#There’s a specific VA I was thinking for Neo

[pistachi0art]

sorry if you've answered this before but im curious..

do you have any voice claims for the benrey fam?

I do! (and I have answered this but that’s was awhile back.) not all of em have proper voices yet but here’s a few

Arden -> Brad Dourif (Charles Lee Ray/ Chucky specifically from Childs Play 1 & 2)

Dune -> Richard Epcar (DAISUKE JIGEN with more of a southern drawl)

Emmet -> Will Forte (Abe from Clone High)

Fea -> Emily Hampshire (Misery from Ruby Gloom)

Gael -> Kate Higgins (Sam Boole)

Juno -> Ako Castuera (Canyon from Adventure Time! I’m thinking a real mellow voice.)

Marley -> Michaela Dietz (specifically her va work in GTAV)

Ripley-> Dante Basco (Zuko- without the anger issues.)

[juliasgoodusername]

Sometimes a girl has to go a little crazy. Sometimes a girl has to make a book-accurate floorplan for 300 Fox Way. These things just happen, sometimes.

Obsessive annotations under the cut ✨ but be warned, there's a LOT

Exterior

Okay first of all, I'm no architect, and my only knowledge comes from work experience in the real estate industry + a lot of Sims. The style is sort of neo-rural French colonial. I didn't set out to adhere to that standard so much as I made an amalgamation of homes in Blue Ridge Mountains-adjacent towns in Virginia. Specifically, my headcanon Henrietta template is Orange, VA (I'll save that explanation for another post) so I took inspiration from real estate listings from there.

Alright alright I know there is supposed to be one bathroom, but I simply can't tolerate that in a house with 6+ residents. I can't. There was a possible contradiction in the descriptions of "the single shared bathroom" that I used as an excuse to add a 3/4 bath, and I threw in a powder room for free. Because technically there is still only one full bathroom! But seriously with that many women over 30 most of them probably have IBS or chronic constipation and I'm not making them all share a toilet.

Officially we only have 4 bedrooms listed in text: Blue's, Persephone's, Maura's, and Calla and Jimi's shared one. Everyone else gets rooms that don't qualify as bedrooms via Virginia residential building codes (such as the attic, obviously, which falls below the combined ceiling height and square footage requirements). That really just leaves Orla unaccounted for but I'll get to that later. Other aunts and friends seem to visit during the day and live somewhere else, because in The Raven King only Jimi and Orla were described as needing to move out of the house during the demon stuff.

I designed the entire interior floorplan before I even touched the exterior, so there's a few issues, like how I'm totally missing shutters on the windows that functionally need them most. 🫶 I didn't feel like making the windows smaller to fit them, and I could have added faux-shutters but I think those are stupid. 😘

First floor

"This house is lovely. So many walls. So, so many walls," Malory said as Blue entered the living room a little later.

- Blue Lily, Lily Blue, Chapter 30

Right off the bat, we have an insane number of doors and walls. Old colonial houses are pretty much the opposite of open concept. Functionally I believe that's because it's easier to control heat with closed off rooms, but Virginia is not particularly cold so idk. As for the number of doors, I mean....😤😤😤 I prefer archways/doorless frames in small high-traffic spaces, but every time I thought I could get away with it Maggie would specifically describe doors opening and closing (For example BL,LB Ch 41 gives the reading room double doors, and even the living room gets one in Ch 11. What kind of living room needs a door???). I'm actually missing one of the doorways described in canon, but if you know which one I'm talking about I DARE you to find a place to put that thing!! But I digress.

“Mom," she said as she jumped down the crooked stairs.

- The Raven Boys, Chapter 3

I'm liberally using "crooked" to establish the corner turn stairs. Blue steadies herself on the stair railing when she identifies Gansey for the first time (TRB Ch 15), so I wanted the stairs to have good visual access to visitors. It also sort of has a feng shui-ish effect of separating the public and private energy zones in the house. If that statement made zero sense, I think one of us doesn't know enough about feng shui 👀 and it might be me.

I'm also using that quote to establish Maura's room downstairs, if Blue generally expects to find her mother there, but mostly because everything else was upstairs and it was getting hard to fit. Granted, at one point Blue leads the boys "up the stairs to Maura's bedroom" (TDT Epilogue) but since they were just arriving at 300 Fox Way those stairs could easily be the outdoor ones. There's a handful of little things to support me here, such as Adam grabbing a scrying bowl from Maura's room to use in the reading room (BL,LB Ch 41) implying that her room was the closest place to find one. And speaking of Maura's room-

Calla was overwhelmed by how much shit Maura had in her room at 300 Fox Way, and she told Blue this.

... The mess was taking years from her life. ... Maura liked chaos.

... The psychic hotline rang in the room next door. Calla's concentration fluttered away.

- Blue Lily, Lily Blue, Prologue

Maura is my favorite hypocrite. She claims to detest clutter (TRB Ch 34) and yet her room is literally described as chaos. She probably treats her room like a college student and moves the furniture every time she gets bored/stressed. Thus, I gave her the most insane furniture configuration I could think of while still matching all the contents described.

The phone ringing next door might imply that she neighbors the phone/sewing/cat room, but that area is pretty well described and Maura's room is never mentioned there in any other instance. That leaves us with the kitchen phone (TRB Ch 27) which I put in the hallway with kitchen access as a compromise so it would technically still be in a room next to Maura's.

In the reading room, the man looked around with clinical interest. His gaze passed over the candles, the potted plants, the incense burners, the elaborate dining room chandelier, the rustic table that dominated the room, the lace curtains, and finally landed on a framed photograph of Steve Martin.

- The Raven Boys, Chapter 13

There are so many quotes about the reading room that I just don't feel like citing them, but other details include the mismatched chairs, the shelves, doors etc. It's also described specifically as Maura's "front room" (TRB Prologue) so it's one of the cornerstones that I designed the rest of the layout around. Because of the plants, it makes sense that this room would be south-facing too. (Although idk how much light they get with the wraparound porch awning in the way. Oops lol!)

The outside suddenly seemed vivid in comparison to the dim kitchen. The April-bright trees pressed against the windows of the breakfast area, ...

- The Raven Boys, Chapter 3

Blue Stormed into 300 Fox Way's kitchen and began a one-sided interrogation with Artemus, who was still hidden behind the closed storage closet door.

- The Raven King, Chapter 9

Likewise, I'm using the particularly dim kitchen to place it on the north side, where we also know there's trees in the backyard.

I'll say the kitchen layout is weirder than it strictly needed to be because in the Virginia homes I referenced I adored all the strange kitchens, especially with old timey 'servants area' vibes where laundry kitchen and pantry are all connected. Instead of a kitchen island, they get one of those rolling kitchen carts which I doubled as a bar cart for the drinks they have in the living room.

The kitchen has a doorway to the hall (TRB Ch 13) and the living room is within view when Blue's on the kitchen phone (Ch 27).

Speaking of chapter 27, that's when we get the description "The morning light through the windows turned the drinks a brilliant, translucent yellow." So I put the living room on the east side of the house, where the rising sun would cast really strong light like that.

Second Floor

When she woke up, her normally morning-bright room had the breath-held dimness of afternoon. In the next room over, Orla was talking to either her boyfriend or to one of the psychic hotline callers.

- The Raven Boys, Chapter 3

Blue headed toward the red-painted door at the end of the hall. On her way, she had to pass the frenzy of activity in the Phone/Sewing/Cat Room and the furious battle for the bathroom. The room behind the red door belonged to Persephone, ...

