#STRQ contrast

[roninreverie]

Chapter 10:

Sweet memories of the past distract the team on their first shadow mission to Forever Fall. Unfortunately, these also come attached to a few bitter nightmares.

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Bonus Drafts:

[citadelofmythoughts]

Bumblebee, in addition to being a major LGBT couple, is also thematically relevant to RWBY primarily because they are one of the many romantic pairings that directly parallel the main story between Ozpin and Salem's failed relationship.

A big reason why Ozpin and Salem's relationship fell apart was because of their failure to communicate with each other. Ozpin was too dogmatically stuck in the idea that he needed to redeem humanity to the gods, and that they needed to grovel before them for forgiveness. He ended up leading Salem around without telling her about this, despite the fact that Salem absolutely DESPISES the gods for harming her and her husband for extremely petty reasons, and she is not unjustified to despise them. And once that lack of trust and communication was revealed, their inability to properly deal with it led to the relationship collapsing, and all of the misery that followed. This doesn't absolve Salem of her own terrible mistakes and her acts of villainy since then, but it's plainly evident just how damaging the secrecy and half-truths ultimately turned out to be.

It's also relevant when you draw additional parallels to other pairings in the story, like Renora, Arkos, Black Sun, and Adam/Blake.

Arkos fell apart before it could truly begin because Jaune didn't understand Pyrrha's emotional turmoil, and held her on a pedestal subconsciously when she needed understanding the most. As such, his story ended up closely paralleling Salem and Ozpin's tragedy the first time they were separated; a powerful but martyr-complexed warrior saving a helpless person, only for tragedy to tear them apart, and the helpless person making rash grief-stricken decisions in the aftermath that caused immense pain for themselves and others.

Renora was an outwardly good relationship, but it steadily became clear how codependent they really were, how much Ren and Nora had not really dealt with their personal issues and in the former's case, was just outright repressing his darker feelings until his trauma was pressed. Once they hit an ideological impasse, with Ren favoring security and safety due to his own insecurities and his own strongly implied feelings about what happened to his family and village, vs Nora favoring aiding the helpless and marginalized in the face of tyranny due to her abandonment, it only further highlighted how they weren't communicating enough. They had gotten too comfortable with not really challenging each other's beliefs and figuring out their identities outside of just being Renora, something that they've only begun to do after properly talking things over.

Blake and Sun suffered from communication problems, as it was evident that the latter didn't really understand the former and just didn't get her very well with her outside of a shallow crush, but it was more driven by well-meaning ignorance rather than any genuine malice. And once the air was cleared, Sun also ended up showing a relationship that might not have worked out, but at the least was still amicable because they communicated on what the problem was.

Blake and Adam's relationship by contrast was purely toxic, with the latter being all take and no give. Everyone else's desires were subservient to his own, and for all of his outward acts of appearing benevolent, became cruel and selfish the minute anyone challenged him. A purely lopsided relationship that was never going to end well because he had no interest in communication, only subjugation and the expectation of absolute obedience to him. Which also frankly puts him in direct parallel to the God of Light and Darkness' relationship; the latter being stuck in unfair and arbitrary rules made by the former to the point of angrily lashing out when Dark finally had enough (and unfortunately also causing immense harm from the fallout), and said GoL revealing his (albeit more subtle) cruelty when someone challenged him, ala Salem.

Heck, even Team STRQ have this with Tai, Summer, and Raven. The latter two disappearing without any communication as to why (or perhaps in the latter's case, her possibly trying to in regards to her suspicions of Ozpin but being dismissed or ignored) absolutely broke Tai, and the fallout of that hurt Yang and Ruby's ability to value themselves and communicate their own pain, leading to this tension in their familial ties.

Bumblebee in many ways directly parallels each of the above, but the key difference was that when push came to shove, Yang and Blake were willing to try to communicate, to TRY to fix what had happened and actually come to a mutual understanding. And in doing so, they were able to find love with each other and truly begin to heal the wounds that those mistakes made.

I don't have a great deal to add here. Excellent analysis and further proof that Blake & Yang have the healthiest romantic relationship in the show.

[strqyr]

while i was staring at the strq photo (as one does), thinking what a shame it is these young models of strq never got any use outside of this photo (okay they're not that different and summer is probably just ruby-copy beneath the cloak but raven's face is def different compared to V2. so.) it sorta hit me out of nowhere how... easily summer fades into the background, in a way?

probably a mix of her being separated from the rest by the tree and being covered by her white cloak against a fairly light background, but if i don't specifically focus on her, it's like she's not even there; tai, raven, and qrow with their more stark contrast with the background and more noticeable colors draw the attention, and just like that... poof. summer might as well be gone.

like... if someone cut summer out of this photo, i wouldn't feel like something was obviously missing? if that makes more sense?

[invested-in-your-future]

Are Yang's feelings about Summer (in your rewrite) complicated? Is she angry at her for leaving and not coming back?

Yang projects a lot of the issues with what happened to Summer onto Ruby which she sees as walking her mother's path.

She doesn't hold any grudges about what happened to Summer, though - Yang just accepts that Summer's death is part of the reality they live in. It's sad and she did grieve but it's part of life and she can't do anything about it.

She also has mentally pigeonholed Summer into the ""Good Mom" stereotype as a contrast to Raven whom she had never met but constructed this idea of an absentee mother around.

After all Ruby's memories of Summer would be more fragmented than Yang's - while Ruby perceived Summer as a hero who would come home from grand adventures and read her fairytales, Yang saw, in her own words, a perfect mom, holding the family together.

In fact I'd say Yang adapted a few mannerisms from how Summer would act at home for herself. Ironically since Summer had to keep a lot to herself as to not bring her work home, that meant that for Yang Summer unwittingly became the role model of how to hide her inner turmoil behind a smile of positivity.

