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haledamage · 3 years

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Coming Home

I'm a day late because this thing got much bigger than I expected, but better late than never! This is for @shepherds-of-haven Shepherds Summer 2021! The prompt was Pacific Rim AU!

Some of the backstory stuff is from this post here. Some is just pushing ShoH canon slightly to the left so it fits better in a Pacific Rim setting. Some is the result of reading ShoH and watching PacRim at the same time and then taking a nap to see what seeds got planted. There will be a part 2 to this because I had to split it up in order to finish it on time and then I was late anyway.

Shepherds of Haven/Pacific Rim AU. Iorwen Emroth/Blade Bronwyn (well, hints of it. more in part 2)

---

The Haven Shatterdome looked very small from overhead. Iorwen watched it loom closer with a trepidation somewhere between “being late for an important exam” and “being read her last rites.”

It had been just over two years since she’d last been this close to a Jaeger, half a world away and in a different life, but all the Shatterdomes looked the same after a while. Steel and glass and everything painted in olive drab, black, and safety yellow.

Part of her felt like it was too soon to walk into those hangar doors again, the empty space at her side where her partner used to be still a raw, open wound. She couldn’t even think xer name yet without feeling like she couldn’t breathe. Returning to work felt like a betrayal of xer memory.

Another part of her, louder with every passing minute, was just so happy to be home again.

"Wen!"

Iorwen had barely stepped out of the helicopter when she heard her name called and turned to see Red jogging toward her. He looked more tired than she remembered him, but his smile was as bright as ever, his hair vivid against their otherwise drab surroundings. She’d known he was here - he’d transferred to Haven shortly after she left Capra - but hearing it and actually seeing him were two very different things.

She dropped her bag carelessly to the tarmac and ran to meet him halfway, throwing herself at him as soon as he was close enough to wrap her arms around his neck. He hugged her back without hesitation. They were making a Hel of a scene in the middle of the landing pad, but neither of them really cared.

"I knew you'd come back," he mumbled into her hair.

"Had to." She finally pulled away, stepping back just enough that she could see him. "You can barely tie your shoes without me, Liefred."

He only laughed before leaving her side just long enough to grab her bag. He slung an arm around her shoulders as he rejoined her, dragging her towards the hangar. "Welcome home."

She stared up at the Shatterdome, hangar doors towering over them. It didn't look nearly as welcoming as Red seemed to think it should, and was much more intimidating than it had been from the air. It still smelled like blood and motor oil - or maybe it was her memory that did.

She tried to put on her best smile anyway, for his sake if not her own, and let him drag her inside.

They stepped into a hive of activity, the sounds of machinery and voices echoing off the walls, laughter and shouting and clanging metal rising up to greet them. She tried to stop and take it in, but Red was still dragging her along with him out of the main hangar and into a labyrinth of hallways; she probably could have escaped him if she tried, but she didn’t really want to.

“Have you met the Marshal yet?” he asked, once they were in a quiet enough place that he didn’t have to yell to be heard.

“Not yet. Mostly talked to his second so far.” Trouble Alder had, in fact, shown up out of the blue one day three months ago, sitting on her front porch with a stick of charch between his lips and looking completely at home. He’d revisited her every day for a month until he’d finally worn her down enough to convince her to come home. Stubborn bastard. “What's he like?”

“Intense,” Red answered almost immediately. “Most of the younger crew are terrified of him. He doesn't like me.”

Iorwen scoffed. “Bullshit. You’re the most exceptionally likeable person I’ve ever met. Everyone likes you.”

“He doesn't.”

They stopped in front of a door in what was probably the barracks, the walls lined with identical doors on either side. Sure enough, there was a simple bed, a dresser, and not much else inside. Iorwen didn’t mind; she didn’t need much else.

Once she’d dropped off her bag and they started down the next hallway, Red continued, “I don't know if he likes anyone. He barely says two words to anyone but Trouble.”

She was still skeptical, but didn’t push. “Well, he must be doing something right. Look at this place. Capra barely had a skeleton crew compared to this.”

“It’s amazing!” Just like that, Red lit up again. “Some of Blest’s best and brightest are here. Pilots, mechanics, scientists, strategists, you name it.”

“And which of those are you? All of the above?”

“Mostly scientist, I think,” Red rubbed a sheepish hand over his hair. “There’s better pilots. Pan, Neon, and I serve better in the lab than on the field most of the time.” He paused, watching her cautiously, before adding carefully, “And… which will you be?”

“I’ll be working in the clinic,” she said quickly. “As a Healer. I’m not… ready to be around Jaegers again. I might never be.”

“I understand,” he assured her, reaching out to put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “We all do.”

They fell silent after that, and stayed that way until they stopped in front of a door labelled Administration. “This is Shery’s office. She’ll get you all set up.”

“Thanks, Red.”

“Anytime.” With one final quick hug, he turned to leave, only to stop halfway down the hall. “Oh, and Wen?”

“Hmm?”

“Welcome to the Shepherds.”

---

It was two weeks before Iorwen finally met the Marshal, and it happened entirely by accident.

She had just finished a shift in the clinic, patching up minor burns and bruises on unlucky mechanics and restless pilots. The silence between Kaiju attacks left everyone on edge, and that led to carelessness, which inevitably meant stupid injuries. She didn’t mind. All things considered, she’d rather have the silence.

As she turned a corner, she noticed a light was on in the training room, and curiosity led her there without much input on her part.

She recognized the man in the room easily enough. Even if they’d never spoken directly, she’d seen him around enough to know who he was. He commanded the attention of a room like no one she’d ever met before. He was hard to look away from, even here, out of uniform and either unaware or uncaring of her presence.

Magnetic. That’s what he was.

He was also much younger than she expected for a Marshal. He was close to her own age, or at least she assumed he was. She wondered about the story there - obviously there must be one - but knew better than to ask the rumor mill. Gossip was like dust: inevitable, everywhere, and harder to see through the more you stirred it up.

The Marshal’s back stiffened, and Iorwen knew she’d been caught staring even before he glanced over his shoulder in her direction. She stepped into the room as casually as possible. “Hello, Marshal.”

He simply nodded, dark eyes unreadable. “Ranger.” She bit her lip to stop herself from correcting him. “Emroth, right?”

“Yes, sir.” She approached until she could finally see his face. “Iorwen.”

Another nod. “Blade.” She thought he would leave it there, but after a moment, he spoke again. “Antiqua speaks highly of you.”

“Of course he does. He's biased.” She laughed, rolling her eyes at the idea that Red was going around extolling her virtues to anyone who would listen. When the Marshal - Blade, she mentally corrected herself - gave her a look that she interpreted as curiosity, she elaborated. “We trained together as cadets. He was my first Drift partner actually.”

“But you never piloted together?”

“No. It…” Iorwen broke eye contact, the floor suddenly fascinating. “It didn't work out that way.”

“It's not too late,” he said, almost softly.

“Yes it is. I'm not a Ranger anymore. Not after…” Xer name got stuck in her throat, like it always did. She took a couple of deep breaths until she could comfortably breathe around it again, but her smile was still sad. “I'm happier on the ground. I'm a good Healer. It's where I should be.”

She could feel Blade’s eyes on her, but she didn’t look back up to meet them. Eventually, all he said was, “I see.”