- The Raven Boys, Chapter 11

Blue's room and the Phone/Sewing/Cat room are our cornerstones for this floor. In several examples we know that the Phone/Sewing/Cat room faces the street and has a window (TRB Ch 15, BL,LB Ch 4). While Blue's room is "morning-bright," we also get descriptions of guests at the front door "backlit by the evening sun," (TRB Ch 15) so once again we're probably talking about south windows if it's sunlit at both times of day.

Adam sat awkwardly on the edge of Blue's bed. It felt strange to have so easily gained access to a girl's bed- room. If you knew Blue at all, the room was unsurprising - canvas silhouettes of trees stuck to the walls, leaves hanging in chains from the ceiling fan, a bird with a talk bubble reading WORMS FOR ALL painted above a shelf cluttered with buttons and about nine different pairs of scissors. Against the wall, Blue self-consciously taped up the drooping branch on one of the trees.

- The Dream Thieves, Chapter 49

We get some great descriptions of Blue's room (especially TRB Ch 43), although the above one is my favorite (#wormsforall). Every piece of furniture is accounted for exactly as described except the desk which I added because it seemed practical, and Blue is nothing if not practical™.

Persephone's room is also very well-described, all the way down to the furniture and lighting placement (BL,LB Ch 4 and TRB Ch 11) and it's surprisingly similar to Blue's room, if not a bit smaller. Her room gets strong afternoon sunlight, so I put it on the south too (BL,LB Ch 43).

Calla and Jimi share a room that's also upstairs (TRK Ch 16). Because they are the only two who have to share a room, I have justified that it must be the "master bedroom" (sorry for using that term) and is far bigger than the other bedrooms. I managed to fit two queen beds in there, but some scholars [me] would argue that Jimi and Calla might also share a bed because they are in love. Can you prove me wrong? No, you can't.

As for the bathroom, remember when I mentioned a possible contradiction? Famously, Maura draws the ley line symbol in the steamed up shower door (TRB Ch 1). However, much later we get Maura, Orla, Calla and Jimi all sitting in the bathtub for some kind of ritual (TRK Ch 9). No matter how I picture it, I can't put 4 full grown women in a bathtub together without someone partially sitting on/spilling over the side. But that would be impossible in a combo bath/shower enclosed by glass doors!! Thus, I gave The Bathroom a nice tub and put a small shower in the en suite of Jimi and Calla's room. I know this is a stretch but I don't really care.

Attic

Blue had never been a big fan of the attic, even before Neeve moved in. Numerous slanting roof lines provided dozens of opportunities to hit your head on a sloping ceiling. Unfinished wood floorboards and areas patched with prickly plywood were unfriendly to bare feet. Summer turned the attic into an inferno.

... In one of the narrow dormers, two full-length, footed mirrors faced each other, reflecting mirrored images back and forth at each other in perpetuum.

- The Raven Boys, Chapter 34

Trying to fit the attic access in after everything in the second floor was my biggest challenge, because stairs normally take up a lot of space and you have to be careful about head room. I'm the end, I decided it was one of those fold out attic doors that you have to reach from the ceiling of the hallway. We might get a lot of instances of the attic door being opened (😤 seriously, Maggie... 😤) but technically a trap door in the ceiling is still a door!

Dormers pretty much cemented the French colonial style for me. And you know the drill by now: a hot room probably means a lot of sun, which means I give it a south facing window!

Mud Room/Cellar/Basement

This cellar has absolutely zero mention in the text, but my justification is based in the architecture. So far we've got a funky old colonial house, built without a garage, lots of walls etc. Especially in a low-income/semi-rural area, it's not crazy to assume that 300 Fox Way was built before most residents had refrigerators (1930s-40s). Besides iceboxes, a major way to keep food fresh was root cellars. Modern renovations for old homes convert these to concrete basements, but that's why the basement is so small and connects to the kitchen.

My headcanon is that Orla originally shared a room. Pick whoever you want: Maura, Blue or Persephone, any of them would easily be such a chaotic roommate that Orla snapped and in a fit of teen girl rage moved herself down to the crummy dark basement. Over time, she made efforts to glamorize it, such as a vintage dressing screen to hide the flood drainage pump. The privacy also allows her to bring boyfriends over, even sneaking them through the mud room.

This is really just my artistic license, but I swear it makes a surprising amount of sense in context. There's cases of Orla sneaking into the kitchen (easier if she has a back entrance) and she's almost always using the phone upstairs or in the kitchen (because a basement would get bad reception) even though her calls get kinda ~intimate.

Aaaaaand I think that's everything. Sorry it doesn't look like the photo from the wiki at all, but I couldn't find a source for it and Victorian style wasn't super common in the areas I researched. Let me know if I missed anything major! I'll probably cry myself to sleep if so.

[mala-sadas]

[Pokémas datamine spoilers ahead]

The more I think about it, the more I reeeally like the choices they made for the Alola VA alts - both in terms of who got them and who didn't get them.

I mean, the four characters who are getting VA alts - Hau, Lana, Acerola, and Mina - are all Alola natives and Trial Captains, or in Hau's case, grandson of the current kahuna. So, to see them teaming up with the island guardians - and their battle theme being a remix of the island kahuna theme - is a symbolic way of saying "these are the future kahunas, the guardian deities have already accepted them, Alola will be safe in their hands". We're not gonna have a repeat of what happened with Hapu, where the previous kahuna dies and the island goes without a kahuna for a bit because the island guardian doesn't think there's anyone suited for the position yet.

And it's especially satisfying to see that happen to Hau, because he's always dreamed of becoming an island kahuna like his grandpa, but his attitude at the beginning of his journey - that he only battles for fun and doesn't care if he wins or loses - is honestly not a great attitude for someone who's supposed to be the protector of his island to have. So, the fact that Tapu Koko has acknowledged him demonstrates that Hau has matured as a person and is worthy of being a guardian. (And the fact that becoming a kahuna is important to his character arc specifically is probably why he's the only one whose sygna suit resembles the outfit of one of the current kahunas.)

Meanwhile, since Selene and Elio aren't even from Alola and Gladion doesn't even take the island challenge (outside of the anime), there wouldn't be any significant meaning, symbolic or otherwise, to them teaming up with the Tapus. And it feels appropriate for all the VA units to be with Tapus instead of, say, Hau getting a Tapu while the others just get random UBs or dupe legendaries.

Plus, the fact that Elio, Selene, and Gladion aren't getting alts now makes it highly likely that they'll get Neo Champion alts in the future. And that feels especially appropriate, too. After all, Elio/Selene is the first Champion of Alola in the core series games, on top of being the first of protag to actually take the position of Champion instead of just getting the title and still having to fight the old Champion in rematches. So it feels especially unfair for them to get their status as Champion revoked by Pokémas's "we can't acknowledge that the protagonist beat the Champion" policy.

Meanwhile, Gladion is a title defense challenger in both SM and USUM, and it feels like an excellent demonstration of his character growth for him to participate in a competition where there are no stakes and it genuinely doesn't matter whether he wins or loses. Because to me, Gladion's character arc is the opposite of Hau's - where Hau learns that sometimes he really does need to take battles seriously, Gladion learns that it's okay to take it easy and just battle for fun sometimes. The old Gladion wouldn't have bothered to try in a competition where there's nothing for him to gain, so him being able to succeed in a Neo Champion tournament would really demonstrate how he's grown.

Sooo...yeah. Good choices, DeNa!

[kitkatopinions]

So I'm not going to make a big long post about the infamous "list," however, I think it's very important to actually acknowledge that there are very very few villains in rwby that are cishet white ablebodied white men that weren't also specifically made into in-universe minorities by the writers by being made Faunus. I'm only counting villains that had more than one instance of villainy in the show itself, so characters like Junior and Shady Man or whatever name they gave that guy don't count, I am also counting people as villains even if they 'got better later' like Emerald and Ilia, and I'm actually not counting just antagonists like Cordovin or Clover. Let's talk about it.

