a writing tip: If your fans don’t like an aspect of your story, DON’T bail out of it. WORK on it. MAKE IT BETTER.

In my series that I’m doing, Destiny’s Burden, a lot of my beta readers didn’t like one of my characters at first. They considered her insufferable, annoying, selfish, and stereotypical. But instead of writing that character out of the plot, I took the time to give that character development, and have them develop less of a spoiled personality. Now that character is a fan favorite among my beta readers.

THIS IS WHERE YOU DO THAT, BUT WITH THE LOVE TRIANGLE.

THIS IS WHERE YOU WRITE IT BETTER.

And then there’s the last part of this. Gwen and Courtney making up.

Unlike Tournament of Elements, which threw in the forgiveness at the last minute, Gwen actually puts in the effort beforehand to be friends with Courtney again. She tries REALLY hard actually.

Gosh, I CANNOT believe I’m saying ALL STARS did something better than THE TOURNMENT OF ELEMENTS. WHAT AM I ON?!

And, looking at the Cole and Jay tournament fight, and the Gwen and Courtney boxing match... this is the same scene.

This is literally the same scene, minus the sacrifice Ninjago had.

They duke it out, they beat each other, and they apologize in the middle, explaining that they never missed the girl/guy, they just missed each other, and they make up and become friends again.

I prefer the Ninjago scene though, because it’s way more visually pleasing, and the dialogue seems more sincere to me. Courtney and Gwen’s ‘apology’ is so corny I can’t-

So what is the ending of Total Drama’s love triangle? Courtney and Gwen become best friends in la la land, they trash over Duncan, and cheer when he’s thrown in jail.

And then Courtney betrays Gwen, making all the love and support Gwen got back meaningless. But hey, that’s not relevant to this topic.

Most people in the fandom claim that this was character assassination on all three characters. Just like I said with Ninjago. 

Here’s the thing: Total Drama has more episodes around this time. Ninjago didn’t. I know NOW it’s not a contest on which show had more episodes, but looking at it, Ninjago, in four seasons, had 44 episodes, and Total Drama, in four seasons, had 91.

This is a double edge sword, as on one hand Total Drama has more to work with. On the other, Total Drama has more to work with.

After all, like I said, we are given no clear motive for why Duncan even cheated, or didn’t tell Courtney that they weren’t together anymore. Gwen was cheated on technically in season one, and here she is doing that same emotional betrayal in season three to Courtney. And again, the whole ‘he wasn’t your boyfriend’.

There’s multiple instances where literally ONE MORE SCENE of ANY part of this plotline could’ve helped it make more sense. But no. The writers just really did not want to write this. Again, they were forced to. It shows.

But I will say this, unlike with Ninjago’s love triangle, the Total Drama love triangle is SEVERELY plot relevant. You CAN’T write it out.

Everyone says they should’ve just written it out... how? 

Every fanfic I’ve seen that’s written the love triangle out actively made the story less interesting, and gave the three characters involved nothing to do. 

The villains, again, take advantage of the situation to give themselves plot armor. This is how Alejandro uses Courtney. She would’ve never helped him otherwise. This is what makes Heather jealous, prompting the last quarter of World Tour. This is what season two’s Gwen bashing has built up to. This is what makes Gwen the biggest social punching bag of the entire show. This is what spawns Gwen to become a villainous vulture. This is the start of Duncan’s downfall, and his mental distress getting him behind bars later.

You NEED the love triangle to be a thing for the story to make any sense.

I’m sorry, but that’s what I see.

Which is Worse?

Now to answer the money question.

Which plotline is worse?

This is REALLY subjective. So take it with a grain of salt.

Both of these plotlines have huge issues. They are both dampers to their season three. 

Ninjago had a worse motive, a more pathetic fight, dragged on, and had no plot relevance whatsoever.

Total Drama had a more unlikeable cast participating, poor establishment of motive, ended way too quickly, and suffered from no ending.

I think we can both agree on the quality on both of these plotlines.

It really depends on which plotline I would prefer to watch a compilation of over and over again.

And in that sense...

I think I’d pick Total Drama as the better one.

This is for a few reasons: 

One is that Total Drama is a far more morally grey show, so its characters are far more morally grey than with Ninjago. It’s more believable that the TD characters would do stuff so spiteful towards each other, than the Ninjago characters. This makes it so that you can see everyone’s point of view, and the plotline becomes welcome for multiple interpretations. 

Two is that there was SOME build up to the cheating. You could say that it was bad build up, but at least it WAS build up. What build up was there in Ninjago? Oh yeah, none.

Three is that Total Drama’s plotline is actually plot relevant. If I have to watch the love triangle to watch World Tour, I’ll watch it. I won’t skip it. If I skip it, I know I’ll miss vital information for the rest of the story.

That said, though I say Ninjago is the worse plotline, it does have an advantage of having a better makeup scene, and an actual ending. And the characters were able to recover because of that.

Because, with all six of these characters, I DO like them all. I want the best for them (even if Duncan arguably doesn’t deserve it)

But let me know your thoughts. Would you agree? Disagree? Is there something I missed? Let me know.

[sytokun]

Nitpick N(Oct)ovember #7: Mustard sauce

For @odsalt's RWDE Nitpick November event.

So, this was Blake's weapon "upgrade" as of Volume 7.