He turned his back on her again and it didn’t take long before her gaze was drawn to him again. He was wearing a tank top, like most people did when they came here to train or spar, and standing this close she could clearly see the web of electrical scarring trailing over his arm and shoulder.

She knew those scars well. The scars of someone forced to solo pilot a Jaeger. She should know, she had a matching set.

Blade did an admirable job of pretending he didn’t know he was being observed, but he moved too carefully for it to look entirely casual. Or maybe he just always moved like that. He picked up a bo staff and tested the weight of it.

Iorwen took the opportunity that presented without thought or hesitation. “Looking for a dance partner?”

The briefest flash of surprise crossed his face before his expression smoothed back out. “Are you… sure?” he asked carefully. If she didn’t know better, she might say he almost sounded nervous.

She found it charming. She found him charming, with his not-quite-smile and his cool confidence, this magnetic man who could simultaneously terrify the cadets while inspiring absolute loyalty in them.

But she didn’t tell him that, of course. She just grabbed a staff of her own and grinned as she lifted it in a fencing salute. “On your guard, Marshal.”

---

After that first night, it became a regular thing. Not every day, not even on a set schedule. But sometimes after she was done in the clinic or in the garage, Iorwen would stop by the training room, and sometimes when she did, Blade would already be there. Not waiting for her, not exactly, but never surprised when she arrived.

He never really said much, but she didn't mind talking for the both of them. She could tell he was warming up to her, as the weeks passed; his silence felt much less formal and stiff and more cordial. Eventually, even friendly.

Two things were apparent from the very beginning, though. Well, three things. The first was that Blade, as a fighter, was completely out of her league. She never stopped by with any expectation of beating him; she was content to follow his lead. It was nice to be active again, to feel the familiar burn in muscles left dormant in her self-imposed retirement.

The second was that they were extremely drift compatible. While Iorwen could never beat him, she could consistently predict him. They could both be blindfolded and still know what move the other would make. There was an effortlessness to the way they understood each other that bordered on the supernatural. It was a kind of connection that she hadn’t felt since Zori had been killed.

The third thing was that neither of them were willing, in any way, shape, or form, to admit the second thing.

It was barely a week before Red found out.

He flopped down on the bench next to her in the cafeteria. “I brought those papers you were looking for to your room last night, but you weren’t there.” He didn’t say it as an accusation, but it still managed to feel like one.

“I spent a couple hours in the training room,” she said as casually as possible. “Trying to get back in shape.”

Red blinked a few times, letting that sink in, before smiling wide. “That’s really good. Let me know if you ever need a sparring partner.”

“I kind of… have one?”

“You do?” His smile went from friendly to devious, the look of a man who had four sisters and was willing to tease her as if she was a fifth. “Who?”

Before she could stop herself, she looked across the room at Blade. He sat at a table with Trouble, whose laughter was loud enough to reach them even from the other side of the busy cafeteria. The Marshal’s face remained impassive, looking like he wasn’t even listening, but Iorwen knew him well enough to tell he was amused.

As if he could feel her watching him, his eyes snapped up and locked on hers. She smiled at him; he nodded almost imperceptibly.

Red cleared his throat, and she looked away quickly, turning her attention back to the smugly amused grin of her best friend. “Well, I guess maybe it’s not everyone he doesn’t like.”

“Guess it’s just you.” She nudged his shoulder and he rubbed at it as if she’d hurt him. “He’s not as bad as you made him out to be.” She couldn’t stand his knowing look anymore and turned away, but doing so led her eyes right back to Blade. “He's nicer than he looks. And surprisingly funny. He doesn't treat me like I'm fragile. Like I'll break if someone talks about… Zori.”

Mentioning her former Drift partner and copilot didn’t hurt as much as she expected it to this time. Less like twisting a knife in her heart and more like being poked in a fresh bruise.

Mentioning xer also stopped whatever comment Red had been about to make right in its tracks. He studied her with obvious curiosity, mouth still half-open in surprise. Whatever he saw on her face had him leaning forward and tapping his forehead against hers, a quick gesture of affection and understanding. She leaned into it until he pulled away.

And then his teasing smile was back as if it had never left. “Plus, he's handsome.”

She eyed him warily, but let him have the subject change. “That too.” She picked up a piece of fruit from her plate and popped it into her mouth. “Please don’t say anything about this to Pan or Neon.”

“Scout’s honor.”

“I mean it, Red. Not a word.”

---

“So I hear you and the Marshal have a thing.”

Iorwen sighed from the very depths of her soul. “I hope Red knows how very dead he’s about to be.”

Panrachus looked legitimately confused at her response. “What? I didn’t hear that from Red, I heard it from Caine.” Then he gasped, eyes widening with sudden, delighted recognition. “What does Red know?”

She only barely bit back a groan. “Why are you even here?”

“Right! We’ve got something you oughta come see.”

She followed him, with more than a little trepidation, out of the clinic, through the office labyrinth, and out into the hangar. It took her a few minutes to get her bearings and realize where exactly they were going. “Why are we going to the Jaeger bays?” He didn’t answer. “Pan?”

Then they turned the corner, and she had her answer.

Looming over her was a Jaeger unlike any she’d seen before. It looked almost lanky, the proportions lean and sleek instead of the more familiar bulky designs. It would be unbelievably fast with the right pilots; she could tell that just from looking at it. From the top of each wrist, a wicked-looking blade extended over the hand, almost long enough to drag the ground. It was painted black, navy, and silver, but its eyes glowed bright blue.

From the ground, it almost looked like iladrin. Like the same blue light that lit Iorwen’s own eyes.

“What’s her name?” she whispered, unable to tear her eyes away from the Jaeger.

“Stellar Enigma.”

“Who’s piloting her?”

“You are.”

She jumped at the unexpected voice behind her and turned to see Blade, Red, and Trouble approaching, along with an entourage of what looked to be equal parts Shatterdome leadership, actual engineers, and nosy onlookers.

“You are,” Blade said again, quieter, softer, “Ranger.”

“Blade, I--” Iorwen started, but she wasn’t sure what she actually intended to say.

He reached up and lightly pinched her cheek, a faint smile on his lips. “You’ll be alright.”

Before she could reply, Trouble gently but pointedly cleared his throat, reminding her of their audience. She glared his way, just for a second; he grinned back, unabashed and unrepentant.

“Who’s my copilot? Sir.” She added the last as an afterthought, trying to act some semblance of professional.

“I get the feeling you already have someone in mind.”

She couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Bit early to be reading my thoughts, isn’t it, Marshal?”

---

Iorwen’s suit didn’t fit as well as she remembered. Tight around the shoulders, too loose at the waist. Like it was meant for someone else, no matter how many things tried to tell her otherwise.

Blade’s fit him like a second skin. He looked like a Jaeger cockpit was where he was always meant to be. Like it was the rest of the world that didn’t fit him right instead.

She met his inscrutable gaze before ‘admiring’ could cross the line to ‘ogling’. “You look good.”

He paused for a long time, staring back at her in silence, before finally clearing his throat. “You too.”

She grinned, both at the compliment and at the sight of the Marshal so off-balance, but she took pity on him and changed the subject. “Do you want the left or right?”

“Right.”

“Good. I prefer left.”

They didn’t speak anymore as they connected to their harnesses and their suits started interfacing with the Jaeger, the computerized voice talking them through system checks. It took longer than Iorwen remembered, but it had been a long time since she last Drifted with anyone, let alone with someone new.