The Summer that Raven, STRQ and Ozpin's circle knew, the Summer that Ruby has built up in her head and the Summer Yang remembers - all are very different impressions, different tales of the real person.

If on macro level the world is about figuring out the sliver of truth among the exaggerated and often conflicting myths, then on the micro level the same applies to the leads and the people that inspire them.

[anthurak]

"Likely cared about her the most out of her teammates. Given how she’s clearly taken Summer’s loss far harder than Qrow or Tai." Its literally been a major plot point since V2 then Summer's disappearance caused Tai to completely shut down for actual years. Straight from Yang. How can you possibly ignore that to make a claim that Raven cared more? I know your a Rosebird truther to the extreme, but come on your ignoring the words of characters who actually were there

So this is a great example of what I’ve been saying about how much of the fandom’s idea of the background of Team STRQ is based on some major assumptions. And many of them drawn from sources that are not entirely reliable.

To the point, IS Tai ‘shutting down’ after Summer’s disappearance really a major recurring plot point? It’s only been brought up twice in any kind of significant way, and more notably is something we’ve only ever heard about and never actually SEEN. Now that’s not to say that Yang has been lying or somehow wrong about Taiyang’s grief, rather that the only place we have actually seen that grief is through the effect it had on Yang and Ruby. Whereas we have thus far seen basically nothing of that grief from Tai himself. Seeing as how we have never seen him so much as speak of Summer, outside that one episode of Fairy Tales of Remnant that only had an inference of his grief. Simply put, the narrative of RWBY has treated Taiyang’s apparent grief-stricken breakdown as a key aspect of Yang’s backstory and character development, rather than part of Tai’s own character.

And more to your point: How can I claim that Raven cared more about Summer and took her disappearance harder that Tai?

Simple. Just note the past tense in ‘Tai completely shut down for years.’

Regardless of how hard Tai apparently took Summer’s disappearance in the past, when we look at him in the present, it’s clear that he has been able to heal and move past that grief and overall looks to be in a pretty good place now.

Contrast that with Raven who is clearly still wracked with grief and trauma over whatever happened during that mission and whatever happened to Summer.

Reading between the lines, the show has made it pretty clear which among Team STRQ took Summer’s disappearance the hardest: On the one hand we have Qrow and Tai, who after all these years, seem to have coped with their grief fairly well, all things considered. And on the other hand we have Raven, who is clearly still a complete fucking wreck.

What I think much of the fandom is missing is that there is a slowly growing disconnect between what we heard about Team STRQ’s backstory and what we are actually SEEING play out.

Back in Volume 2, we took everything Yang told Blake at face value and assumed that she actually knew everything she was talking about and was right about everything.

When in reality it’s becoming more and more clear that there is a LOT about her parents’ team that Yang, and by extension Ruby, have had NO IDEA about.

With how consistently RWBY has utilized the ‘unreliable narrator’ trope, especially when it comes to our heroines’ parents and mentors, when it comes to formulating theories, more and more I’ve taken to putting MUCH more stock in what we SEE of our characters over what we might simply ‘hear’ about them. Especially when it comes to characters as shrouded in mystery as Team STRQ, and particularly after what we saw in the Volume 9 finale which flat out TOLD Ruby ‘there’s a BUNCH about your family that you have been completely wrong about’.

It’s not that I think Summer didn’t care about Tai and Qrow, or that she and Tai weren’t very close. Ruby’s vision from the Tree proved that pretty conclusively. Nor do I think Tai isn’t or hasn’t been a loving, caring father to both Yang and Ruby. Again, the story has shown that quite definitively.

Rather, I think there is a LOT more going on with Ruby’s and Yang’s parents than we realize. And that a LOT of what we have assumed base on what characters told us in the show’s early volumes is going to turn out to be either VERY incomplete or even outright wrong.

Like when the story has told and shown us basically nothing of Summer’s relationship with Tai, while at the same time leaving more and more narrative breadcrumbs about Summer’s relationship with Raven, or in the case of the V9 finale, clubbing us upside the head with a wholeass baguette, it gives more and more of an impression that THIS is the relationship of most narrative significance and consequence among the team. And that some things both we and Yang and Ruby assumed were not actually the case. Say for example, Tai not actually being Ruby's biological father...

[almea]

Back on my bs about things that happens in my v10 dreams but probably won’t… Raven and Qrow having another conversation in an inn/tavern mirroring the one they had in v4 and Yang inevitably is brought up as a topic bc Raven portals to Yang as soon as she figures out she’s able to again and Yang isn’t actually dead except now she’s kinda stuck there bc everyone she can portal to is in Vacuo… Blake and Yang walk into the same inn along with Kali none of them noticing Raven or Qrow. Raven sees Kali being well… motherly towards Yang bc of course she would and Raven handles it Bad. Like emotionally bad not confrontationally bad. Bonus points if Yang and Ruby already went off on her about the Summer thing

Your volume 10 dreams are my volume 10 dreams... I'm so excited for Raven to come back because the family drama she's going to bring is my favourite.

In my heart, Raven is the first one to know they're back in Remnant because her portal to Yang is gone, but not dead-gone while they're in the Ever After so she can just feel it when they're back.

I'm obsessed with the thought of Kali and Raven in the same room though. I don't know if CRWBY's going to give it to me, but god I love the contrast of Blake's sweet, kind mother who Blake adores and hugs at every given opportunity and Raven and her emotional constipation and the way she cares, she really does care, but she's incapable of expressing it in a way that has anyone believing she cares about them, if she even wants them to believe that.

Also, after all the Summer shit comes out, kind of want someone to tell Raven "You could have come back. You could have just talked to us instead of dealing with it by yourself." Like, I think the most tragic thing about Raven is how there are people who are/were so ready to love her, and it seems like she was never able to accept that love for some reason. I don't really think the RWBY/STRQ parallels are completely one to one, but this specific part of Raven has already reminded me so much of volume 4 Blake. So like. My kingdom for my longstanding dream of Blake talking to Raven to come true.