Salem - the biggest bad of the series, a woman (also worth noting, an abuse victim)

Cinder - the second biggest bad, a woman who as of season four is disabled (also worth noting, an abuse victim)

Tyrian - An in-universe minority as a Faunus, as of volume five when his tail was caught off, I also consider him disabled

Watts - Not white

Hazel - Not white

Emerald - A woman of color (also worth noting, an abuse victim at the hands of Cinder)

Mercury - A disabled man (also worth noting, an abuse victim)

Raven - a woman

Vernal - A woman (possibly a woman of color)

Adam - Disabled (he can only see out of one eye) and an in-universe minority (also worth noting, an abuse victim)

Corsac - Not white and an in-universe minority

Fennec - Not white an in-universe minority

Ilia - the first queer character in the show, a woman of color, and an in-universe minority

Harriet - A woman of color

Elm - A woman of color

Vine - Not white

Marrow - Not white and an in-universe minority

Winter (yes I'm counting her as a temporary villain,) - a woman

Ironwood - A disabled man (also worth noting, there is some discussion over whether or not he's Asian due to him being specifically designed to look like his Asian VA.)

Leo Lionheart - Not white and an in-universe minority

Lil' Miss Malachite - A woman

Neo - A disabled woman (also worth noting, a victim of abuse)

The Curious Cat - One of the first rwby characters to ever be non-binary

Roman Torchwick - An actual white able-bodied man that is not confirmed as disabled in any way and is also not an in-universe minority and in fact has been portrayed to specifically be anti-faunus

Jacques - An actual white able-bodied man that is not confirmed as disabled in any way and is also not an in-universe minority and in fact has been portrayed to specifically be anti-faunus

You know what, for the hell of it in the interest of being fair, let's include Cardin - An actual white able-bodied man that is not confirmed as disabled in any way and is also not an in-universe minority and in fact has been portrayed to specifically be anti-faunus

And this isn't even bringing up the extra content, tbh, like Doctor Merlot and Fifestone and Carmine.

Now let's talk about those three white straight cis able bodied men right there on the end included alongside twenty three other villains many of whom are very important to the plot, because if rwby is so so so very progressive in how they portray their villains then surely these three white straight cis able bodied men with histories of being discriminatory towards the in-universe marginalized oppressed faunus would be like really big bads that are important to take down and their discriminatory behavior would be called out and addressed!

Cardin - Portrayed as nothing more than a high school bully, never was given real consequences for his mistreatment of the Faunus, only had like two minor appearances since volume one in which he wasn't beefing with the mains at all, hasn't been seen since volume three. Jacques - Only made a couple of scenes in volume four and then was portrayed as a minor antagonist in volume seven rather than a major villain, treated like he wasn't a serious threat. He was shuffled off into an even less important role in volume eight before being killed to demonstrate how dangerous one of the disabled villains was. Roman - Actually was treated like an important and serious threat, Team RWBY's first archnemesis, however he also narratively seemed to represent the smaller scale bosses as a prelude to bigger things, died in volume three, and the only time we saw him since was a volume nine scene where Neo makes an allusion of him to help her in her own nefarious schemes.

To be absolutely completely clear, I am not saying no villain should ever be part of a marginalized group. Though, it's important to recognize the pattern here in rwby and to also recognize that we shouldn't be giving the benefit of the doubt to Miles and Kerry specifically who helped created rwby every step of the way and have histories of bigotry, and I am of the belief that although some villains from marginalized groups can be done well (in the hands of sensitive writers, not the rwby writers who are horribly insensitive,) we should be pushing for more villains that are straight cisgendered non-disabled white men (preferably rich.) But that's beside the point, really, because my point is.... Anyone who tells you 'the villains in rwby are mostly white men' is deliberately lying and also is probably purposefully leaving out that many of the only 'white men' are also disabled or were made into an in-universe minority BY THE WRITERS.

I'm not saying 'every villain needs to be a straight cis white man who is not disabled or an in-universe minority,' but what I am saying is 'don't PRETEND that the majority of the villains in rwby are from non-marginalized groups when TWENTY THREE OF THEM are from marginalized groups and the three that aren't have either not made real appearances since V3, been treated as unimportant, or both!'

As for the list...

[constantvariations]

V9C8

I cannot believe I’m awake when the episode drops holy shit. I’m also drunk af bc it’s my weekend off so I might not be as sharp as I’m usually am (not) but guess we’ll see lol. Also the devil works hard but pirates work harder. Bless them yardee hars yo ho

Post Ep: uhh I genuintely dunno what to say here :/ MKEK fucked over literally the only aspect of v9 i liked so i guess imma rot or smth idk

Genuinely funny (by which I mean what the absolute fuck) that the warning does not, in fact, warn the viewer of fucking anything. Reminds me of the conversation in Criminal Minds where the unit receives a bomb threat and have to wait for it to explode because sending out a general bomb alert would halt the entirety of the country in a panic. Wasn’t there a tiktok about this exact thing? One that went liek “TRIGGER WARNIGN! TRIGGER WARNING!“ but never told you wh at the warning was? Feels like this shit

Back at it again with this pov shit? With the hentai panting? Why is it always with the hentai panting???

“Why did you shout at everyone like that?” Sometimes it’s hard to remember that Little is supposed to be like... a child? I guess? in the Wonderland spectrum of things, so them not knowing what a mental breakdown looks like is both in character and entirely unhelpful in the narrative, considering how easily Ruby brushes off the inquiry

This is probably the most tolerant Ruby’s voice acting has been in the last many seasons. It’s not high and nasally enough to scrape my skull!

Not gonna lie, having Ruby finally break down against the shittiest of tree textures is so fucking funny I can’t take this seriously. It looks like she’s wailing into a painted wall

“If you’re going to stay with me, you’re going to end up dead, too.” Ruby, the only dead people that you supposedly gave a shit about are Penny and Pyrrha. You don’t know about Clover or Ironwood, you definitely didn’t give a shit about that Forrest guy from V7, and it’s still up in the air if you know about Penny 2.0. You haven’t even mentioned Qrow, your father, or the rest of ORNJ, so what the fuck are you referencing here? Your mother, whom you only started being compromised about 2 seasons ago? Big fuckety whoop, no one cares

Ohhhh noooo not the shithead mouse character being saddddd and left behinddddd whateverr shall we doooooo

Aight what’s with the butterfly thing. If it’s supposed to symbolize Summer Rose in some way, it was never foreshadowed and only the barest of threads (butterflies being pollinators of flowers) would connect this shit. There’s a difference between subtlety and bullshit

Uhhhh did Ruby stumble into a casino house of Neo? Is this Neo backstory we’re getting into? Honestly, that’s way more intriguing than anything our heroes have going on

OH SO NOW RUBY CAN USE HER FUCKING SCYTHE WITHOUT GETTIN TRIGGERED

Why did they have to drag Roman into Maya? Didn’t they do him dirty enough by having him be eaten by a stupid grimm? Is this even the same voice actor? It’s not as... sultry

WHY YOU GOTTA DO PYRRHA DIRTY LIKE THIS WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH HER MOUTH THERE’S NO TEXTURE ON HER CLOTHES WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK

Holy shit the animation of Roman jumpin on the table is sending me into the fuckign statosphere fucking hlep

Can’t even have a normal transformation animation between scythe to snipe it’s gotta be a spinny bullshit thing ugh. Take me back to episode 1 I miss that shit

Who is voicing Roman there’s no way this is the original VA Imma strnagle this bithc