“Are you sure about this?” she asked, once their helmets were in place and they’d run out of checks to do. “I’m not--”

“Yes,” he interrupted sharply. “You’re ready. We both are.”

There were a lot of things she wanted to say. To thank him, mostly, for a list of things that seemed to be growing bigger by the hour. She kept quiet; he’d hear it in her thoughts soon enough.

“Initiating neural handshake in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… neural interface drift initiated.”

Between one breath and the next, she was somewhere else. Images flowed over her, some familiar, some new. She did her best to let them pass, to not cling too hard to any of them.

The destruction of Drummond's Point, the first attack the day the Kaiju came. Iorwen, dragging Zori's unconscious body out of town as fast as thirteen-year-old legs could carry her. Blade, stern and silent even as a child, a soldier from the day he was born. Zori, tears at the corners of xer eyes as xe laughs at a joke Pan told, Red and Neon joining in, the three of them always together even then. Blade's older brother, startlingly similar to him in appearance and demeanor, the two of them either sparring or fighting; for them, there had never been much difference.

Zori's scream as xe's ripped out of the cockpit. Gladius didn't make a sound as he met the same fate.

Iorwen's grief washed up against Blade's, soothing in it's familiarity. A gentle reminder that they weren't alone anymore, that thanks to the Drift they'd never be entirely alone again.

She saw him in her memory of their first meeting. Stern, aloof, but warm underneath, like a fire behind frosted glass. Captivating her before he even so much as looked at her.

And then herself through his eyes at that same introduction. Sad, withdrawn, but still burning bright. The embodiment of stubborn hope, like a flower blooming in a snowy field.

And then they broke through the surface, both gasping as they came up for air. Below them, Stellar Enigma came to life. The rush of memories and emotions settled into the background, present but no longer demanding attention.

“Pilot connection stabilized.” It wasn’t the computer’s voice this time, but Shery over the intercom. “How do you feel?”

Moving as one, Blade and Iorwen lifted their hands, right fist resting on left palm, and bowed. Stellar Enigma did the same, moving as smoothly as her pilots did. Iorwen couldn’t tell which of them the wave of elation came from, but it burst out of her in a laugh.

“It feels like coming home.”

#rhi writes #iorwen emroth #iorwen/blade #shepherds of haven #shepherds summer 2021 #part 2 will finally get to a kaiju battle #and also will have some actual romance instead of just hints of romantic tension lol #(will probably also have a small cameo from miss elyana trick and whiplash gunsmoke because why not)#and yes I borrowed a few lines from shoh (especially the dancing and 'trying on fancy clothes' scenes)#because they seemed appropriate and also because it was fun

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itsclydebitches · 5 years

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RWBY Recaps: “A Night Off”

So RWBY has this weird thing going on in Volume 7 where it’ll give me a truly horrendous episode and then manage to turn things around just enough so that, despite my frustrations, I quite like parts of the next week’s stuff. That proceeds to get my hopes up, only for them to turn around mess it all up again in the following episode.

What I’m saying is, I should expect next week to be a pretty rough ride.

First, let me chuck out the details I personally loved in this episode that fit better together than spread out across a recap. Namely, treating Oscar like an actual human being. Thank you, Rooster Teeth, for:

Having him continually be involved by monitoring Jaune’s aura levels. (It likewise hasn’t escaped my notice how much he’s been paired with JNR lately. The fandom might get their new ‘P’ after all.)

Giving Oscar some thoughts and feelings beyond just the Ozpin situation. He’s worried about not having his semblance yet. Hark! A characterization!

Nora very kindly firing back with, “Well, I bet we’ll all be jealous when you do.”

Yang using Oscar as a convenient armrest. Granted, Yang hasn’t exactly treated him well enough lately to have earned that kind of casual buddy-buddy-ness, but if the writing is never going to call the group out on their Volume 6 behavior then I’ll take unearned kindness over continued indifference or cruelty

Jaune going out to the movies with Oscar and them both inviting Weiss. I mean, same issue here. Why is Oscar so comfortable and eager to hang out with the guy who attacked him? I wish that we had some acknowledgment that these kinds of things don’t just disappear once someone apologizes. Jaune still hurt Oscar, badly enough to leave him flinching against a wall... and none of that even takes into account Oscar’s supposed hesitation about lying to Ironwood. He should be acting more like Ren, involved with the group yet wary at the same time.

In addition, keep in mind that Oscar is currently living in this happy bubble where everyone has chosen to forget that Ozpin exists. I’m still highly suspicious of how they’ll treat him once Ozpin is out in the open again and Oscar is the convenient scapegoat for their anger. As said though, for now I’ll take it. I mean, look at that smile.

Right. Onto the actual plot.

We open on the aftermath of the Mantle riots, which is somewhat disappointing. I had hoped the group would actually be involved in that, giving them the chance to tackle a situation where brute force can’t be the go-to answer. You can’t punch out desperate citizens or run them through with your scythe. Instead, Ironwood’s men are handling it and we reconvene with the group the next day, election day. For the record, we know it has only been a day---and not longer rioting as I initially assumed---because Weiss comments that her father dropped that bombshell “the day before the election.” Which for me just speaks to how much time must have passed during those training montages. The political parts of this volume couldn’t have happened in any short amount of time.

We’re shown an interview with Hill wherein she quite firmly doesn’t condone the rioting, but admits that there are good reasons for it as well. Her body guard stands very awkwardly in the background in a way I don’t think the shot really needs.

We then segue back into the group training and, like I mentioned above with Oscar, there are a lot of details here that I really enjoyed. Two of which are Weiss creating a mini version of her knight to sneak up on Winter---yes, please show us this kind of creativity in the actual fights---and Nora and Jaune practicing with a rubber ball. Ren is also deep in meditation while all this going on, which raises some questions about how aware of the world he is in this state. Is he able to simply ignore all the commotion, even Ruby flying straight at him? Is he so deep down that he’s entirely disconnected until he resurfaces? If so, does he only meditate like this when he’s 100% sure he’s in a safe place? Would the group be able to wake him if something were to happen?

As you can see, I’m obviously a little too invested in details and world building lol.

Speaking of world building though, we learn a little bit more about semblances here. Namely that, like hinted at in Volume Five and recently with Harriet, all their semblances are “evolving.” Jaune can apparently regenerate his own aura now, much more quickly than he could before. And Ruby...

Okay, real talk. Did I miss something here? It’s entirely possible I did, but if not what even was that conversation between Ruby and Oscar? She flies at the pillar Ren is seated under, divides into three rose petal clusters to get around it, and recombines on the other side. You know, the thing we’ve known she can do for a long while now. Since Volume Four I believe. Except then we get this exchange:

Oscar: Have you always been able to do that?

Ruby: I don’t know. I don’t normally think it through that much.

What are you talking about? Of course you know, Ruby! This isn’t a new technique. And what do you mean by, “I don’t normally think it through that much”? Is the writing trying to imply that she’s done the split thing so instinctively in the past she didn’t even notice she was doing it? I’m just massively confused by this moment. Others have pointed out that the writing tends to make up easy to solve “problems” for the cast to deal with so it looks like they’re achieving some kind of growth. The most egregious example being Ruby’s lack of hand-to-hand in Volume 5, culminating in a single headbutt against Mercury. Notably, this supposed flaw hasn’t resurfaced at all since then. Not even, say, when she’s at a party without her weapon and Tyrian attacks...