[artbyfuji]

What jobs/professions do you think the rosebird/str family would have in a modern au?

okayyyyy get ready for my ramblings because i have a ton of AUs in a “modern” setting and i have explored so many ideas its crazy. long story short the yang & ruby and their silly little strq family torture chamber is real...

Summer: media consultant or prop stylist for a magazine (i like the second one a lot lmao). Something hands on that also maintains a leadership role. Please just imagine her in a team meeting/video-call with yang or ruby sitting in her lap. You just know the str-family house goes crazy with holiday decorating because of course summer’s work life bleeds into their home life.

* Big contrast to the other stuff but i have also considered things related to disaster response for her, that's more for AUs where i want everyone to struggle with her death & i’m assuming you asked me this question to begin with because you know i love pretending nothing bad has happened EVER. 

Tai: teacher is the easy choice but it’s very fitting for him. something between 3rd-5th grade is what i like to land on. There’s also stuff like carpenter and contractor that i really really like, or even mechanic & the added bonus of these careers is that you can tack on an instructor role to them. Carpenter tai that gives woodshop classes part-time at a highschool, or mechanic tai that has a weekend class teaching auto maintenance. I’m sure he taught yang & ruby everything he knows.

Raven: this one is interesting because i personally think you can make her the one that stays at home because of trouble holding down a job. And you can explore how that juggle with employment & unemployment affects her which is fun if you like dissecting ravens character. BUTTTT my favorite career for her is owning a music shop with qrow :^) you can also make her a mechanic along with tai & they own an auto body shop together, i think it’s funny to imagine her keeping a project car in the driveway. Probably got yang her bike and said “if you can get the engine running again it’s all yours.”

Other jobs i have considered: all of them being teachers (summer & tai for younger levels & raven for older levels), the whole str-family can own a bakery because i’m sure someone will wonder why i didn’t mention that with summer, tai & summer with a flower shop, maybeeee summer & raven are the ones that own a music shop together (teehee). can you guys even imagine mechanic summer- OKAY i'm ending this post before i hurt myself

[onewomancitadel]

Given the theme of controlling magical powers and the control of magical lineage (the whole thing with Ozpin priming a Maiden successor, Ironwood imitating this) effectively subverting 'the point' of the powers (organic gifts, self-determining, non-gameified) both in-universe and narratively, I think it is an organic conclusion to assume that this was true of the silver eyes. Effectively 'breeding' more warriors (which... gets borderline eugenicist quickly, but that's not really the thing R/WBY would be interested in; it's more the gameification of the power against its actual intended purpose) in the same way that Salem took to simply culling them and later turning them into her pet alchemical subjects.

Actually, that Salem took that approach at all is quite telling; it's the sort of thing you sit there asking, 'Hey, why didn't the bad guy just do x?' when you're not reading the narrative really correctly, but it is intentionally doing something thematically. If Ozpin and Salem have both got it wrong in the same way, then clearly someone else needs a better answer, and it's not simply going to be 'fixed' by doing it his way.

Which is why I think Summer had Ruby to pass on the silver eyes. Summer is the 'failed' heroine (who is a source of inspiration and then disillusionment for Ruby, so that she might grow beyond it) and team STRQ were - well, Raven literally said as much - the team R/WBY of their generation. So I think it is absolutely very likely that in the way that team STRQ failed - includes a failure to ever fix this relationship to magical powers in the story. Of course, it's not like Summer didn't end up loving Ruby (or Yang by extension); the idea here is that she couldn't resist that, and that's part of the conflict. How could Summer stay with her baby, whom she's condemned to being a silver-eyed warrior, when there's Salem to fight? And that was the very reason she had one at all? That is like, actually meaty conflict. Summer having a child borne of ostensibly practical purpose in contrast to Raven's borne of love, where both of them wrestled with it and made different decisions, is actually really interesting. Even more interesting that I was right Raven knew of Summer's disappearance. They both each had to contend with the reality of motherhood in the face of Salem.

As I have gestured to this interpretation in the past, this explains the slightly weird dynamic of team STRQ - and obviously with Volume 9, this explains the implication of subterfuge with Summer's relationship to Tai. Because I do think there is more to Summer on this front, and it wasn't a storybook romance. I'm not trying to say it 'wasn't' real, but we've already been shown it has more tooth to it than at first glance. I also personally think it's fucking weird Tai had a kid with both Raven and Summer, and this feels like the only explanation (rebound and SEW progeny and subterfuge) which tonally fixes it. If it's 'shitty romance with Raven, then pure amazing tragic romance with Summer' it's just... not very interesting to me, both in giving complexity to Raven ('complicated') and to Summer (more than a Madonna). That the emotional dynamics of team STRQ are a total mess is also probably to do with their general protagonist failure shenanigans (Tai and Qrow visibly don't seem to get along much anymore; Qrow and Raven have ostensibly denounced each other; Raven and Summer had a peculiar rapport; etc.) and at least team R/WBY is keeping it relatively straightforward in that department.

But also that Summer's love for Ruby is partly what drives Ruby's power altogether is part of the ironic answer here. It was never purely about having kids to pass on the powers; it is about something deeper and more emotional than that because the power is symbolic. This higher awareness, I want to say, that the characters have of these powers, and the narrative consequences of that, are explicitly being unpacked and redeemed. This is basically the answer to people who write bad theories on Reddit which ignore narrative logic lol.

If Summer really is a Grimm-human abomination still, then the cure - Ruby's silver eyes - will be Ruby recognising and loving her mother, not the mere lineage of the silver eyes. She can't just use them like laserbeams to kill evil monsters. So, in a way, there is an ironic balm to Summer's intentions to pass on the powers. Because her daughter loves her (and forgives her).