“But we all remember how that ended.” Is this based on actual events or what Neo has interpreted? This entire scene has been nothing but bullshit so far, and not even the fun kind that Roman used to produce

“You still blame me for what happened to Torchwick?” Bitch what the absolute fuck makes you think that? What clues could you possibly have that Neo blames you specifically when there are so many random people at this table? It’s not like you’ve ever claimed to be responsible for any of these peoples’ deaths, so why is this the fucking conclusion you make? Other than having writer’s clairvoyance of course

Okay, despite not knowing at the moment what it means, I do like the detail of Roman not stepping on the teacup before but once shit gets real he demolishes it. Still don’t like how ugly he is though. Leave my dead gay son alone

I don’t know if I’ve said it before but I fucking HATE the eyeshadow on the character in Maya. Why is Neo’s fucking mint green? She’s NEO-FUCKING-POLITIAN WHY IS THERE FUCKING GREEN IN HER GODDAMN COLOR PALLETE WHEN IT’S FUCKIN WHITE BROWN AND PINK

“I’m going to enjoy watching you break.” Does Neo not have any sort of contact via her clones or whatever? Did she not see how helpless Ruby was last episode to her Jabber? Because it was very heavily implied she knew when that one turned into her before shattering. Neo didn’t have to do shit to make Ruby break, her so called friends were doing that better than Neo ever could Also, the smiles on everyone’s faces as they say this is 100% me when I write my characters going through some fucked up shit. Neo should’ve gone into theater and literally none of this would have happened lmao

It’s uhhhhhh kinda telling that Yang is the first to stop and bitch about Ruby’s behavior. “How could she jsut run off like that?” damn it’s like your sister knew you ddidn’t give hafl a flying fuck about her and dipped Yang OHMYGOD YANG BEING PISSED THAT RUBY DIDN’T TALK TO THEM I’M FUCKING WHEEZING Girl you were so busy being buried in the pussy you didn’t notice your own sister having a full ass breakdown. I do not feel sorry for you “She could’ve just talked to us” like you talked to her after you lost your arm? Oh, wait, YOU DIDN’T FUCKING DO THAT YANG. You literally told her to LEAVE YOU ALONE. Ain’t that a bitch, huh

“We say things like ‘we believe and you’ and ‘we can count on you’” holy shit this is smth I would expect from the yt exercise gurus I watch after work shifts not from my close personal friends this is so fuckign funny

“It’s not like we’re asking her to be perfect” well mf did you ever, idk, COMMUNICATE THAT. Because, lmee tell you as someone who WAS expected to be perfect at all times, that shit be damaging as fuck. I can’t even let typos happen in funny instances without a voice in my head screaming to fix them

Oh great we get the generic meandering vocals during a pvp platform fight. Do they write these lines knowing they’ll be translated into a game soon? There’s no way “I was the best and brightest Beacon had to offer” comes off naturally otherwise

Ruby literally clambered onto the only structure in the room for defense? Girl at this point you are asking to die lmao

AND HER AURA SHATTERS AT THAT MEASLY DROP I AM FUCKING SOBBING JUST KILL THE BITCH AND BE DONE WITH IT

“Just like you were too late to save me at the Vytal festival.” Bitch that literally didn’t matter shit since you came back in V7. You’re literally wearing your V7/8 outfit. Shut the absolute fuck up you fucking waste of potential and hair space goddamn

“Can you imagine what it’s like to be failed time and time again by someone who meant the world to you” oh like Oz? The guy you demonized for the last few seasons? The guy who was roasted alive by his wife after she butchered their FOUR FUCKIGN CHILDREN?

Also Ruby does not use her FUCKIGN SEMBLANCE BITHC ARE YOU WANTING TO FUDCKIGN DIE THEN DIE ALREADY GODDAMMIT

Okay I can’t put my finger on it, but the animation of Pyrrha going around her staff to kick Ruby is really fucking weird. Maybe because it seems like her spear is merely resting on the ground instead of impaling it? (My current MC had a similar move so this is important to me lmao)

While I do appreciate the line of “have you stopped to consider if you’re doing more harm than good” coming from Ironwood, it’s not really Ironwood saying it, is it? How the absolute FUCK would Neo know this? Was she witness to what was happening, did she figure it out with context clues, or is this another case of writer clairvoyance?

While I guess it is within canon rights to have Neo know that Oscar is Oz’s new host, I’m very much confused about this particular course of action [turning Ozpin into Oscar] from Neo. When it was her vs Cinder,  Neo just tried to annihilate her, but with Ruby she wants to be Jigsaw??? MKEK learn character consistency I am BEGGING

Listen... I know Ruby is in an emotionally compromised state, and that in any other scenario this would be intensely heart-breaking, but with how contrived this entire scene is, I cannot give half a flying fuck about Ruby’s mental state because it’s too damn funny how easily she falls into Neo’s lap. You walked into this giant ass casino, can’t you just walk out? We ain’t seen you try yet, so either you (and the writers) are too stupid to think of it, or it was shuffled off screen, neither of which are a good look babe. Especially when that damned mouse is in the wings for SOME goddamn reason. Probably the next fucking deus ex mouse

RUBY’S HICCUPS SOUND EXACTLY LIKE MY PRINTER IM FUCKIGN WHEEZING

Okay, so Neo offering the tea makes it seem like that’s a path to the Ascension that everyone’s so gung-ho about, which makes me question why the paper pleasers needed to have a whole ass suicide dam-break to ascend if all they needed was some leaf-tea. I also think I’m putting more thought into this than the fucking writers, which, honestly, is par for the course

WAIT WHOA HOLD UP that was some geometric shit hitting Neo into the fucking next generation. Everything in Wonderland is ~whimsy and frolic~ not Square (tm) so wtf is going on

Goddammit again with this pov shit? Whoever suggested it in the group orgy should be drug out to the street and shot

CURIOUS!!! THE ONLY BITCH THAT MATTERS TO ME even if he is ugly as sin

“(Ruby) I don’t want to be me anymore” well aint that just more gasoline to my theory that Ruby’s gonna try to sacrifice herself to the tree No joke, if RT (and for any dumbass who needs clarification, CRWBY is 100% RT property) tries to imply in any goddamn way that sacrifice is the only way to achieve happiness (especially when it comes to other people’s happiness) I will come to each of their houses and shred their shoes, their paintings, and dismantle their ovens

Altho, no joke, I would much rather prefer Curious as our MC instead simply because they are curious and would potentially be able to ask questions about the world that our actual mains would take for granted, like idk wtf is dust and where does it come from? (Mainly stemming from my hc that dust is the remains of human souls that grimm devour but can’t actually process. Like... how else are you gonna reconcile the dust that made Adam ((the original biblical man)) with the dust of Remnant?)

Oh wow so we’re actually going for the take that the cat was evil the whole time? Is that what we’re doing? No nuance about a creature merely curious about a world outside its own? We’re going full fucking body snatcher?

I absolutely HATE this take on the Curious Cat. MKEK. Give me your addresses so I can beat your asses in the nearest Dennys parking lot. I think you sorely need some lessons in humility. Suck my entire asshole

Is Little really fucking hurt by being slung .2 feet from a tail whip? Fucking really?