This feels like another moment where they just threw out something random to make it look like Ruby is improving alongside with the other, actual developments they’ve managed to think through, such as Jaune’s aura. Which is particularly strange considering Ruby was set up as the one to evolve her semblance. Which will probably still happen... but why paint an old skill as new along the way? It’s just all very strange.

Anyway, we get a nice shot of Ren coming out of his meditation where the whole world is gray like when he activates his semblance. Excellent visual cue as to his emotional state. This continues as Ironwood arrives and the group lays into him about needing to trust Hill. Which is hilarious considering that none of them are currently trusting Ironwood. He points out that common ground can only exist “if she’s open too”---unlikely given the second half of the episode---and Nora is about to challenge that when Ren interrupts, asking about mission assignments. Ironwood announces that they’re getting the night off instead.

Note though how guilty Ruby looks after all that talk of trusting others.

We cut to the girls later that night in their room, listening to the election news and getting ready to go out. It’s all very cute, but I think Nora is onto something regarding how Blake and Yang are always together. It’s so blatantly obvious they’re falling for one another, especially after this episode, and I’m honestly thrilled we’re finally getting some queer rep beyond former villains and minor characters. However, I hope that as Blake and Yang’s relationship develops that the writers don’t completely lose track of their co-dependency issues as well. Meaning, Yang totally wrote Blake off because she “ran away,” AKA went home precisely like Yang did, warping a natural and understandable choice into a personal betrayal. Blake in turn broke down sobbing and promised Yang to never ever leave her again. Separation is not a new issue for them. Their desire to spend every waking moment together is definitely cast as romantic now, but it’s also tied up in their inability to function well without each other. As we saw recently, a throwaway comment about fighting with someone else generates legitimate anger in both of them. Couples have to be able to spend time apart, so I hope the writing eventually lets the girls work through all that as well.

For now though, they’re going dancing with FNKI. Very bad dancing based on what little we see. It’s enough to convince Weiss that the movies are her best choice here. Especially since she’s clearly not interested in Hill’s preemptive victory party. We see a tiny bit of that tension between Weiss’ views and Nora’s, but nothing with any substance. We just keep getting tiny glimpses that Nora is potentially passionate about the people of Mantle before it’s all quickly overshadowed by her romance drama with Ren. More on that in a moment.

The two of them plus Ruby make their way out into the streets where Ren admits that, “We spent so much time worrying about how Ironwood would react to the truth about [Salem], but have any of us even considered how we’re going to beat her if we work past that?”

Ruby reminds them that Jinn told Ozpin he couldn’t destroy her. Nora: “Maybe someone else could?”

It only took you weeks to figure that out! Though I love how this still---still---apparently has no bearing on how they view Ozpin. This was another perfect, quiet moment where three characters, notably three of the least angry characters, could have acknowledged how terrifying this information is. How they still can’t bring themselves to tell Ironwood, a man who thus far has done nothing but support them. Wow, I totally get why Ozpin would have trouble telling us. Oh also, we just realized that maybe Jinn’s information was specific to him. Maybe someone else can destroy Salem. That’s a pretty big revelation. I wonder if Ozpin himself realizes that? We should probably try to talk to him at some point.

It’s while they’re talking about the heavy stuff that Ren mutters about how they should still be training. Nora counters that they deserve a night off and the two of them clash enough to walk off angry. We see now at least part of what’s been bothering Ren lately. Nora is a very bubbly, silly, go-with-the-flow sort of person, whereas he is hyper focused on becoming as strong as possible in the hopes of finding a way out of this Salem mess. He doesn’t want to hear compliments while searching for a geist, or have her playing with his hair while on patrol, or turn training into a conversation about their relationship, or waste time on frivolous parties. There’s obviously a happy medium between Ren’s work ethic and Nora’s relaxed attitude, though they haven’t worked through that at all because they’re too busy kissing. Again, more on that in a second.

They reach the party, Penny is there, Nora and Ren dive into another fight that serves to canonize both them and Blake/Yang. Nora comments about how they’re spending so much time together, Ren observes that they’re at least friends again, and the response is,

Nora: “Friends, huh? Just friends?” Ren: “What else would they be? Nora: “Two people who have gone through so much? I think there’s more going on...”

It’s clear at this point that Nora is talking about them rather than Yang/Blake, but the initial comparison holds. Though she uses them as an in to discuss her own relationship, I doubt she was lying here. She clearly views them as a parallel to her and Ren: two partners who have been through a great deal together and, as a result, have grown to love each other as more than just friends. Those who insist that Rooster Teeth isn’t heading in a Blake/Yang direction don’t have much of a leg to stand on anymore. That ship (ha) has long since sailed.

Ruby sneaks away from their fight though nothing terribly exciting happens. She adorably clings to Penny’s arm. They adorably fist-bump (ouch). Marrow and Hill get into a conversation about making change and whether or not she’ll accomplish that within the bounds of the law. Funny... I thought we saw that very same theme last volume. If only the writing acknowledged that there’s a connection between this conversation and our protagonists. We’re supposed to see both sides of the situation here: Hill’s need to bend the rules once in a while and Marrow’s desire to keep the peace; how the law is a man-mad construct that’s far from perfect and the importance of making change in a way that will stick---namely, legally. Here is a complex look at a morally difficult question and notably both Marrow and Hill are minor characters. It’s only when RWBYJNR is involved that the message moves from ‘Each side has a point’ to ‘Teens are 100% justified in breaking the law and anyone trying to stop them is an evil, crazy racist.’

It honestly astounds me that Rooster Teeth can give us that subtly here but never when it comes to our heroes.

When Ruby finally returns she finds Ren and Nora still fighting. As she snuck off we heard Ren admitting---in the round-about way of theirs, pretending that they’re talking about other people---that he’s worried, there’s a lot going on right now, and basically implying that he doesn’t know how (or doesn’t want) to balance a new relationship on top of all the horrific Salem business. Which, fair. The problem is that they don’t discuss this. Hill’s speech about how they’re always stronger together resonates with Nora and she tries to initiate a conversation, asking Ren to explain more fully what’s bothering him. To talk about it. He admits that talking has never been his strong suit.

I expected this to segue into a cliche, “Well try” moment and we’d finally get Ren and Nora bonding outside of their jokes and silent communication. Sadly, that didn’t happen. Look, I’m all for a renora kiss, but we have got to stop portraying sexual assault as romantic. Because that’s what Nora does here. It doesn’t matter how sure she (or we as the audience) are that Ren will like this kiss in the end. Grabbing someone and kissing them without their consent is sexual assault. Ren has not agreed to kiss her. He hasn’t expressed any desire here to kiss here. He’s completely blindsided by it and is flailing before he gives in.

People will justify this because, again, we all “know” that Ren secretly wants it and will be grateful that Nora got him past his fear. But that’s a terrible message to perpetuate in a world where others insist they also “know” when someone “really” wants them (they don’t) and where kissing or sex is seen as an easy way to supposedly solve problems between a couple. How many times have we seen an angry woman in media essentially told to shut up by a guy kissing her? The message is that her thoughts and grievances aren’t important here. The man knows her better than she knows herself and the second her forces her to start kissing him she realizes that’s really all she needed all along. That trope isn’t redeemed by changing the gender dynamic. Ren clearly has problems with their relationship that he’s struggling to work through. Nora clearly recognizes as much. Yet instead of acknowledging them and overcoming them, she erases any potential development by forcing him into a kiss. I’m sorry, it doesn’t matter how much Ren enjoys it a few seconds in. The continued message that forcing sexual intimacy on someone will fix both their hesitation and your relationship problems has go to stop. Kissing Nora doesn’t magically solve whatever it is Ren has been grappling with for the last six episodes. You know, the stuff they were just arguing about.