I think that this is equally true of the Maiden powers - in that it is never strictly about 'who's the next Maiden?' game that people want to play, that characters like Ozpin and Ironwood literally play and handpick the successor. So we've seen this before, and we'll continue to see it. It's quite telling that Ruby and Cinder both have the potential to redeem (or have begun to redeem) these ideas.

[aettangr]

@sleeplesswork asked: “You spend all your time alone.” - Summer to Qrow

One of the things that Qrow was still getting used to at Beacon was just how loud it could be.  Back at home, while the clan could make their fair share of noise, there wasn't any sort of nearby city to have to deal with.  And sometimes, he missed the silence of the forest, of being able to look up at the sky and see seemingly endless amounts of stars.

It was at those times that he tended to retreat into himself, doing his best to avoid the rest of his team, including his sister. Especially his sister; he and Raven could read each other with little more than a glance, sometimes, and he didn't particularly feel like having his feelings dissected by his twin right now.

He thought he'd managed to find a good spot to spend some time on his own, enjoying what little quiet he could, but their team leader, Summer, had found him.  

To be perfectly honest, Qrow wasn't quite sure what to think about Summer yet.  She always seemed to be bubbly and happy, a lot like their other team member, Tai.  Both of which were in sharp contrast to the somewhat feral Branwen twins.

"You spend all your time alone," she said, and Qrow raised an eyebrow at that statement.

"I'm pretty sure I'm with the rest of the team 90 percent of the time," he retorted, finally looking over at STRQ's team leader.  "What, you comin' to get me for some trust-building exercises or somethin'?"

Considering half of the team consisted of him and Raven, that wouldn't be the WORST idea, but he didn't have any idea what that would entail.  

Truth be told...., Qrow was lonely, and had been (except for Raven) for about as long as he could remember.  He WANTED to have friends, WANTED to be with people, but a very large part of him was afraid to get close to anyone.  Being around him was bad luck, after all.  He was still figuring out how to be around people that weren't the clan.

But he hadn't been sent here to make friends.  Yes, he would play nice (ish, at least) for his teammates, so they could work together to be the best team, but ultimately, he and Raven were here to learn, so they could go back to the clan and be able to defend it from Huntsmen.  That was it.  And he had to keep that in mind or he just might try to actually just be a student...., which was potentially dangerous.

[nappybones5]

So I got a comment on one of my fics (yay!), and in my response I got a little rambly about my interpretations of Raven and Summer; it’s occurring to me this stuff could be interesting to people invested in ‘em, so I’ve cut up my response and here goes!

…I wanted to depict Raven in her halcyon days <in What’s Mine is Mine>, happily eating out of Tai’s hand (to quote my last fic, absolutely shameless advertising<Love is in a Kindred Link. Yep>). And then of course, compare and contrast to Raven post-flight absolutely seething in her decisions, head and heart half here half there.

…Summer’s not much of a character yet, so it’s a real struggle for me personally to write her, especially when I expended so much of my energy on Tai already. I know that fanon tends to characterise Summer Rose as Ruby lite, spring in her step and such and so, but I’m not personally a fan of that. Instead, I picture Summer Rose as more of a woman on a mission, tunnel vision against Salem, the creature that made a sole survivor out of her. Dynamic with the rest of STRQ? Loves Tai but respects his relationship, despises Raven and has no time for her nonsense (which ironically pisses off Raven more, cue mummy issues), loves Qrow as a brother. Deceptively kind and polite about almost everything (actually apathetic) until it relates to Salem, and then she’s genuinely unsettling in what she’ll do and how much she’ll give up just for a shot at Her. By the flashback in volume 9 she’s mellowed out enough to have regrets about where she’s taken her life, but ultimately not enough to give up the ghost. And then of course, she is the ghost 👻

[ask-strq-lgoo]

The maidens. Four young women that are hosts to magical powers derived from Ozma and whose powers are connected to and named after the four seasons. Summer, fall, spring, and winter. Their powers are passed down through a couple reasons. One of them being through the person who was in their thoughts last. That’s how a miss Summer Rose gained the powers of the summer maiden.

The previous summer maiden had been a middle aged woman by the name of Fleur. Fleur Rose, her aunt. Fleur’s semblance had been Siren Song, which would distract someone that she targeted when they heard her sing. Long enough for them to be brought in by hunters, huntresses, or the police. She had raised Summer after her parents had passed, since she’d been close with her brother Onyx. When it was Fleur’s time, Sunmer was right there at her side. Which is also when Fleur told her about the maidens and to search for a man by the name of Oakley. He would help her with the powers. That and someone to help her with the power of silver eyes, that of which Summer has inherited from her mother Auburn. Afterwards she found a new power coursing through her. This must be what her aunt had been talking about. Another thing she spoke of before passing was that a maiden’s power could only be passed to whichever female was in her mind last. If it were a male, the power would pass to some random female.

Donning her white cape, Summer pulled the hood over her head and marched to the point of pick up for Beacon Academy. There the blimp would take any Beacon acceptees to the school and train then to be huntsmen and huntresses. On her hip is Panda, a bo staff she designed herself. She’s on a mission to find Ozpin and have him help her with her maiden powers. When she approached, she noticed a male with black hair spiked back. Is he here to train to be a huntsman like she was to be a huntress? He certainly seems young enough to be able to. His hands were in the front pockets of his pants and he slouched a bit. She was about to get closer to him when a female with the same black hair as him, if a bit darker, approached him. From this angle she could see the other female has red eyes. He looked at her and Summer noticed he also has red eyes. Are they siblings? She’d have to ask later.

The blimp touched down, letting any and all future Beacon students on. The duo climbed on and Summer scampered after just so she could make it aboard on time. Once everyone was on, it took off into the air and on its way to the academy. Silver eyes look around the blimp, taking it all in. She’s not very good in making friends, as evident by how she hadn’t approached the duo she spotted earlier. Summer was hoping to be their friends and get to know them. They seemed interesting. And yes, they did watch the introductory video that was played. Someone approaches from in front. She stopped to look at them. Tan skin, deep blue eyes, short light blue hair with a braid over it, white t-shirt with poofy sleeves, short blue skirt, blue sneakers, and black bracelets with gray studs on them. This person appeared to be female. Who are they? What’s their weapon? Where is their weapon?