Now, I know it's based on kintsugi, where broken pieces of something is reconnected with gold, which is cool symbolism for Blake reassembling her life together after being free from Adam. The idea works, but the execution...

Doesn't mean it still doesn't look... bad, and boring. There's so many ways to utilise kintsugi into this and make it look cool, like having the fracture run all along the blade, or broken in multiple places. This half-measure just makes me think they broke Blake's weapon, but didn't think about using kintsugi until one of their concept artists suggested it after Volume 6 ended.

But my real nitpick lies with this Monty tweet from way back when, before Volume 3.

Now there's some people who say each RWBY "Season" is made up of 3 Volumes, so Monty might be talking about Volume 7-9, but I highly doubt it. Plus Blake's weapon is already "upgraded" now so the point is moot regardless.

But yeah. We were promised a super cool upgrade to Blake's weapon as early as Volume 3. I have little doubt that this was supposed to happen by Adam breaking her weapon in their fight. But instead, we get this mustard sauce shit and now Blake basically just uses Gambol Shroud as a glorified grappling hook.

It's unfortunate, but I'm just sayin', we were totally robbed y'all.

And knowing what we know now about Rooster Teeth and how they deliberately fuck around with their shows and throw out their original creators' ideas for one reason or another, I wouldn't be surprised if Monty had some kind of model, sketch or notes for Blake's weapon lying around somewhere, but our veritable stewards of RWBY either didn't bother to look or turned their noses up at it altogether unless it suited them.

This may seem like a small thing, but it says enough about these people. You'd think when Berserk's author Kentaro Miura died, everyone involved with his manga wouldn't have put it upon themselves to search for every clue that Miura left behind about Berserk, to best and most faithfully continue it?

But all I've seen is RT fucking over literally anyone who cares too much about what they make, because that means all that care will start cutting into their production pipeline and their higher-ups' paychecks. Any chances they have to give the girls upgraded weapons are well and truly wasted by this point; they have never cared about making a faithful RWBY or even at least a better one, and never will unless it helps them gain easy clout with their all-too-eager fanbase.

[sssn-neptune-vasilias]

Hey, you don't need to reply to this, but I just wanted to see how you were doing, given the recent news.

Long post I guess because I started typing and couldn't shut the fuck up I guess.

TL;DR Honestly, I'm sad, and I'm tired, and I'm frustrated.

I've been a fan of RoosterTeeth since my friend Mark put me on to RvB in like... 2005? I've been a fan of AH since Michael's Impossible Game RageQuit in... 2011??? RT First was the first subscription service I've ever paid for- before my PS+, before fucking anything- the second I got my credit card in 2013. I've been a RWBY fan from when the Red Trailer first aired at the end of RvB season 10 in 2012. I've been a RT/AH fan for most of my fucking life

I've referred to Kdin as "fugz" because I just thought that was her screenname at the time. Finding out what that name meant to her at the time genuinely makes me want to vomit.

I'm still processing. Shit is still coming out. The fan is still being assaulted, let alone hit.

I remember getting into RT almost two decades ago because they were just a small indie company making silly videogame videos and they genuinely felt like a family. And I know that's fucking silly to think but I was in middle school and impressionable and that was genuinely the image that they put to the public, so why wouldn't I want to believe it? I remember watching RT expand and grow and the RvB crew get even bigger and not just being voices making Halo characters move anymore but faces playing games together. I remember Gavin, Michael and Ray get involved. I donated for LazerTeam. I've watched hundreds of streams. I've watched probably thousands of hours of RT/AH content in my life.

I thought the stuff Micah spoke about would be the worsts things got, but now we're getting everything Kdin's talking about and it's so fucking upsetting and disheartening. And I'm glad she still thinks the CRWBY are good people but like... at this point does it even matter?

I've known RT/AH have been circling the drain for a while now. It's been really fucking obvious to me at least, and I'm p sure I've made a bunch of comments about it over the years. Everything I love about RT has been in a downward spiral. Michael hasn't done RageQuit in years. Gavin and Michael don't do PlayPals anymore. RvB had two abysmal seasons back to back, gen:LOCK season 2 was such an obvious attempt to put a bad taste in everyone's mouth so we'd stop talking about the show so they could cancel it without anyone missing it. RWBY shot the goodwill it'd gathered for having a solid 2 seasons in 6 and 7 (after having an absolutely garbage seasons 4 and 5) in the back of the head with Penny and Ironwood's entire characterization. I'm not at all excited about this stupid JL/RWBY crossover, and I don't think it's gonna make enough money or new RWBY fans to even break even, let alone make much of a profit. WB just dissolved fucking Cartoon Network Studios there's no fucking shot RT survive this.

As far as RWBY goes... I don't know. And at this point, I'm finding it hard to care. RWBY's been one of my favorite shows for a really long time but I kinda just wanna tear away from it so I don't have to deal with the pain of it eventually getting cancelled. I think over 90% of my current friend groups I've made because of RT/AH content. Some of my best and oldest friends I've met because or RWBY or RvB or what have you. I'm glad after all this time I finally got to go to an RTX and meet my friends and cosplay and enjoy myself. But right now... kinda wishing I wasn't an RT fan. Kinda wanting to cancel my First subscription. Kinda wanting to just be done with RWBY and everything else.

Idk, maybe I'll rebrand as a BNHA blog I guess