Once again, RWBY succeeded in giving me something I wanted, but in a way that severely downplays that enjoyment. I wanted a renora kiss, but not without consent and as a way of ignoring their issues. I wanted more focus on Ren and Nora as a whole this volume, but it would be nice if their characters could exits outside of each other some. Like the criticisms against Blake and Yang, Ren and Nora seem to be a package deal. They don’t fight with anyone else. They don’t go to different activities (why can’t Ren continue training if he’s that focused on it? Let Nora vent her feelings to a friend while he’s gone). They don’t interact with Ruby when they’re out with her. Their arc, it seems, doesn’t exist outside of each other. Which I suppose is better than no development at all, but still.

From then on things devolve rather quickly. While Hill continues her speech---and we see the ever closing gap between her and Jacques---Ruby gets a quick look at Tyrian’s tail before Watts turns out the lights. From there Tyrian proceeds to murder so many people, including attacking Fiona and going after Hill. All the while Ruby and Penny struggle to attack, despite the fact that Penny clearly has night vision and hangs back too long, obviously for plot purposes. It’s when she finally gets him away from Hill that Watts turns the lights back on, making it look like Penny had attacked the crowd and Hill was defending herself from her. I’ll admit, making Penny suitably creepy during the battle helps sell it.

Man do I hate framing plot-lines though. Not in a ‘Rooster Teeth shouldn’t have done this’ sense, just that it hurts to watch people react so badly based on a misunderstanding. This setup works best when there’s no one to refute the assumption. Yet here we have Ruby who absolutely saw Tyrian there, Penny who absolutely saw him with her night vision, Marrow who just made a connection with Hill and took the time to insist, “This wasn’t us, I swear,” etc. We’ve even got really basic stuff like, does Penny have blood all over her blades? Yet based on Hill’s look, all the evidence against Penny being the attacker isn’t going to do much good. Which makes for a more frustrating experience than a sad, yet understandable one.

We end with Jacques thanking everyone for his victory, rigged by Watts. Watts uploads the video of the attack, which has presumably either been altered in some way or just shows Penny in that damning position with her weapons out. If the former, that would at least go a long way towards explaining the inevitable backlash against her. An angry mob in the heat of the moment is one thing, but if Watts is looking to convince the entirety of Atlas that Ironwood is using his robot---a robot the people seem to currently love---to take out his competition, a doctored video of Penny attacking innocent people is far more persuasive. For both them and us the audience, wondering why everyone is this gullible. So far we’ve gotten some truly excellent villainy this year. Let’s continue that with them thinking ahead.

At the very least this should (should) provide us with some excellent development for Penny. She’s long struggled with her status as a robot and being the defender of Atlas seems to have helped her come into herself. Having others accept her differences as a boon will do that. Now that she’s labeled as nothing more than a dangerous weapons again? We should see some inner conflict. The writing didn’t let her or anyone else grapple with her death. For the love of everything, at least let Penny grapple with this.

Finally, Ruby and the others are forced to spend the night defending the city from a ton of grimm. Seriously, take in how many grimm showed up because of an election. Now think about what will happen if Ironwood announces Salem’s existence... I don’t think the cast is admitting to themselves precisely how many lives they’d be sacrificing by pulling that stunt. Ironwood at least (as far as we know) truly thinks he has a shot at winning the war. Ruby has no excuse at this point, with the exception that telling people about Salem is just plain hard.

Insert standard ‘Ozpin was right and they’re being hypocrites’ meta here.

And that’s it, folks! Issues aside, an all around better episode than some of the others we’ve gotten this season. Based off of experience it’ll be a small miracle if RWBY manages to keep that up next week.

Until then 💜

Minor Things of Note

All the people who were arrested the day of the election... do they get to vote? I know Watts rigged things, but potentially keeping everyone that furious with Ironwood from deciding who will oppose him on the council won’t exactly look good... especially combined with the Penny situation. Not that I think RWBY would actually introduce that as a complication. Just a thought.

Another extremely nit-picky thing, but it’s hilarious to me how bare the girls’ room is. Obviously there’s little time or inclination to animate personal items, even the few they have, but it kind of looks ridiculous to have this sterile space with one mirror and one tube of mascara. Here are the exact things we need for this scene and nothing more! I do like that shot in the mirror though.

Fiona getting teary-eyed over Hill being on the council was beautiful. I barely know them, but I like these two.

I’m just gonna post this again...

#rwby #rwby volume 7 #rwby volume 7 spoilers #rwby recaps #mymetas

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hjertetssunnegalskap1 · 5 years

Text

HOW TO PLAY WITH TROPES AND CLICHÉ CHARACTERS/ STEREOTYPES

One of the ways I get ideas to write, is that I take some characters I love and mix them with a trope I want to try out. Tropes are common expected plot devices. Some typical fanfic examples are Friends To Lovers, Fake Dating, Bed Sharing, Enemies to Lovers, Aliens Made Them Do It, Fuck or Die, sex pollen, etc. Tropes don’t always have to be cliched like these examples. But that’s how the term is used most often, I believe.

Trope inversion occurs when an existing trope is used in a story, but flipped on its head, defying the audience's expectations. Trope subversion is when the elements of the original trope might all still be present, but deconstructed. I haven’t really subverted or inverted many of tropes , and I would love to know more about how to do that. So I have picked up some tips and tricks. To be honest, I will probably mix the terms here.

Now, I’m going to rant a bit about different terms, attempts at definitions and examples, so jump to my pretty awesome list of tips below if you don’t want to read all of this.

Tropes are often based in archetypes - very broad, typical examples of a certain person or thing. Can be found in all cultures. Western descriptions of archetypes are King, Queen, Witch, Wise man, Joker, Hero/ Prince etc. More general descriptions are Sage, Innocent, Explorer, Ruler, Creator, Caregiver, Magician, Hero, Outlaw, Lover, Jester, and Regular Person. I have also seen the term used to describe elements/ roles in the hero’s journey. We have a Hero, a Mentor, an Ally, a Herald, a Trickster, Shapeshifter, Guardian and Shadow. I suspect that the suggestion that we only have 7 types of stories to tell, like Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, Rebirth, Comedy and Tragedy, implies that these story types also are archetypical. We all use them, all the time.

Tropes often end up as stereotypes, that are very typical oversimplified ideas of a particular type of character/ thing. Clichés, basically. So when I talk about tropes I suppose I mostly talk about stereotypical tropes. Since the term tropes often are used to describe typical plots and storylines, I’ll sometimes talk about stereotypes when I describe commonly expected or cliched characters. Like The Chosen One, Damsel in distress, Manic Pixie Dream Girl. All of these things are basically tropes. Hell, I will probably throw around these terms and mix them horribly. Sorry about that.