And now Neo and Curious are fighting over Ruby’s fate. Someone bring back the forced love triangle of Hunger Games (which was forced by the publishers NOT the writer btw) instead of this shit before I throw myself into a lava pit because honesty it this is far shittier than HG

Wtf are Ruby’s fingers bloodied from? Wielding Crescent Rose for .2 seconds? Girl you have been handling this weapon for fucking years, but spinning it around a couple of times makes her bleed? Bitch play Paganini’s 24 Caprices then say how your fingers feel (For clarification purposes, I only know this because I’m writing characters who know how to play the violin, not because I know violin myself despite how much I fucking want to. V from DMC5 has me in a fucking chokehold lemme tell you-*dies*)

“I have been trying to wear you down for so long” BITCH FUCKING WHERE. WHERE THE ABSOLUTE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN WEARING RUBY DOWN MORE THAN HER TEAMMATES OR GENERAL FUCKING LIFE HAS ALREADY BEEN. BITHC FUCKING WEHRE

“I need to know why my makers left me here.” This makes me think that the Wonderland was structured by the shitheel gods of light and dark. Perhaps the cat was one of their compromises, which is why they’re such a wildcard? But that would make so many questions about the purpose of Wonderland itself and we all know that MKEK can’t be bothered with things like worldbuilding or nuance or anything remotely resembling intelligence (also I read once that black scelera ((the white part of the eye)) is a sign of pure truth/desire so honestly this is incredibly intriguing even though I know it won’t end in anything satisfactory)

NEO STEPS ON LITTLE BEST CHARACTER EVER 10/10

The cup sliding into frame after Ruby’s frantic eyes is literally so fucking funny how do they expect to take me seriously when the framing has the subtlety of a drunk elephant?

Ohmygod the way JWBY ran into the room like PS2 characters I’m fucking wheeazing

Ohmygod this is literally the most flaccid way to force a person into your perspective. Like... Ruby got kicked around a little bit after venturing into an OBVIOUSLY NOT GOOD PLACE and then decides to drink the airport jungle juice right as she’s about to be rescued and not ONE FUCKING CHARACTER WITH RANGED ARSENAL SHOOTS THE MUG OUT OF HER HAND

Honestly there are times where it really hits me how RWBY is a show about plot that isn’t plot instead of characters, and it’s moments like these where I’m like “damn, these people are acting to the script instead of their character huh” Like... it would’ve been something profound if the tea drinking had happened moments prior to their arrival instead of “hey watch me drink this fuckin tea while I reflect in your stupid eyeball instead of you doing literally anything about it despite that the supposed fact that you fucking raised me YANG, so watch me drop into this fuckkin hole I guess”

At the very least I guess the writers realized that Neo’s sole purpose was offing Ruby because... Roman was in her vicinity when he died???

OHMYGOD THE FACT THAT THE PERSON WHO REACTS TEH MOST TO RUBY DRINKGING THE FUCKIGN JUICCE IS CURIOUS IS FINEING SENDING ME

SHES A FUCKING CORN COB BSBE IM FUCNG CRYIGN

Okay, Curious fixating on Neo is one BILLION percent more interesting than anything jrwby has going on. Once again, fuck this main storyline bullshit and give Curious their own damn show

Also, nlg, the facct that Curious is Geometric rather than Organic in terms of design (squares vs spirals for the at home group) is super fucking cool and I desperately need an entire goddamn story abt them pronto. I would absolutely love to see how they interact with Remnant and if they’d be able to have their weird ass powers in the dimension of mortals. That is so much more interesting than literally anything our main crew has proposed in literally years, especially since these dumb mfs aint ever talked about whether or not its okay to kill a whole ass human being for their cause (and faunus are human beings. Fuck off if you think that some shtity tail or ears makes you not a whole ass person)

These mfs cannot let the bee train go for a single second can they? These bitches gotta be hit inot the sam efukcin wall while Weiss gets left all alone. Yknow. Like her family let her be for th emost part. Glad to see that RT’s priority is rainbow capitialism instead of genuine storytelling

Well that is a hentai trope I did not expert to see today. Though the fact that it’s Neo does not surprises me at fuckign all. Mmmm love me some fcking body possession. Great job Rt on making on your female characters be absolutely consumed by a foreign entity that surely isn’t a fucking metaphor for antyhign yknow the fucking facehuggers were’nt a metaphor for shit didnt yha know????

May I say to MKEK, absolutely fuck you for makign the cat an undeniable villain. Can you guys not handle even an iota of moral greyness? Can you not conceive of the idea of a situation that is not merely good vs evil? I ask you to look at the world today, and tell me that evil arises merely because it can rather than as a symptom of a society that refuses to care for all its citizens. Can you not idealize a person who, when pressed to their absolute brink, will take upon violence to ensure that the seeds they sow will bring sustenance to those who come later? For fuck’s sake I’ll take a person who idealizes themselves for morally grey reasons other than what the fuck ever these dipshits are trying to sell to me

Wow aint it so spectaculaar that Curious invaded the one person who wasn’t important to the writers plot adn now our heroes can now kill her without any iota of guilt? Aint that fucking nifty? Aint that fuckign grand? And not even a fucking thought extended to teh idea tha Crurius wanted to see the outside world. THat was their main reason for helping the siblings right? Because Alyx promised them that she would bring him to Remnant? But taht whole plotline is gone because it’s jsut TOO SPICY FOLKS. Can’t have anything interesting in our show about FAIRTYTALES whene we’re in a FAIRTYTALE LAND

Honestly, fuck you MKEK, fuck you RT, fuck you any god that ever alloweed existence to happen. THis is fucking bullshit

It was only through looking up the info on the internet that I learned that Roman Torchwick’s og VA died of colon cancer prior to this volume (2022). Mr Kametz, I hope you rest well and know that your expertise was greatly appreciated. May you know peace in the beyond

[sho-minamimoto]

6 20 23 Sho

1 7 8 23 Shiba!

Sho

6. What's something you have in common with this character?

Hmm.... hard to say since Sho is just. completely batshit. I guess the easiest and most obvious answer would be that we're both artists and like to find beauty in aesthetically strange things. But I dont think i have a single thing in common with him personality wise LOL

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

I think susukichi and sho have extremely similar temperaments + quirks and if they weren't on opposite sides of The Conflict they'd get along great. I said once before that Susukichi would be the Sho Minamimoto of NEO if sho literally wasn't also already in the game. Their vibes are super similar and they both want to have a fun time.

23. Favorite picture of this character?

This one marketing image from when the anime was airing is the funniest thing in the world to me. like. why the fuck is sho even here. he is in no way buddies with anyone in the hachiko gang (during this specific timeframe anyways) there is literally NO logical reason for him to be posed alongside this specific group of characters here. This image from sho's pov is just him + guy hes actively trying to kill + guy he's stalking only bc he's joined at the hip with the guy he's trying to kill + guy he met twice and beat the shit out of one of those times + 2 people he's never met or interacted with before ever. On a marketing level its clear they just wanted to include him with the main characters simply bc hes a super popular character among fans but it's makes for the most unintentionally hilarious image ever.

Shiba

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

First. he's extremely funny and dresses like a harlot. Second THE LAYERSSSS Shiba's primary motivation is like a puzzle that the narrative gives you all the pieces to and then invites you to solve. Not in that the game doesn't tell you what it is At All, it says as much that he's on a powertrip towards ascension, but it's difficult to wrap your head around Why until you deliberately examine and unravel each of his relationships with the other shinjuku reapers: how they affected him, what their side of the story is, why they're emotionally estranged but still sticking together, etc. I enjoy that you have to take the time to put it together yourself, but also the full picture you get once that puzzle is complete is one that i enjoy immensely. The fact that the core of shiba's plight is rooted in his relationships (or lack thereof) is very true to the spirit of twewy and I greatly appreciate that they applied all this to the game's main villain AND gave him a chance for redemption on top of it. His final scene is one of my favourites in the game and really sticks with me.