“Hi there,” the other greeted. “What’s your name?” “Summer Rose,” Summer said and removed her hood to reveal the rest of her head. “What about you?” “Ocean Sapphire.” A smile crossed Summer’s face. Is she friend? “Nice to meet you, Ocean.” “You, too, Summer.” “Quick question, do you know who those two are?” Summer indicated the black haired duo from before. Ocean looked at them and tilted her head. “Can’t day that I do. Do you?” “That’s why I asked.” There’s a moment of silence. “Oh.” For the rest of the ride to Beacon, Summer and Ocean stayed with each other and talked. Blue and silver eyes look out the window as they watch Beacon getting closer. “This is it,” Summer said. “There’s no turning back now.” There was a nod from Ocean. “We’re becoming huntresses.” They walked into the main room when the blimp landed and others joined them.

“Welcome, students,” a distinct male voice called out to the group. Multiple sets of eyes look to the front to see a tan male standing there wearing a chestnut and dark green outfit. His hair is brown and his eyes bright green. “I am Professor Oakley, the headmaster of Beacon Academy.” That’s him. That’s the guy Aunt Fleur told Summer to look for. When the time was right, she was going to talk to Oakley and get him to help her. Whether he wanted to or not. Someone had to help her with her maiden powers. After explaining some things, he brought a silver haired and brown eyed child. Huh? A child? They seemed to be eleven years old. Why is a child here? Oh... his name is Ozpin. Wait... he’s being trained this young to be headmaster because he wanted to run Beacon? Why would someone do that?

The next day the first years met on the cliff overlooking Emerald Forest. Standing in front of them is Oakley, Ozpin, and one of the teachers. They’d let Ozpin come up with this and explain it. The first years were to retrieve a relic from the ruins and bring it back with the first person they laid eyes on. This person would be their partner for the next four years. Along with two others, they would be a team for the duration of their stay at Beacon. Ok, seemed simple enough, Summer thought. And they were going to work on their landing strategy. Ooo, this is going to be fun. Some students were confused by this until they were launched one by one from the cliff side. Summer cheered as she was launched, smiling brightly as she flew through the air. When she noticed the was getting close to a tree, she pulled Panda from her hip and chucked it at the tree. Hands gripped the bo staff and she shimmied closer to the tree so she could climb onto the nearby branch. She pulled Oanda from the tree when she was on it. Ok, now time to find a partner and the ruins. Hopefully she could get Ocean on her team. Or one of the two red eyed people she saw when waiting for the blimp the day before. Jumping from branch to branch, she made her way through the forest. Something caught her eye down on the ground. A blond male fighting a Creep. Didn’t seem like he was winning so far. She saw that his weapon was the golden yellow gauntlets around his wrists that was firing shots at the Grimm. Smirking, Summer jumped down to join in the fight.

“Mind if I join you?” She asked. A snort from blondie. “Go ahead, I could use the help,” he replied. Sure, he wasn’t Ocean nor one of the other two she wanted, but she’d be fine with having this guy as her partner for their school years. Summer held Panda in her hands and charged at the Creep, letting out a battle cry. She attacked anywhere she could in an attempt to take down the Grimm. Blondie did the same with both his gauntlets and his fists. As they were fighting, Summer couldn’t help but wonder what his semblance is. Hers is Trick or Treat, where she could create explosives using different explosive materials in one touch with the trick side. With the treat side, it depended on who it was she was talking to. Pausing a moment to catch her breath, Summer looked around. Damn, there wasn’t anything she could turn into an explosive. Time to use her fallback. “Blondie, our of the way!” She called out to her partner. “I have a name you know,” he called back. “It’s Taiyang.” “Taiyang get out of the way!” She screamed. “Jeez, alright, alright.” Taiyang approached her and gave her a look as he passed to stand behind her. Silver eyes close and she took a deep breath. Her eyes soon opened again and white flames spewed from her eyes. Taiyang raised an eyebrow. What was she doing? Oh, that’s a leaf storm attacking the Grimm. This caught Taiyang off guard and he backed up a bit. Is this her semblance? A leaf storm? Now she’s conjured a lightning storm to attack the Grimm. What’s with this girl? Ice soon froze the Grimm to the ground, where Summer charged in and used Panda to pierce it and made it disappear soon after. She looked back at Taiyang after using her maiden powers and the white flames around her eyes disappeared. “What was that?” He asked. “Your semblance?” She thought about it for a moment before answering. Could she trust him with her secret? “No, it was something different.”

When Oakley saw her using her maiden powers, he straightened almost immediately. The first thing that came out of his mouth was, “I don’t believe it.” Both Ozpin and the teacher look at him. “What is it?” The teacher asked. “We have a maiden in our midst,” Oakley replied. He wouldn’t go into further detail when Ozpin asked about it. Or even speak again after that. He just knew he’d have to talk to Summer Rose after teams were made. Sooner or later, the first duo made it back with their relic, followed by some others.

Summer and Taiyang took a while to get to the ruins, but that’s mainly because Taiyang had questions for her regarding her maiden powers and why she wanted to go to Beacon in the first place. So she told him it was her aunt Fleur that had passed on the power to her and told her to go find professor Oakley, so he could help her learn to use them. She’d also said to find someone to teach her to use the power of silver eyes. That one Taiyang was confused about and if Summer were honest, so was she. What made silver eyes so special, other than they were rare. Once they reached the ruins, they spotted two more duos there. One duo consisted of the black haired and red eyed duo Summer had seen multiple times before. And the other has her friend Ocean and someone else. Someone with purple eyes and long gray hair pulled in two pigtails, a lock of it loose and outlining the right side of her face. Summer immediately went to hug the blue haired female that hugged her back. Taiyang jokes in saying it seemed like they hadn’t seen each other in forever. Two sets of red eyes roll as the female picked up one of the horse chess pieces. That left the other horse or the queen. Which one were the two duos going to pick?