Example: The Geek meets the Manic Pixie Dream, falls hard, and grows to appreciate more in life

Let’s say you have a character who is based in the Thinker/Scholar archetype, a person who is constantly in search of knowledge, who meets a Creator, a person who wants to make things.

The thinker can easily become a Geek, and that’s a typical western trope. And we have stereotypes about the Geek having poor social skills, being serious and wise etc. and these ideas can become cliched, boring and overdone. Just like the Creator stereotype often can become the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. The stereotypical trope would be that the Geek meets the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, falls for this person against his best intentions and grows to see more to life than facts.

Example: Isak and Even from Skam

You can write Isak from Skam as this Geek meeting this brighter than life Even, falling for him against his will and growing from that. In a way, Skam starts out a bit like that. Isak has expressed prejudices as “hipster wannabe movie makers” like Even before, but then he sees this gorgeous Even and falls hard. However, in Skam, Isak was never written as a pure Geek role. He was more a Geek/Hero/Jester with internalised toxic masculinity, forced independence and abandonment issues based in his Christian upbringing, friend group, being left by his father etc etc.

While Even appeared at first glance as a Lover/Creator/ Hero or Manic Pixie Dream Girl, he gradually showed more and more cracks in the facade, tricking the viewers to think he was more a Shadow/Trickster character, or a possible Fuckboy, until it was revealed that he was a more rounded character with a troubling background, mental health issues, fears and insecurities. To be fair, Skam did follow a trope of Isak growing as a person because he met Even. They got their romantic happy ending and the viewers got what they wanted.

It was everything but boring, though.

When trope subversions or inversions don’t work

There’s a price to pay if you subvert a trope, especially if you do it at all costs - like when they they subverted 5 years of character building in the last season of Game of Thrones. The first season has an example of excellent trope subversion (Stark). However, to pull out the rug at the end like they did in the last season, and disappoint the viewers’ trust, is probably not the best way to do this.

Twists and turns can fail if they seem to come out of the blue. It can be smart to add some small hints of novelty from early on in the story, especially if you’re writing tropes that people find a bit boring. You won’t lose bored readers and you will prepare them that something is going on. Also, it can be good to do the subversion early enough in the story to be able to make interesting changes.

If you choose to subvert a trope it can sometimes be wise to show why you do something differently. Like, if you write a female character who turns out to not fit the norm in the Victorian era, for instance, it could be smart to explain how this character has become who she is. If she’s this badass character fighting for equality, where do these ideas come from? Or if you have this character surviving traumas, abuse and lack of love, how does he turn into an empathic, more or less likable hero?

A lot of disappointment with trope subversions, like in Avengers Endgame or the last season of GoT, feel worse because the the characters act out of character. If you try to write something true, with characters that seem real, consistent and believable, that helps.

If you play with a trope it helps if you manage not to make it too pretentious. I can’t think of any examples right now, but I know I have experienced it. Trope subversions often have a hint of nod to the trope itself, and humour can help making the subversion work. Like if the villain comments on how villains typically loses, before actually killing the hero. Or kissing the hero, lol, but that’s another trope.

A lot of build up that fizzles out can be disappointing. If our Victorian badass character has, say, superpowers, she also should have a reason (a way to use them). The readers expect that. So if you play with that and she fails using them, they probably should end up important in the story in some other, surprising way. Same goes with a romance where there’s a lot of pining, tension, heartache and misunderstandings and these are not addressed. If you choose to subvert this trope, it’s probably smart to address these things in a new way.

All in all, when you subvert a trope you often will have to tread carefully to balance between meeting the readers’ expectations and not meeting them. Remember that the story always needs a satisfying conclusion.

Then again, some say even trope subversions are becoming new tropes, and that there’s no reason to subvert them. Could be.

No matter what, I like to play with stuff like this. So. Here are some ways you can play with tropes and archetypes and maybe get some story ideas.

MY PRETTY AWESOME LIST OF HOW TO PLAY WITH TROPES

1 Subvert clichéd characters

You can keep some parts of the wise man archetype, for instance, and change other parts of it. Instead of writing a “wise old wizard” (like Merlin, Gandalf or Dumbledore) you can make the old wizard into a cowardly old idiot. Instead of writing the love interest as a hot hero-type, you can make him more of a charming dork who is impulsive but also smart, intuitive, caring and with insecurities (Even from Skam). Another typical example from fanworks is to subvert typical gender norm characterisation or typical top/bottom or dom/sub characterisation.

2 Parody the clichéd character

Write the typical “Hero/Warrior” character and take it almost too far - like with Thor in the Avengers, or even better, Thor in the Sandman series. In Skam, several characters are taken almost too far like this - up until a certain point. Eskild is written as the “funny gay” until he gives Isak some serious advice, Magnus is basically written as a typical horny idiot until he tells Isak some truths about bipolar disorder. Vilde becomes a parody at times, as well, as several of the other characters.

3 Deconstruct the cliché/ stereotype

Why is the villain a villain? Why is the comic relief a comic relief? Identify the attributes of a character type - say, the likable and frivolous Comic Relief character. For instance Chris Berg in Skam. Explain her in a surprising way - perhaps she’s not just a clown or a funny sidekick, but uses humor as a coping mechanism. Reveal something deeper and true about the character (Chris wants to be a good friend but doesn’t know how to do this because of reasons, clowns are often sad behind the joker mask, etc). Make readers wonder if they’ve misjudged the stereotype. This can sometimes work with typical fandom clichés as well.

4 Lampshading a character or a trope

“Hanging a lampshade” is the technique of countering your reader’s disbelief in a character’s ‘reality’ by acknowledging how blatantly they fit a cliché. The would-be victim in a horror story trips while running away (as they always seem to do) but the would-be killer stops and comments it. Perhaps they say, “Oh, you’re going to trip and make this boring?” Another typical one is when the villain has captured the hero and the hero finds a way to escape while the villain has his big speech. I love subversions of that trope, like in Black Orchid where the villain comments it and shoots the hero without a speech (if I remember correctly). In a way, season 3 in Skam does something similar to lampshading. The season is written as an epic love story, but the characters comment this in different ways, talking about epic love stories, movie references etc.

5 Turn the plot trope upside down

You can hint about a trope, than turn things around. Sometimes this is called baiting, or showing that the expectation was a red herring. For example, you can write a story where you set up a typical hero story but the hero befriends the dragon instead of killing it. Or maybe the dragon wins. Bed sharing and it leads to nothing. Fake dating where they stop lying. A setup for a possessive jealous partner who doesn’t get possessive at all. Soulmate story where the heroes aren’t soulmates. An ugly duckling story where the makeover doesn’t really change anything.

6 Parody the plot trope

Write the plot trope but amp it up and make it extreme. Fake dating going too far (whatever that means), or soulmate story where all the brutal implications are clear. Ending in disaster, most likely. I can’t think of good examples here but I suppose crack fics are a bit like this. Oh, and parodic horror movies. Parodic movies in general, probably.

7 Deconstruct the trope

Somehow make it believable that the story builds as it does, based in the background of this world, or the characters. If I use Skam as an example again, the plot in season 3 is a quite typical boy meets boy trope, strangers to lovers, and it includes tropes like personal growth, miscommunication to communication, but it doesn’t feel forced because the characters feel true and real and their actions make sense based on their backgrounds. We get the feeling that there’s something deep and true behind it all. Isak’s difficulties makes sense, and so do Even’s and it also makes sense that they get each other.