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

The memes. Shiba's so easy to meme on its great. I have a folder of shiba memes on my desktop whenever i see a new shitpost or edit i Have to save it. im glad he gets clowned on so hard. Shi Basuks Cok lives in my head rent free. I wish shiba's va did small comms like I've seen other voice actors do sometimes bc i would pay him money to hear him voice act that post as Shiba for real. But i can dream

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

I know i like Just finished talking abt how much i love the shiba memes but i also dislike how Majority of what i see of shiba is Just the memes and jokes. I wouldn't go as far as say i despise them at all (or i wouldn't have a folder of shiba memes) but I think its disappointing that i hardly see anyone actually take him seriously as a character or give him any consideration for analysis. Or not as much as I'd like to see, anyways (when i do see it it fucks hard though.) I also get the impression sometimes that some people take delight in the memes + clowning on shiba specifically bc they think he's just Not well written or interesting which bums me out a little.

23. Favorite picture of this character?

this clown shiba edit i made a yearish ago. i hold it close to my heart.

[starredfishing]

How RWBY treats it's POC and disabled characters is absolutely disgusting, even beyond main canon. When you break them down and really look, it becomes very blatant that the bigotry runs deep in this show and the side material.

With our Faunus Antagonists we have; Adam (partly blind/face disfigurement due to branding by SCD employee, brutally stabbed and tossed off a cliff), Tyrian (amputee and implied mental health issues), Ilia (dark skin, lesbian, orphan from poverty driven by unrequited crush), Fennec and Corsac (dark skin, one brutally dies in a burning building), Lionheart (dark skin, traitor, brutally killed by Grimm), Tock (serial killer, brutally killed)

For our human antagonists we have; Neo (mute), Cinder (Chinese according to the creator, amputee, facial disfigurement), Merlot (amputee), Vernal (darker skin, bandit), Emerald (dark skinned thief stereotype), Mercury (amputee abuse victim), Watts (darker skin, left to burn alive), Ironwood (Asian decent (specifically modelled after his VA who is Asian American), amputee and suffering from PTSD), Fifestone (darkest skinned character in the series, union leader turned terrorist), Olive Harper (dark skin, military mole working with a business man regarding conspiracy to bust unions), Carmine (dark skin, human trafficker).

Don't even get me started on the bullshit on the "good guys" side or we'll be here all day.

RWBY is, sadly, an inherently bigoted show.

yes i definitely agree. i didn't even know about some of these its rlly disgusting and disheartening. i dont have a place to speak on the disability rep bc im able bodied (though looking at this and having seen the show. seems Bad) but seeing how many of these are dark skinned... i also thought that tyrian was asian coded for a while but idk if thats true. regardless the villainization and misrepresentation of poc is. its awful. they think theyre adding diversity and theyre just adding more death fodder. i miss marrow

[bbleague-crispin]

Ooc: Who do you headcanon as crispin's va? All I can think of is Ian Alexander after I watched moon girl and dinosaur.

@crispinthecookofblueberry

// HI OTHER CRISPIN GUY sorry for the late response bc this is a question ive been thinking about for a WHILE. i'd probably say Griffin Burns, specifically his voice for Fret in NEO: The World Ends With You. im very Not normal about twewy and i got neo a few months ago!! the controls are kinda hard for me but i am Learning djhjdsdsjsh. anyways fret and crispin have a very similar personality, they're both silly absentminded guys who have sunny personalities! i only really picture crispin's voice as my own outside of fret. i kinda just see him with my voice, since i do voiceover shenanigans when i'm bored. my voice is mostly androgynous but high-pitched and LOUD so it just kinda fits him sdjfjsdh

[papipopsicle]

SHY AWAY PART ONE

Pairing: Bucky Banes X Reader

Summary: In which an imitation Captain America leads to Y/N leaving her holiday early and coming back to the field. Stuck between her only two friends, she's forced to reveal a secret she'd kept even from herself.

Song: Centuries by Fall Out Boy

Warnings: none unless John Walker counts

Words: 1.2 K

MASTERLIST

feedback is always appreciated

The evening had been such a lovely one up until an unscheduled press conference cut off Brooklyn Nine Nine half way through an episode. Y/N had once again turned up on Bucky's doorstep, no longer unannounced but instead with an invite from the super soldier. Two months ago he'd asked for her phone number abashedly, calling her every couple of nights since then.

Before 'the blip' the two had been fairly friendly- Y/N visited Wakanda between her missions, sometimes with Steve but often alone. She kept him updated with world news, brought books for them to read together and he would retell each memory uncovered by whatever Shuri was doing to his mind. Some were of the thirties and forties, adolescence and entering the Second World War. Others were of missions in which his body was no longer in his ownership anymore.

"Did you know Steve Rogers?" The TV personality asked, sat atop her tall chair with a large microphone pointed at a nobody named John Walker. Though now he would never have the luxury of counting as a nobody again.

Y/N twisted her head away from the screen, carefully observing Bucky's near unreadable expression of fury and betrayal. The blonde Captain wannabe began spouting nonsense about the two's best friend, words that sounded fancy and heartfelt with a warm smile, but his entire person felt like ice in Y/N's eyes.

"Even though I never met him, he feels like a brother." John's already insufferable voice called across the undecorated apartment. The female agent leant across Bucky, grabbing the remote and switching off the television before more drivel about their dead friend spilled from his mouth.

The super soldiers jaw clenched, unclenched then clenched once more. If it wasn't for Y/N's tentative touch to his bicep, the the now switched off screen would have a fist shaped hole through it, as well as the wall behind it. Instead, a couple of tears escaped and Y/N used the sleeve of her sweater to wipe them away silently, allowing Bucky to curl into her.

His body shook gently for a man of his size, and even in his disturbed state, he was careful not to cause her any discomfort. Bucky felt a kiss reach for the side of his temple, "His suit was even worse than the one Coulson designed for Stevie in New York."

Y/N squeezed her friend's right shoulder, running her calloused hand through his short hair. It took forty five minutes for his body to stop the small tremors; short, fast breaths levelling out into soft exhalations. James hadn't ever been able to make sense of the messy emotions within him, his therapist was court mandated and only cared about him becoming a stable non-violent citizen. Sam tried his best, spilling out all the advice he'd given vets at the VA years ago, but it was nothing new.

The assassin holding him was the only one who really tried to understand. Forced him to see she truly wanted to help and understand, not out of curiosity or malice. Because Steve had helped her accept herself as human, and he deserved the same.

"Where are you going?" Steve screamed for the third time, pulling his blood soaked friend into his freshly showered hold and crisp muscle tee. Rain coated the outskirts of Manhattan with fury, the icy cool pellets of November skies feeling dull against her numb skin.

Y/N's chin was tilted upwards, her apathetic eyes meeting the super soldiers righteous ones. They landed from a mission half an hour ago, and while Steve washed away the dirt and debris, his best friend was about to start her next as Friday alerted her to a missing young girl.

"Duty calls, Cap." She raised an eyebrow in defence, only drawing attention to her bloodshot corneas and deep purple under eyes.

He rolled his own in response, directing her back towards the compound before her mind could even register what was going on, "Post mission cool down, honey. You're no help to anyone if you aren't functioning fully."

Steve put this protocol in place specifically for Y/N. It was the only way to get her to look after herself and process the mission effectively. Before him, she had no coping mechanisms, and before the protocol she refused his pleas.

"She needs help, Stevie." Y/N pouted as her body was lightly pushed through the front door.

"And someone who didn't just annihilate a Neo Hydra base will help her, you know that." His voice was firm but soothing to the ex assassin, who was still being guided down in the direction of her room, "Want me to help you? I could get Nat if you like, she's-"

"Please." She looked over her shoulder timidly, the distant facade broken away instantaneously. Steve silently agreed. He started the shower giving it time to warm up. Y/N stripped herself of her armour and weapons first, then the tactical suit, and her friend helped her out of her underwear.