“I was hoping you’d be on my team, Ocean,” Summer said. “So was I, but it’s ok. We’ll see each other around the school. She’s certainly optimistic about this. Her partner picked up the queen. “Besides, weren’t you the one that wanted to know these two?” She asked and indicated the red eyed duo. Summer almost immediately covered Ocean’s mouth with one hand and lowered her hand with the other. “Sssshhhh.” The red eyed male seemed surprised at hearing this. She wanted to know them? Ocean giggled, a bright smile playing across her face. Taiyang chuckled and picked up the last chess piece. “Anyway, let’s get going guys. We have to get these back to Oakley.”

“Summer Rose, Taiyang Xiao Long, Raven Branwen, Qrow Branwen. You four retrieved the white knight. You will be known as team STRQ, with Summer as your leader.” So that was their names. Qrow and Raven Branwen. At least she knows their names now and that they’re siblings. Twins, she guessed. Since they both enrolled at the same time. The look in Oakley’s eyes when he looked at her said he wished to talk to her in private, so that’s what she’s going to do when this was all done.

“Liam Cannyn, Granite Orchestra, Ocean Sapphire, Oliver Strummand, you four retrieved the black queen. You will now be known as Team LGOO, with Liam as the leader.” Summer cheered for her friend. Ocean smiled and looked to Summer in the crowd. Sure, they were on different teams, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be friends.

At night time, when everyone else was getting ready for bed, Summer slopped her white cloak on. She was just about to leave the dorm room when someone asked, “Where are you going?” Jumping a bit, Summer looked to see Qrow standing there. “Oakley wanted to see me, so I’m going to his office,” she said. “And you weren’t going to tell us?” She paused a moment. “Because it’s a secret and only Taiyang knows what it’s about.” Qrow rolled his eyes. “Of course it is. I’m going with you.” Summer shook her head. “You wouldn’t understand what it’s about.” “Try me.” Silver eyes squint. “You’re not going to stay here, are you?” Qrow shook his head. “Nope.” A sigh from Summer. “Fine, but don’t expect this to be a normal meeting.” Qrow chuckled. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” And with that, Summer and Qrow made their way to Oakley’s office, where they saw Oakley and Ozpin waiting.

[roninreverie]

Chapter 11:

The students head off to Vacuo for the 30th Biannual Vytal Festival, kicking off the week with a massive masquerade ball.

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]

[taiyang-too-long]

STRQ Contrast

Qrow's feet hit the ground with a light thud. He brushed his black hair from his eyes and scanned the area. Nothing to be seen for now.

"Landing strategies" he scoffed as he began skulking through the dense woods. If these huntsmen thought that being launched from a cliff was any kind of challenge then perhaps the elders were wrong to be worried. They felt that huntsmen presented a clear threat to the tribes more, shall we say, unsavory goals. Which is what lead to the scheme that brought Qrow to this point. He was to infiltrate Beacon academy, the prestigious school that trained the huntsmen and huntresses of Vale, to learn any potential weaknesses. It was a waste of time in Qrow's mind. Huntsmen were just a bunch of pompous, holier than thou, goodie two shoes types. Were it up to him they would just forgo the espionage and gut a few to keep the rest from trying anything funny.

Not that it mattered what he thought on the issue. The tribe was far from democratic and insubordination was dealt with severely. So here he found himself hoofing it through some blasted woods looking for some damn relic. It was a pain. He couldn't just walk into the school. There were steps that had to be taken to prove your worth to the headmaster. The sound of a commotion broke his train of thought as he positioned himself behind a tree, whatever it was it was heading this way. Best to get the drop on an enemy if at all possible. Bandit tactics 101.

He kept his eye on the tree line as the rustling of leaves and snapping of branches gave way to loud growls. Grimm. That was to be expected, after all it wouldn't be much of a test if they could just stroll through and grab the prize waiting for them. What wasn't as expected was the sound of laughter drawing closer along side the growling.

The first thing to break into sight was a young blonde man, back peddling nonchalantly with his hands in the pockets of his cargo pants. Hot on his heels an Ursa, a large bear like Grimm. The beast swiped at the man but he simply leaned out of the way

"I have to say your Grimm disposition leaves a lot to be desired" said the man with wide smile as he dodged yet another slow, heavy swipe of the Ursa's paw.

Qrow had to fight to hold in the groan that wanted to escape his body. Puns? Now of all times? Maybe Qrow would save the monster the trouble and just kill this guy himself, but no. this idiot was another potential huntsman. One of the many others tossed into this forest to find the relic and secure a place in the school. He decided he should just keep watching. After all evaluating the strength of these mooks was part of his reason for being here, plus Qrow would happily watch this smug fool get eaten. It's the little things in life that matter the most.

Despite his casual attitude however the blonde man deftly avoided blow after blow, his hands never leaving his pockets and, to both Qrow's and the Grimm's displeasure, his mouth never stopping its useless prattling.

"Come on" he snickered "this is just...Unbearable"

The Ursa roared and charge forward, apparently unsatisfied with this continued game of thiers. Its mouth snapping, trying it get a hold of its quarry once and for all. Finally taking the fight with a degree of seriousness the blonde would be huntsman rolled away from the maw of the beast and once in the safety of its blind spot, lifted his leg and slammed his heel upon the head of the Ursa, stunning it. Not wasting the opening the man spun landing another kick, which yielded a loud snap as it connected with the jaw of the Grimm. The beast fell unmoving and as all Grimm do upon death, faded away with only black smoke remaining.