8 Changing the point of view

This is a neat trick. You can pick any fairytale and make something new if you write it in the pov of the villain, or the jealous hindrance character, or one of the helpers. You can write fake dating viewed from the outside. Or a coffee shop story where you’re the guy washing the dishes, or perhaps the owner of the coffee shop, getting annoyed at the baristas flirting with the guests? Or a cute meeting where you’re a bystander watching someone crash into each other, and you almost piss yourself laughing.

9 Switch a story element

You can put the whole trope into a new location, like a new time or place, and make a new type of story. For instance, a love story in space can give an interesting twist. You can write a fairytale set in modern time. Most AUs are switched story elements like these. The trope is still being as it is, so this isn’t really a subversion, but the trope is dressed up in a way that's unique.

10 Averting the trope

This isn’t really playing with the trope at all, since it’s just avoiding it. Like, writing an action movie with cars but without a car chase (oh puhlease that’s like a dream, I hate car chases). It is when you would very much expect the trope but despite there being plenty of opportunity for it, it is never used.

That’s it. I probably mixed a lot of terms and ideas. I still hope you found some interesting ways to play with characters and plots. There are so many more ways to do this, but these are my tips, I sure had a lot of fun writing this.

#trope subversion #trope inversion #playing with tropes #writing #characterisation #archetypes #stereotypes #clichés #tropes #plot #characters #trope aversion #long post #skam #why did I write this long ass post?

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sometimesrosy · 5 years

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I have a feeling that Jason is going to wait until the very last episode of the series to let bellarke kiss. He’s such a troll lol

I don’t have that feeling. Your feeling comes, I think, from social media and interviews. I have always been more focused on story than on getting clues from the creators. I depend on my own ability to break down a story. I think that a lot of JR’s social media and even interviews are designed to keep the “will they/won’t they” of Bellarke going. He doesn’t want people to be sure. Because the will they/won’t they builds romantic tension. HOWEVER.

That’s not how the story is going. He’s writing an epic romance that has mythic weight behind it, which is the OPPOSITE of a will they/won’t they story. An EPIC story, where they always come together, where they are soulmates, where their love persists past space (literal) time (literal) and death (literal) is ANYTHING but uncertain. Also, JR’s social media presence is not really as anti-bellarke as fandom makes it out to be. He says one questionable thing per season, it seems, and the fandom blows it all out of proportion to erase all the narrative development on screen, and I just don’t have the patience for that. Fandom wants 100% bellarke certainty, and JR does not want to give that. All he has to do is say “misinterpreted” and he doesn’t even have to say WHAT he thinks is misinterpreted or who is doing the misinterpretation, all of a sudden the ENTIRE fandom thinks he’s saying Bellarke isn’t romantic.... which he didn’t. He can just HINT at a thing, and the fandom FLIPS THE FUCK OUT. It’s exhausting, frankly.

And it doesn’t fit the story on screen. I don’t know why fandom thinks one line in an interview takes precedence over one SERIOUSLY bellarke centered season. Do we forget that he designed the season?

He developed a romance story in seasons 5 and 6 that made the ENTIRE show about Bellarke. Not just them getting together to save their people, but season 5 had Bellamy needing to save Clarke, to get her back in order to save HIMSELF. And Clarke needed to save Bellamy, even if it meant “letting him go” to save HERSELF. They were necessary TO EACH OTHER, not just the team, not just the battle. Self.

Now in season 5, this is part of the main plot, but the conflict was still external. Still Diyoza, Octavia, Worms,

In season 6, he got even closer to it. Clarke and Bellamy were back together, as soul mates and partners, alas there was a romance between them, keeping them apart, canon girlfriend and then who is this asshole with Clarke?? Jealousy, ah. And yet, they both let each other go as romantic figures in order to be with each other as partners and soulmates... until... until....until Clarke is killed. Then the rest of the story just fades away. Clarke feels like giving everything up, Bellamy is happy, he has a family and a home now and he’ll take care of Madi. She did her job she can let go until Monty snaps her out of it, and then she reaches out to... BELLAMY! Who until he found out she was alive wa ready to give up, too. They’re safe, he won’t fight anymore. He would keep going for his family. But once he finds out Clarke is alive.

Boom. The story THE STORY the main story is now about Bellamy saving Clarke. The CONFLICT was Josephine wanting Clarke’s body. While the rest of Earthkru struggled with the moral complications of these body snatchers and what it meant to be complicit with that system, Bellamy was focused on one thing. Clarke’s BODY. And putting Clarke’s mind back in it. He left his people behind to save who he could save, who he NEEDED to save.

This is not a misinterpretation, it’s canon. He trusted them to take care of themselves and Echo to protect them, and he would save Clarke. A choice was made. Bellamy chose Clarke.

I get why JR would want to put confusion there. Because Bellamy made the canon choice, and Echo supported it. “Go save Clarke” she said. That also was controversial, because JR said it made Echo a hero. And we were all like, huh? How? Or how more so than anyone else? (and if that choice made her a hero in the narrative, then why were all her heroic plans utter failures. she was supposed to save Murphy from being killed and instead, murphy and raven and abby saved themselves and Echo was captured, and given nightblood and nearly turned into Simone. She escaped that with Gaia and Miller, but even so, was just in hiding until she could get back with the ACTUAL heroes of the show. Clarke (suddenly they could get he barrier down) and Bellamy (suddenly they could defeat the sanctumites.) Saying she’s a hero outside of the story doesn’t change that, while she is a warrior and even sometimes a leader, she doesn’t do a very good job of protecting, saving, or winning.

If you follow only Echo’s narrative arc, she’s a dangerous warrior with a dark past that she struggles with and a yearning to be free, but a desire to belong and be valued. She wants to be independent and strong, but is held back by the kings and queens who have claimed her for their subject. I think it’s a feminist story of identity and empowerment, and she might be the hero in her own story, but she’s not in this one, and if letting Bellamy go save Clarke makes her a hero... then that’s because she’s letting go of the man she loves, the way Clarke let him go in season 5, so that he may be with the one he loves. It would make the heroic arc of her personal story letting go of the belonging that she found with spacekru to face herself, to be independent and to BE herself. BUT that’s not total canon yet, just me defining her personal narrative arc that I see developing, so saying Echo is a hero is EXTREMELY ambiguous.

Does it mean she’s the new romantic lead? No. She’s not that kind of a hero. In fact, her story isnt a romance story at all. It’s an individuation story, a woman finding her identity and breaking free. If she were the hero of a romance story with Bellay then Bellamy should have been more concerned with her while he was off saving Clarke, and their reunion should have been more romantic and less relieved family. Sorry. That’s just how it is, because that’s how romantic stories are told.

In fact, if B/E was the romantic story, when they reunited they should have run into each other’s arms with light flares representing the emotional intensity, and shared their deepest fears and sorrows about what happened while they were separated, and the camera should have focused on their faces so we the audience could see their emotional connection. THAT would be how we would be shown a romantic story between Bellamy and Clarke oops Bellamy and Echo. But we weren’t. Bellamy hugged Echo and then looked at Clarke and the close up reaction we saw was CLARKE’S. Remember, close ups are how the filmmakers tell us to pay attention to a character’s emotions.

