#complicated relationships with identity and mirrors and reincarnation

[gaytwirights]

Entrance exams fucked me up so bad I'm genuinely thinking of a thematic analysis of Seth Twiright, and his relation to the main Themes of Evillious

[bestworstcase]

the perennial Tai Discourse is really interesting to track bc, speaking broadly, the two major camps are just:

those who focus primarily on ruby’s recollection of her childhood and relationship with her dad (and filter what yang says through that lens such that “i had to pick up the pieces and keep things together when i was five” gets diluted into “yang had responsibilities as a child”)

those who focus primarily on yang’s memories and her arc in v4 (and tend to just ignore or minimize the things ruby says that suggest a positive relationship with tai, in particular often just flat out disregarding how excited ruby is to spend time with or receive care packages from him)

when it’s like. yeah that’s. literally the point. that ruby and yang had profoundly different childhoods.

they’re half-sisters in a story about fairytales and only one of them had a decent dad. rwby is unsubtly interrogating the fairytale archetype of the Evil Stepmother/Dead Mother with raven (not dead, but absent) and summer (villain, presumed dead) and that archetype quite literally requires its counterpart archetype of the Neglectful Father who remarries and tacitly participates in the Evil Stepmother’s abuse of his child from his first wife

tai is as much an exploration of the fairytale Neglectful Father as raven is the Dead Mom and summer is the Evil Stepmother. that’s. a core aspect of the narrative surrounding the rose xiao long family.

the Dead Mom often reincarnates as a bird or tree or similar spirit to watch over her child; rwby turns this on its head by reimagining the Dead Mom as an absent one. raven watches over yang in her bird form because she is too afraid to be meaningfully present; she isn’t dead, but her absence in yang’s life is so complete that she might as well have been, and the fairytale tension between the Dead Mom’s death and her lingering presence is explored through these cramped and inadequate half-measures raven takes in trying to have it both ways.

the Evil Stepmother is a vehicle for making the fairytale heroine miserable; she has no identity nor any reason for her monstrous treatment of the child who is not her own. rwby, again, flips this over with the mystery of summer rose. who was she, really? did anyone know? she was a good stepmom—she loved yang like her own daughter—but now she’s gone. she left. she never came back. she lied. she joined salem. why? what expectations did she feel on her shoulders? what broke her? why did she do the things she did?

lastly, the Neglectful Father must either be a love-blind fool or a weak, contemptible man with no love or loyalty to his own blood; he forgets his motherless child at the behest of his new love. rwby turns this on its head too by rendering tai as a human being—messy, flawed, fully-realized. wicked stepsisters exist for the purpose of being spoiled by the Evil Stepmother in juxtaposition with her cruelty to the first child, who is kind and good because she remembers her mother’s lessons. the fairytale children of these archetypes function as repetitions of their mothers. rwby makes that the central conceit of its spin on the Neglectful Father: what if he loved both the Dead Mom and the Evil Stepmother so much and then both of them broke his heart in mirrored ways, leaving him a single father to both of their children? if he sees raven in yang and summer in ruby, how does that color his relationships with both girls? if you take away the Evil Stepmother but not her daughter, does the Neglectful Father remember his first child? or are people more complicated than that?

and with all three, the narrative engages with these one-dimensional archetypes by constructing complicated, multi-faceted characters on top of them; by tossing the simplistic moral didacticism of a fairytale and presuming, first, that everyone is trying their best, that bad choices can be made from good intentions, and that no one gets it right all the time, or even most of the time. love and profound dysfunction can coexist.

ruby and yang had very different childhoods. that’s the narrative foundation the whole rose xiao long family is built on, because they’re a deconstruction of the archetypal fairytale blended family.

[bts-fic-collection]

Universes and Relationships

Universes Abo au   Actor au               Adoption au                 Aeroplane au           Alien au Alternate canon   Alternative universes     America au             Andriod au Animagus au         Angel au                         Apocalypse au Artificial intelligence au Artist au Beach volleyball au Boxing au Camboy au Camp counselor au Canon au Canon compliant Catfishing au Canada au Chef au Childhood friends au Co workers au Coffee shop au College au Dancers au Delivery man au Doctor au Dollhouse au Domestic au Drag au Fairytale au Fanboy au Fantasy au Food service au Frat au Friends with benefits au Future setting Gameshow au Gaming au Gang au Garage band au Ghoul au Grease au Halloween au Harry Potter au High school au Historical setting Hogwarts au Holiday au Human trafficking au Hybrid au Ice skating au Kid au Lifeguard au League of legends au Mafia au Magic au Married au Mermaid au Mind reading au Mirror universe au Model au Multiple timelines Musician au Neighbours au News station au Office au Olympics au Organised crime Parent au Party au Porn au Professors au Reincarnation Restaurant au Robot au Roommates au Royalty au Rule 63 Sci-fi au Security guard au Single parent au Shifter au Social media au Soulmate au Soundcloud artists au Space au Sports au Step brothers au Stripper au Sugar daddy au Superpowers au Teachers au Time travel au Tinder au Third wheel au Truth or dare au Tutor au Valentines day Werewolf au Youtube au Youtuber au Zootopia au

Relationships Age gap Arranged Marriage Best friends Blind dates Cheating Coming out Complicated relationships Cuddling Cuddles Cute Disabled character Domestic fluff Enemies to friends to lovers Enemies to lovers Established relationship Fake marriage Fake relationship Family First dates First kiss Flirting Forced relationship Friends to lovers Genderbent Getting back together Getting together Growing up Humour Jealousy Kissing Long distance relationship Loss of virginity Love confessions Lying Meet cute Misunderstandings Moving on Mpreg Mutual pining Online relationship Open relationships Pining Platonic friendships Post break up Pregnancy Proposals Red string of fate Secret admirer Secret identity Secret relationship Showering together Slow burn Smut Soft Soulmate identifying marks Strangers to lovers Summer romance Swapped identities Texting Unrequited love Weddings