#animatoreefs

[lesbianneopolitan]

hey why do you like Neo so much lol. No hate, just curious cause like, there are so many characters in RWBY I just wanna know why you (and a shocking amount of others apparently) identify with her so much

I've been asked this before, but because I was also recently asked on Twitter, I'll answer it again

Everything started with V2- Neo's design and personality caught my eye, yeah, her personality and the fact she was a sadist despite being presented with softer and 'cuter' colors, that's what I liked most at first

Even if her character wasn't thought to be part of the main story, the show gave me enough to end up liking Neo even more. And before I realized it, I caught up with V8 and not long after they gifted me RWBY Roman Holiday

Learning about Neo's past managed to make my brainrot worse, mainly because it managed to make me see myself reflected on Neo even more (for one reason or another)

I really loved witnessing her descend into madness due to loneliness and revenge, or the fact she isn't a good person (even if she suffered in the past, I think the book and the show made sure to make clear the bad tendencies that Neo has, independently to how much she has suffered, she's a chaotic person)

I also really REALLY LOVE her Semblance and I wish I had it lol

They also ended up referring to her as the Mad Hatter on occasion, reference to Alice in Wonderland (another of my main interests), and that gives points- part of her fighting style is based on fencing (my favorite kind of weapon and sword is the rapier)- everything just feels like perfection

And all of this without the necessity of Neo speaking, because she's mute

I just, love this bitch

On the topic of WHY I identify with her, though, it's probably mainly mental illness and trauma, as in, this is a topic I've talked about with my therapist before. I've noticed how a good bunch of women I know that are traumatized and are mentally ill tend to identify more with the villains than they do the heroes, and for each of us, there may just be part of our traumas that are comparable to certain fictional characters even if sometimes the reactions of the fictional characters are often more exaggerated and stuff because, well, they're villains lol

In Neo's case for me, there's also small things like my hyperphantasia compared to Neo's Overactive Imagination, or the fact Neo had an imaginary friend when she was younger that was an alter ego and a side of herself (when I was younger, I too had an alter ego that was the part of me that I couldn't express irl, born from the trauma I suffered), and while I personally headcanon her mutism to be a physical problem (vocal cords), my anxiety and certain stressing situations make me go mute, so I thought the fact she's mute is pretty cool

There's deeper stuff, like relating to how ashamed her own parents were of her for how she was, who she wanted to be, having parents that controlled her a lot, or that feeling of feeling lonely even when in a crowd of people because people keep pointing at you and saying how weird you are for being different, despite trying to be friendly

Or when it comes to relationships, I could also understand the struggles of being so attached to one person, that you try to fill that void with someone else almost desperately once losing them

The thing with the Curious Cat, despite being fictional possession, also reminded me too much of my sexual abuse (entering by the mouth made me really uncomfortable- hell, I did break for a week, in a way, and the loss of control of someone's body to be at the mercy of another reminded me of those dark times too), so I just got an extra reason to identify with Neo in this V9, it's why I gave my Neo's design 'scars' from that incident (physical changes, that to me are a representation of PTSD scars left behind and that you have to learn to live with)

I also have a tendency to identify with some characters that want revenge or are lonely- the revenge part because the person that abused me most in life didn't get any kind of punishment, so it's cathartic when fictional characters can have revenge instead (independently of the target being the real problem or not) and BRUH, there are possibly more things I'm forgetting, but I think the ask already got long enough to know there's a good bunch of psychological and spiritual factors between me and Neo that made me so attached

It's one of those cases in which it feels like, 'Neo was tailored for me' even if I'm obviously not the only case lol

[the-stray-liger]

Here's december's batch of sketch commissions minus one that is NSFW and I can't post

OCs belong to in order to @atrox-forensis, @animatoreefs, @captain-ezri-dax and Four belongs to Gundam even tho it doesn't deserve her

so yeah. enjoy