B/E was a canon relationship in seasons 5 and 6 but it was NOT a story. It put obstacles in the way of Bellarke and the Blakes in s5 but really, season 5 was about Bellamy getting Clarke (and Octavia back) and about becoming the hero that he is meant to be, the leader. It was about Clarke rejoining Bellamy and her people and still feeling on the outside, which, to be honest, is not just from 6 years alone but ALSO from everything that happened on the ground. Season 2 on had her isolated from her people again and again.

The only person she felt close to was Bellamy, and her 2199 calls proved that. She couldn’t reach him but she kept calling. She didn’t call her mother. Who she also couldn’t reach. She didn’t call all of spacekru. She didn’t call Lxa... who she ALSO couldn’t reach. They were all equally unreachable. But she called Bellamy and kept calling him. Because whether she could reach him or not, he was there with her. His heart was carried with her, inside of her heart.

So season 5 was about the Bellarke reunion and how they were separated by circumstances and the new world, Echo, Madi, Octavia, Eligius, Loyalty. But in the end, they chose each other. The most essential union for them was each other and only when they were together did it make sense, could they reach victory.

So that leaves s6 with Clarke and Bellamy TOGETHER, as soulmates and partners, however the things that got in their way were, 1. B/E 2. Buried feelings of guilt and rejection. 3. Josephine.

1 B/E as obstacle would not be an obstacle if Bellarke were romantic. But Clarke, jealous, has chosen to let Bellamy go to be with Echo because they love each other and if she can’t have Bellamy romantically, then she’ll have him as family. Bellamy is constantly drawn to Clarke, even though he is wit Echo, and this raises the tension between B/E because he is actually comparing the two and Echo comes out on the losing end. But when he sees Clarke moving on (wisely) to someone else, he turns back to Echo. That’s not really as wise, because the problem is he has bigger feelings for Clarke. Even if Clarke didn’t care for him, as he always fears, it’s not so good to be in love with someone else and stay with your girlfriend. There is an ACTUAL romantic tangle happening here, as much a some people want to pretend that the existence of B/E means that Bellarke CAN’T be romantic. I’m actually arguing that with the way the two relationships are framed, one as romantic but minor and troubled, and the other as non-romantic soulmates beyond death and the center of the story, that B/E as an obstacle is proof of romantic endgame Bellarke.

2. Buried feelings has Clarke making choices that keep Bellarke apart. If Clarke were honest about her feelings, Bellamy would be forced to face his own love for Clarke and let go of Echo. But she’s not. She’s being noble and self sacrificing again and probably doesn’t believe he loves her that way. On top of that is the guilt from leaving him to die. She needs him to know she is sorry for that, but she also runs away from the deep meaning of the 2199 calls. That she runs away from those means that Bellamy is STILL resonating with the concept that she doesn’t love him THAT WAY, that risking him is worth it. She’s reiterating the part about him being her “family,” and then flirting with Cillian. So he, being noble and self sacrificing himself (but maybe not as noble as her because he picks a fight with echo over her not benig like Clarke yikes,) and recommits to Echo. UNTIL. Clarke is discovered bodysnatched and thought dead and he’s lost her and he pulls away from everyone and buries all those feelings and hides them from Echo too, despite the commitment to be emotional with each other. WHY? Because buried feelings. So when she’s found alive, those feelings can no longer be buried. Because NOW saving Clarke, getting Clarke back, not letting Clarke die, NEEDING Clarke and, still unspoken, LOVING Clarke are no longer subtextual but textual and THE MAIN PLOT. NOT the obstacle. The motivation. HOW he will save Clarke and how, in fact, he does save her.

3. The MAIN OBSTACLE OF SEASON 6 was HOW WILL BELLAMY SAVE CLARKE. Not how will they save their people. Not how will their people save Clarke. Not the morality of saving Clarke. Not how does Bellamy/Clarke become a hero. Not oh no the hard choices. Just simply. BELLAMY MUST SAVE CLARKE and he must confront his feelings to do so. And face a villain in her body who is trying to manipulate him. Meanwhile the villain’s love story is paralleled to Bellarke’s love story. AND BELLAMY SAVED HER WITH HIS LOVE WHEN ALL HOPE WAS LOST AND GAVE HER MOUTH TO MOUTH/TRUE LOVE’S KISS. And she was brought back to life and to him. The following episodes were them wrapping up the battle against these villains, whose worst crime was murdering Clarke. And whose biggest mistake was giving Bellamy hope that he could get his love back. CLARKE.

Troll.

There’s no troll here.

This is a fucking brilliant, heart stoppingly romantic story.

We’ve got a whole season where the truths of season 6, that Bellamy loves Clarke and that love is bigger than anything, and Clarke loves Bellamy so much that she can reach out past death to him, and that Echo is made of Ash and does not want to be a slave anymore, are going to resonate with Monty’s desire that they all live a good life where they can find happiness and love. Clarke won’t lose the people she loves anymore. Bellamy has faced that he needs Clarke and can’t lose her and she is central to his needs. And Echo has confessed her identity and begun to break free of being the good spy to her master (the master is Bellamy.) All this is part of canon. And it came out in season 6.

To be honest, I don’t know when he’ll make them kiss.

It doesn’t matter. I doubt he’ll leave it to the end, because he is BUILDING to a conclusion where their union is an emotional payoff. This show DOES emotional payoffs. AND it does sex. In order to work that emotional payoff and give us the punch of Bellarke getting together means they have to do it before the very last episode, i think. I mean, maybe episode 13, like Bellamy saved Clarke three eps before the end. IDK.

But.

That’s not trolling. That’s a bonafide epic love story. No trolling included. That’s GIVING. That’s being so committed to the story you’re telling that you ignore all the bad fandom takes from people who think they can do better. And from the bitter people who didn’t get what they want. Sour grapes we call that.

And as long as we’re sitting here, going, “Oh that JR he’s a villain he’s trolling us he hates us he’s never gong to give us what we want,” then we’re going to miss the fantastic story he IS giving us.

And I’m not going to ruin Bellarke or The 100 because I’m narrow minded, spoiled and stubborn. You want to ruin your enjoyment because you think some man you’ve never met is a troll out to get you? When he’s the one who invented this story and committed 7+ years of his life to bringing it to life? That’s on you.

I’m in it for the epic love story. Not a kiss. A kiss is a kiss. Not love. A sex scene might be hot, but it doesn’t make true love.

Bellarke is told over the course of 7 YEARS. I’m not actually interested in reducing it to them hooking up.

People who treat us like we’re stupid for being satisfied with this story we’re getting while THEY get kiss/confess/sex with no endgame, or kiss/sex with no story? Like, yeah, I will actually take my scene where Bellamy brings Clarke back from death over your half-a-sex scene and then no interaction, or your post goodbye-sex “let’s not talk” cuddle-scene. YEAH MAN. I NEED YOU MY LIPS TOUCH YOURS AND MY LOVE ALONE DRAWS YOU BACK FROM DEATH. There is actually no interpretation in that. They said she was dead. He said no my heart will save her head, told her her loved her, and gave her the kiss of life and she heard him and came back, fighting. When Josephine had already killed her. She woke up in his arms and had eyes only for him. And the next episode was full of them caring for each other and touching. TOUCHING. Intimate.

Troll? what troll?

Maybe people consider me delusional because I ignore bad fandom interpretations and JR’s not so great social media presence. It’s because I’m paying attention to the show, pretty much only the show, and I LIKE IT.

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