He gave her time to sit down in the shower, her eyes averted from the large mirrors. Taking the shower head from its hook, washing away the matted blood and mud. His movements were careful and loving, the entire exchange innocent and devoid of any romance or lust.

Steve washed her unmoving body until the water ran clean and she was ready to stand. He hugged her body into a plush white towel, squeezing the warmed fabric against her clean skin.

Y/N held Bucky through the whole night, slumped against the wooden floor with a frayed blanket curled under her head. Her neck ached as she made breakfast the next morning, but for her, it was worthwhile to know her friend had slept through the dark hours without stirring.

"Where do you think Wilson is right now?" Bucky's muffled voice called out, swallowing the hash brown with a large gulp of black coffee.

Y/N stopped herself from rolling her eyes at the question, knowing exactly what the super soldier’s plans were simply by the irritation in his tone, “I know where he is, Buck. But you know, if you go after him, I’ll be coming after both of you. And we’re all going to get dragged into something together sooner or later.”

“Yeah well, it was bound to happen. Just can’t seem to stay away from the fight.” Bucky raised his eyebrows in defeat. He wanted to be himself so badly, wanted Y/N to be human and go on coffee dates with friends, explore the world outside the perimeters of a mission, to sleep soundly at night.

But for now, neither of them felt completely human. The idea of focusing on the next mission felt easier than fixing themselves.

PART TWO

wanna be tagged? just send in an ask

[solarsynthm]

thoughts/headcanons about clay terran

since capcom literally introduced a character that was supposed to be Apollo’s best friend and then sealed him away forever, I’ve taken into liberty of headcanoning the shit out of him and forming him more as a character so here we gooo

This is sort of a long post (ALSO INCLUDING IMAGES OF JACKETS N SHIT) so if you really wanna read this click the read more button and enjoy !! :]

• clay has adhd you cannot change my mind

• He can beatbox. really well. And he can also do whatever the hell MC Mental at his best is almost perfectly

• Also can fortnite dance. he does not stop fortnite dancing it’s like back in 2018 when every kid under the age of 14 was fortnite dancing in a walmart you couldn’t escape it

• He gets distracted very easily and also sucks at volume control he’s almost as bad as Apollo

• he probably had a fnaf phase in middle school

• he/they/star/rocket/space + other space neos, demiboy and pansexual

• i do not think that clay (or apollo) ever really had a crush on each other? i feel like they had more of a gay best friend/brother relationship moreso

• Has a mild animal allergy. anything furry makes him stuffy. that does not stop him from loving mikeko or any dog ever

• speaking of animals I see clay as more of a dog person? I’m not sure why but he strikes me as loving border collies specifically

• Clay is chaotic and can be very unhinged (but in a funny way) at times and overall just super hyperactive. However if the time comes to be serious then he quits clowning and faces the problem in a mature manner and tries to help to the best of his extent. 

• gamer /j (god im crying this is reminding me of the time patrick star’s va went “yeah patrick is definately a gamer”)

• idk why but clay gives me the kind of vibes that he’d wear anything from coats to hoodies to just cool looking stylized outfits, always something different. i feel maybe like these kinds of jackets?? 

(like, the blue and purple ones specifically too, I think he’d go for something colorful or something darker, because there’s no way in hell that he’d just wear this one simple bootleg nasa jacket all the time)

• he would also wear merch from games he likes and pull it off without looking like a loser (i could never)

• freckles he has freckles i dont care if this is canon or not i love the idea of clay with freckles

• he is the one who got apollo into astrology clay loves ANYTHING space and he’ll ramble to you about it any day of the week if you ask. he’ll also give interesting facts

• hes awesome and all but i can kinda see him being a bit of a himbo ngl. not incredibly stupid but like, sometimes you wonder

• in school clay always bit his pencils and like. apollo would never accept a pencil from clay like. He loves him like a brother but there’s no chance in hell he’s gonna touch a bitten up pencil. clay had no idea why and thus apollo never told him

• also in school Clay constantly tried to get apollo like a boyfriend or something because like i think it was especially around the time everyone on the fucking planet and within the school hallways thinks they are ready for a relationship and wants one, so like clay did try to get but only ended up causing Apollo bad experiences with people leading him on and instead making fun of him and then leaving him like a week later. He most certainly kicked their asses after seeing apollo get hurt repeatedly  - this eventually led to clay giving up and just realizing that maybe whoever will eventually come along instead of trying to set it up

okay im done for now thanks for coming to my ted talk

[maxiemumdamage]

Why I expected Nora to become the Winter Maiden:

(I’m sorry for how long this is. I went off and it got really long, but I don’t know how to add a “Read More.”)

In Norse Mythology, Freya is the leader of the Valkyries. Frigga is Thor’s mother. Fria likely alludes to both; the logical conclusion is that she has some connection to the character based on Thor. Incidentally, the character based on Thor’s last name is Valkyrie. Nothing is ever by coincidence in RWBY...

And in RWBY Chibi, Nora mentions her grandma, who is “scary strong.” Chibi foreshadows quite a lot in the series proper: Penny’s resurrection, the Volume 6 finale, Cinder’s fate at Haven, Neo’s return and redesign. There were no other cases of introduction of new characters in Chibi, but Nora namedropped someone in Season 1. That can’t be meaningless.

Nora’s new outfit, unlike her previous ones, prominently features a lot of blue, white and gray; all of which are colors typically associated with winter. The outfit itself is very reminiscent of Mantle fashions; specifically, those of the Happy Huntresses. I doubt this was a purely aesthetic choice.

Nora has always been the one advocating for Mantle. She tries to advocate for better conditions, asks Ironwood to help them, and stops him from declaring Martial law. It doesn’t make sense to have Nora almost exclusively be the only one really sticking up for Mantle, unless...

Nora is from Mantle. Samantha Ireland, Nora’s VA, confirmed we will learn more about her character this Volume. It makes sense to be doing that in her home town. It also makes sense for her backstory to be accompanied by more intense development; Nora’s character has been somewhat static up until now.

In addition to aesthetic and character, there has been a great deal of minor foreshadowing for Nora to be the Winter Maiden. She has been referenced as “lightning” in the last two intros. The effects around her eyes in the “thunder thighs” gag (which references the same skit where Nora mentions her grandma,) has lightning affects around Nora’s eyes... which look and awful lot like the maiden fire effects. Nora is the only member of the main cast whose eye color has been changed, and that change made her look even more maiden coded. Finally, her personality does somewhat match that of an original Maiden; Summer. While this is less concrete, it’s not irrelevant. Nora is maiden coded more than any other candidate.

Cinder says Ironwood has been “hiding the Winter Maiden for years.” That leaves plenty of time for Nora to have lost contact with her grandma before losing her parents and winding up in Mistral. The timeline absolutely works.

While I do think Winter is trying to be a good person, and do not think she is an antagonistic character, she is still ultimately ill-suited for Maidenhood...

For one, she views being the Winter Maiden as “a chance to do some real good for Atlas. For Remnant.” That is her order of priorities. The Maidens are each tied to a Relic, and thereby a kingdom, but are not meant to serve them. Amber was doing what the Maidens are supposed to. She traveled the Kingdoms, doing all she could to aid others with her powers. This is why the Maidens were created in the first place. To help others in any way they could...

Which is exactly what Nora (along with the rest of the main cast,) has been doing. She wanted to spare others the suffering she and Ren experienced, so Nora dedicated her life to being a Huntress, to helping others no matter what.

...Whereas Winter really only joined the military to escape her father. Being the Winter Maiden wasn’t her idea or her choice, despite what she’s told herself. Winter isn’t just unfit to be a Maiden; it’s an unhealthy choice for her.