Qrow was almost impressed. Maybe these huntsmen weren't all talk. Either way he had wasted enough time, he needed to find his sister. Another goal of this test was to select the partners and teams that would work together once the students started their courses in the school. What had that windbag on the cliff said? First person you make eye contact with? If that was the prerequisite for partner selection than it was time to quit dawdling and find Raven. She was here for the same reason he was and being partners would make it less suspicious for them to be seen together and easier to plot or scheme to their heart's content. She could be anywhere so he needed t-

"Hi!" interrupted a voice

Qrow turned and saw the blonde man just a foot away, his blue eyes just as annoyingly full of cheer as his voice.

"I'm Taiyang" he said " guess you and I are partners"

Qrow's face fell. No, no. no. no. Even his luck couldn't be this bad.

"Shit" Qrow said exasperated.

[strqyr]

summer was already upset with raven before the mission had really even begun, meaning that if summer backstabbed raven, it's not bc of anything that happened during the mission.

going back to V4/5 for potential Parallels™, there's... a few options that could apply for that time period:

qrow figures out that raven has the spring maiden and he's very not happy when raven refuses to confirm it & responds to his "without [spring], we're all going to die" with "and which 'we' are you referring to?"

later qrow is very not happy with raven, thinking she's actually, genuinely working for salem—leaving was fine, but that crossed the line.

both cinder and yang are very not happy when they find out that raven killed the previous spring maiden.

out of these, i find point 2 to be the least likely one; the only way i could see it work is if summer thought raven—despite helping her—had actually switched sides and was setting a trap, but it was also a risk summer was willing to take to try and stop salem. (consider: the inner circle having a reason to believe qrow was "compromised" which is never explicitly explained.)

point 1 is compelling bc if the mystery portal takes to the runaway spring maiden, it would fit with how the inner circle handles the maidens—e.g. qrow was planning on attacking the tribe to get spring back, her opinion be damned—and if raven had a portal to spring, well. if summer's secondary goal was to bring spring back to the fold, getting rid of raven ensures that she can't just runaway and disappear again. definitely falls into Moral Grayness™ category which makes it just so much more juicier.

then there's point 3 which is like. also compelling bc i keep thinking about gretchen allegedly dying during a training mission under unknown circumstances & raven claiming to have trained spring, referring to killing her as "mercy" when she wouldn't learn, so. if that is the case and, in contrast to all the "it's not personal"s in V5, whatever issue summer had with raven was personal, if gretchen was spring and known by summer, too, it. it could count as personal, is what i'm saying, and if summer put two and two together... there could have been some payback as motivation. (knowing how old hazel and thus gretchen were vs strq would help create a clearer picture for this one, since "training" implies some seniority—tho pyrrha did help jaune who, similarly to gretchen, wasn't ready to attend beacon—but also: miss "i was sent to beacon to learn how to kill huntsmen :)" <- i wouldn't doubt for a second that someone might have gotten stabbed before strq graduated.)

...anyway. just thinking thoughts out loud.

[remnaent-a-blog]

you ever hear the phrase those who smile the brightest are usually the saddest?   welcome to taiyang in a nutshell.   his entire motif, from the thorned heart tattoo to the bright colour scheme in his hair, eyes, outfit.   taiyang radiates warmth and love and affection, and is very much the sun casting away the dark clouds that gather.   all except his own.

he’s no longer shut down like yang had once described him, but depression doesn’t just go away, it’s a life long illness that needs to be managed, and at times there’s nothing you can do against it but take the medication and ride the wave through the darkest times.   taiyang has become especially good at hiding those times from his children, from his brother in law  -  because he’s supposed to be the solid foundation.   he’s the one from which his children’s confidence and ability to take the world as it is comes from, the steady and safe home they return to when everything has become too much.   his depression is relatable to yang’s own turmoil over everything she suffered, to ruby’s grief over penny and pyrrha.

after all, he lost the two women he loved in his life.   he was unable to save summer from a fate he could so easily befall, or his children, or qrow, or anyone of his friends !   the thought of that must be paralyzing, that one day any one of them could walk out of that door and not return.   and raven, she walked out  -  leaving him with a large sense of self doubt and wondering just what he had done wrong.   depression can come from a jarring event finally triggering trauma in the brain, but more often than not, it’s already there in the brain chemistry and those thoughts, that self doubt is already there too.   raven’s abandonment was the coffin, and summer’s death was the final nail.   but yang and ruby  -  they’re as much taiyang’s lifeline as he is theirs.   without them, i think he probably wouldn’t of recovered from the loss of raven or summer.

[dragynkeep]

Any interest in doing a critique of STRQ's outfits?

The team who kept the same outfit for 20 years, like me with that one dragon shirt I found for £5. 

This is easily the worst outfit out of the team. 

It’s just Ruby’s Mistral outfit but monochromatic. I can’t even give much to say because of how unoriginal this outfit is. The black and white with very little detailing just makes it boring to look at, your eye just slides off while what detailing on Ruby’s outfit is hidden because of this poor choice of colouring. 

The black wristguards with the white shirt are now all black, so Summer just has these big bulges randomly appearing at her elbows. The black shirt also has the black corset disappearing, with only the white midsection that is still being covered by black laces. 

Her cape isn’t there, but the inside being red is a cute inversion of Ruby’s completely red cape, and is really the only thing I like and think is a good thing that Ruby later copies herself. Also the rose bun at the back of her hair too. The rest of her hair is just badly modelled and looks bad.

But also, what is Summer Rose’s colour? Because black and white aren’t very summer colours, and while you can get these colour roses, they don’t even tie into Summer’s allusion as the last rose of summer. The rose of Ireland is pink. If Summer’s defining colour was pink, it would be a unique colour of hers that could still reference Ruby’s red, a tie between mother and daughter without it just being Older Ruby.

This is just embarressingly lazy.

This is a dad outfit. A+ for whoever designed the outfit for a dad.