Or, to summarize:

Nora clearly has a connection to Fria, who is likely her grandmother

Nora is heavily implied to be from Mantle

There has been a lot of symbolism and foreshadowing to suggest she will become the Winter Maiden.

Winter is very ill-suited to be a Maiden, while Nora would be an excellent fit for the role.

I will accept my status as a prophet is this happens, or as a fool if it doesn’t.

In no way related, but imagine Nora using Maiden powers to electrocute herself until she’s powerful enough to crush someone. It’s too good of an opportunity to waste.

[tumblezwei]

I don't think people are complaining about the missions themselves but how fast it's breezing through the content and leaving out character interactions, the "animation." is lazy and half done and I was hoping for something along the lines of a Jujustu Kaisen sort of animation where the battles where instense but not drawn out, it just feels like it could've been better.

If they had the time to put in you know who standing near the statue then they had time to not miss any key interactions when it came to Neku and Shiki.

Idk it all feels rushed when it could've easily been a top tier anime, they already have the killer soundtrack, amazing VAs and amazing plot so why not go all out, why rush it?

I honestly feel like it's like kicking the fans down when they've wanted more content for ages.

Leaving out the fact that we now have episode 2, which is packed as full as it can be with the important character interactions, some better than what we got in the game (hello Eri scene) while cutting out the fat - 

My dude. My guy. What the fuck are you talking about? 

“Kicking the fans down when they’ve wanted more content for ages” did you miss the wholeass Switch port? That added brand new story? And you know, THE FUCKING SEQUEL GAME COMING OUT IN JULY????? Even if you consider the anime to be mediocre at best, how in the hell is it somehow kicking the fans down? 

And the animation is fine??? It’s not a masterpiece or anything but it’s not below any standard that I’ve scene. The fight scenes aren’t masterful but they’re well choreographed, well shot, and do a really good job of incorporating the game mechanics in without feeling forced or unnatural. I have no fucking idea why you expected JJK level animation, that’s entirely on you and not the anime’s problem. 

The entire reason this anime exists is the same reason any anime adaptation of a popular video game exists: to introduce the story to a new audience. For TWEWY specifically it was created to act as a way for the audience to learn the story of the first game in time for the sequel to come out. If NEO had come out when it was originally planned to, as in, a lot sooner than it ended up being, then this anime would not exist. It may be a bit disappointing, but this anime was never going to be the second coming of Christ and you shouldn’t expect it to going forward. it’s here to point people toward the games.

[lee-rambles-about-rwby]

Non-plot things i loved about Volume 7 (since i’ve yelled about the story a lot but there’s so much more i loved): a rambly, bullet-point list

I may think of more if I get around to rewatching the volume, but this is off the top of my head I’ll throw it below a cut just because it’s getting really long (as usual) and I don’t want to clog people’s dash. 

TL;DR i love a lot about this volume lol

Let’s get this one out of the way: M U S I C

like not just how hype I am for the vocal tracks but I didn’t think any score would top my faves from last volume and damn almost every episode had something in the score that literally caught my attention over the drama because it was so good

also so many additional vocalists!! like that’s so cool, I lost my shit when I heard Caleb Hyles IN a rwby episode

On that note (pun intended), sound design in general, yes, hell yes. War abruptly ending with a thud as Harriet runs into the ice? The dramatic shift in tone after Weiss says “Who are you?” and it hard-cuts to Watts with an ominous thunderclap?? The screeching sound over the shots of Summer??? Too much to list

SPLIT SCREENS, like I’m so glad the couple uses of it from last volume became a more regular thing, it’s so cool

The sheer amount of times the voice acting alone could have sold a scene. Like wow the amount of improvement so many of the VAs have had throughout the series is beautiful. Cinder’s desperation and screams in the finale? Top. Ironwood’s increasingly chilling demeanor?? Hell yeah. Willow sounding so realistically broken?? My fuckin’ heart. Oscar, Nora, Ruby, Ren, Qrow, so on and so forth. Again, too many to list

Literally anyone’s outbursts felt so real. I could go on and on with just how many of the especially emotional or tense scenes were made so much more by the VAs, kudos to all of them

The new(?) animation effects!!

Yang and Neo’s semblances are the first thing I think of. This is another thing from last volume, in The Lost Fable and later during the mech fight, I loved how the 2D smoke animation (when the castle is destroyed) and the mech fight explosions looked. Yang’s effect especially reminds me of that. 

Same with just general fire and explosion effects. Someone said they thought it was hand-drawn and tbh it kinda looks it

If this isn’t new I’m just dense as hell, but the flickering of aura in fights instead of it just breaking after a while. I love that we see it flicker when they take hard hits. Tbh it makes more sense for it to do that. Then the little particle effect when aura finally does break! If you’ve ever played the mobile puzzle game Two Dots, it reminds me of the fireflies animation and i love that

OH also that Yang’s eyes seem to glow a bit now when she uses her semblance instead of just turning straight red. It’s so pretty

This is almost plot-related but I’m including it anyway. The general pacing of the volume felt nice. Like a lot of things were happening but it didn’t feel like a clusterfuck trying to keep track of it. Even just in individual episodes. The last few episodes were a lot of fights cutting back and forth and it never really felt messy or annoying (frustration because you want to see the end of the fight sooner doesn’t count lol). I wanna assume that’s in the writing/directing but either way it worked well

CINEMATOGRAPHY! Damn there was some solid camera work. Long tracking shots were so cool (Ruby’s in chapter 1, the one following the grimm invasion, so on), the framing of things for subtly foreshadow things (the political posters and poll numbers, having several seemingly inconspicuous shots of Watt’s bag, etc etc). 

the wide shots in any scene by the vault were beautiful but so were like most of the wide shots in any scene. I know i’m forgetting so many camera shots that probably caught my eye when I watched but there were a lot

OH a specific thing I wanted to mention is the Ironwood vs Watts fight. That wide, rotating shot when Ironwood launched them both off the platform back into normal gravity was so good I had to rewatch just that clip a couple times

Also the fight choreo was fucking great. This isn’t exclusive to this volume, but wow there were some cool moments. The RWBY vs AceOps has to be my favorite, but it’s only barely above Ironwood vs Watts or Cinder vs Winter and Penny, and even still, all the other fights are so close behind that it’s less a ranking and more a “If I had to choose one..”

Lightning round of some other animation things I really loved because this post is too long already:

the gravity in the Ironwood vs Watts fight, but also in Cinder vs Penny and Winter. Like any time a character was flying (or falling) it never felt too floaty or unnatural. Like they still had a realistic weight to them, as much as they can for unrealistically flying lol

being able to really really see how hefty the mammoths were just by how they moved. Grimm animation in general tbh

Honestly the weight of everything felt very realistic; characters, grimm, etc alike

Ruby’s semblance animation looks improved too

Neo, who doesn’t talk at all, still conveying so much in every scene she was in

not technically animation, but the matte paintings used and just a lot of the background designs were beautiful

probably more i’m forgetting 

OH the beautiful use of the whole “Show, don’t tell” concept. Like telling is fine, but this volume did so well with showing things through the animation that foreshadowed other things. Off the top of my head: like how they made sure to show how exhausted Oscar was from fighting Neo, or during several of the scenes in Ironwood’s office being able to just gauge a tone of a scene purely through silent, background facial expressions

Last thing, out-of-show thing: the amount of concept art and behind the scenes stuff crwby has been sharing!! Like i love so much getting to see early designs for character’s redesigns, or concept art for settings, concept paintings for scenes, etc etc. That video going from storyboard, to mocap, to playblast, to final render of Ironwood vs Watts was so fucking cool to watch