Now, it’s a pretty average outfit. It does well in mirroring Yang and showing where she gets her outfit influence from, while keeping his own uniqueness, and showing a more casual approach with Taiyang taking a backseat in Huntsmen duties. He’s still protected with the armour and leather, since he isn’t fully retired and still lives in a dangerous part of Remnant, but it isn’t a complete Huntsmen outfit. The muted colour scheme sorta sells an older, almost dying fire, with Taiyang mellowing out compared to Yang’s bright and fiery aesthetic. 

Even his hair is a muted yellow compared to her bright locks, like he’s starting to grey but rather than getting grey hairs, he’s just losing the yellow. Overall, it really does give him an older and more mature vibe than what Yang had in Beacon. 

I think some of the colours are a bit too dull, though, and he really struggles to represent yellow like Yang. I think the brown and orange works for Taiyang, because it isn’t as bold and intense like Yang would be in black and red, but the fact that his hair is so desaturated means that he really has no yellow on him. I would’ve liked a lighter cream on his shirt, especially with it being so close to colour as his skin, or bronze being used instead of the random grey steel on his shoulder armour.

Really, that armour just clashes with his overall colour scheme. I do like that his deep blue eyes works as a splash of cool colour, just like how Yang’s purple eyes do, and complements the more orange look that he uses compared to purple/yellow. I would’ve liked him to not fall into the blonde and blue eyes that Sun fell into, maybe a more blueish purple than just straight up dark blue.

WEEB-

Okay, besides the blatant orientalism behind Raven, and quite a few characters in this show, this outfit isn’t completely bad. I like that she uses strictly black and red to contrast how Qrow uses the brighter white and greys with minimal red in his outfit. It makes Raven appear darker and more dangerous, fitting for the fact that she’s a murderous bandit and (should have been) the main antagonist to one of our four main girls. 

The red sleeves with the gauntlets keeps Raven’s arms contrasting with the dark black midsection of her shirt and skirt, same with the red obi around her waist. The black patterns on her obi not only add interest to what would otherwise be pretty plain, but looks like traditional Japanese scenery ink painting.

The red travels through the outfit pretty well. Her arms, midsection and the bottom of her shoes all use red, while the black contrasts her limbs from each other. Similar with the bright red banana contrasting with her black hair. I do dislike the red flap on her belt, similar to how I hate the flap that Yang is always stuck with. It looks slapped on, but the raven feathers trailing off it at least looks cool.

Now, I really hate that Raven’s exposing her thighs here with the dumb looking leg warmers, it looks weird and honestly kinda childish. Like this is something a kid would draw their badass character in rather than a dangerous older woman who is practical and cunning. Just put her in pants, you don’t need to show skin with every single female character ffs.

Though, I will say that I’m glad that Raven isn’t just a copy of Yang. You can see where she gets the face and eyes shape from Raven, but she is obviously different with the red eyes, black hair, and a different hair texture to Yang. While Yang’s is more wavy similar to Taiyang’s, Raven has spikier hair that resembles feathers almost. It’s a nice touch.

Problem is, like with the other women in RWBY, Raven really doesn’t look like a woman in her 40s. The most they did is give her faint age lines below the eyes, and called it a day. What skin care is she using?

Overall, not a bad outfit, colour scheme definitely fits Raven, but this is just a blatant case of CRWBY using Asian aesthetics for the cool factor rather than actually delving into it. 

Now Qrow’s the only one in the team to have two different outfits, given that he spends the most time on screen compared to any other STRQ member, so we’re gonna start with his OG outfit. 

I love it. This outfit really sells the sleazy and dark undertone that Qrow was during this time of the show. The sharp angles of his jacket, collar and sleeves, the slanted cross, the grey/white/black/red colour scheme all really sell the unlucky bird and spy. 

The lines and darker grey front section keeps the mostly white jacket interesting while his black collar and cuffs directly contrast, giving a more balanced look with how long the jacket stretches down over his black pants. It also helps with how the only red appearing on Qrow being his cape, tattered and mostly at the back to minimise the colour while keeping it the only red on his body. It’s interesting since his sister is mostly defined by red, so it gives the impression of Qrow shedding his old life while it still sticking on his back.

I like how the back of his coattails look like a bird tail, a nice tip to his namesake and bird motif. Really, the little accessories add further to his design, like the necklace, the odd amount of rings he wears on both hands, the bracelet on his right wrist, even down to how his cape, unlike Ruby’s clean one, is tattered and dirty. 

It’s the small things that just push this look up for me. 

This isn’t that bad of a jump for Qrow’s Atlas outfit. It goes into almost a Victorian-vibe, Van Helsing shit that I would attribute to Qrow for an outfit aesthetic. The loss of his crooked cross to instead have upright crosses as his buttons is a neat detail for Qrow now learning to move on from seeing himself as an unlucky person, while still keeping the connection to Ruby.

Most of his character designs have jumped from his original outfit to this one; the big collar, rolled up sleeves, jewellery, cross imagery, smart shoes with pants, while changing it to match both environment and Qrow as a character. Most of his sharp edges have been rounded out with his jacket, shorter vest, and round sleeves, and the patterns on the sleeves look pretty close to the designs on Ozpin’s weapon.

Though why he has this during a time where he’s moving away from Ozpin, even excusing Ruby of the same behaviour he assaulted Oz for, is beyond me. It feels like a disconnect to what the designers are doing compared to what the writers are doing. 

Also the big problem with this is the colouring. First thing is that this really moves away from Qrow’s established colour palette? He was defined by white, grey, black and a muter red. But now he’s wearing grey, dark grey, muted red, black, a greenish looking brown, and purple. It’s a jarring jump and the darker colours now make him look closer to Raven, who also is defined by her use of dark colours.

It makes it feel a bit of a step back in visual development, and really, the colours used for his jacket and vest are kinda ugly together, especially with the dull gold for the metal. 

Look? great! Colourwise? Eh.