#grimmification

[adarkrainbow]

You might have noticed my posts have recently been centered around a same specific... wave? Circle? I don't know how to call this exactly, and I am not an expert of it all...

But there is this wave of authors and editors, a sort of loose group focusing on retelling, rewriting and twisting fairytales and folktales for a modern, adult audience, and that had their era from the 70s to the 90s. Angela Carter, Terri Windling and Tanith Lee, and all the others that came along (Jane Yolen, Charles de Lint, Neil Gaiman, Robin McKinley, Steven Brust)...

And what is truly fascinating, at least for me, is that this is where the thing we call today the "Grimmification" seems to come from. (At least within the English-speaking world)

Today the process of "Grmmification" (as TV Tropes named it) has earned a certain reputation for being a cheap and gratuitous way of offering in a superficial way an edgy, pseudo-anti-conformism, with just a desire to oppose Disney and not true appreciation and care for the original fairytales. You know, a reputation that was gathered by big blockbusters like "Snow White and the Huntsman" or "Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters", or by B-horror movies (the Asylum's fairytale horrors), or by massive pin-up comic publications (Grimm Fairy Tales)... Of course there's a lot of "grimmified" pieces that nuance this a lot by showing a lot of poetry, beauty and art in their harshness, trauma and gore (Pan's Labyrinth, Changeling the Lost) or by just being embraced by the Internet (Gretel and Hansel, Neverafter, The Grimm Variations). But still, you know what I am talking about. We are in an era re-embracing the romance, the humor and the epic within fairytales, a time of re-evaluating positively classic Disney movies and other childhood productions, a much more colorful, optimistic, un-edgy time compared to the boom of dark, edgy, "grimmification" of the 2000s and 2010s. Ended is the generation of McFarlane's Twisted Fairy Tales or of DeviantArt's Twisted Disney Princesses (sorry I forgot who the creator of this series was).

And so, in front of the... I'll say "soft backlash" against the Grimmification process, it is quite fascinating for me to see that the root of this unofficial movement, or the first modern manifestation of this "phenomenon" was the previously described wave/circle of authors. This women-driven wave of authors (Carter, Lee, Windling and Datlow clearly led the dance) who were the first to truly bring all of what we associate with "Grimmification" (making things darker, more violent, the tales more frightening or bloody, bringing Gothic horror or harsh realism to fairytales, sliding in more sexuality and eroticism, openly standing in opposition and rejection of Disney's pop culture version of fairytales)... But out of a movement that...

... stood up for the perpetuation of the art of fairytales ("modern fairytales")

... defended feminist principles (putting the female characters at the heart of the story, highlighting the trauma they had to go through, deconstructing harmful fairytale stereotypes and cliches for women)

... embraced the idea of fairytale as a product for adults (they were the leaders of complexifying and deepening fairytales into a true "fairytale fantasy")

... stood up with queerness (part of the eroticism and sexuality of these tales was also to include lesbianism, homosexuality and a much more open and honest look at sexuality)

... and encouraged research and exploration of the history of fairytales (exploration of Perrault's text versus Disney ; presentation of the alternate versions and uncensored versions of the Grimm's stories) and of other cultural folktales than those traditionally known (exploration of Asian, Russian, African tales...).

And all of these things, that are still thinks people are looking for today in fairytale retellings, came hand in hand with the blood and the gore, the vile and the rape, the dark and the disturbing. The "Grimmification".

I am not at all an expert on this time era or those publications, mind you - I am just beginning to dig into all this, and I speak from the point of view of a casual enjoyer and a researcher of "vintage" books and half-forgotten fictions. I am here doing broad generalizations and I might be dead wrong. But it is just the feeling I got - that the "Grimmification" process took root within these things... Somewhere in the dark psycho-sexual and folk-horror Gothic of the 70s, was the beginning of our modern "Grimmification".

[the-perverse-library]

Ask: Kamen Rider AU

Size Difference, Femdom, Hyperassets(Larger Cake)

After escaping from Merlot’s Lab, Jaune never expected for his life to be constantly moving from one town to the next, never being able to stay long for fear of drawing the Grimm to the place he stayed. He’d always clear the area of Grimm, stay for one night, and the leave in the early morning. He’d ended up with the earning the nickname ‘The Human Beowolf due to his armor looking like that of a Beowolf. However, he never expected to run into another humanoid type. How does Grimm Blake handle running into Kamen Roser Beowolf Jaune?

Jaune: “Who the hell are you?” *He then preps his claws to strike as he threw his brown and ragged cloak off.* “Another of Merlot’s creations?”

Kamen Rider Beowulf

https://pin.it/7aYMMgHxx

Grimm! Blake:

https://pin.it/1rD4uUPwK

Blake let out a deep, rumbling purr as one of her shadow tails removed the lower part of her Grimm Mask, revealing the red cracks that inched from the corners of her eyes down to the edges of her black lips. Her amber eyes pierced deep into Jaune as she studied... admired him. "As if you aren't?" she asked with a smile. The Grimmified Faunus inched closer, her body swelling, growing with each step until she was nearly twice Jaune's height. Ink-like fur dominated her arms and legs, giving the former Huntress an unmistakably monstrous appearance.

"I-I'm still human!" Jaune argued back as he flexed his clawed fingers. "I would never side with the Grimm."

Blake just rolled her eyes at Jaune's retort. "I'm not on their side, I'm not on Merlot's or Humanity's side either. I am on my side." The Grimmified Faunus adjusted her Grimm Mask, hiding her face again. "We could save Remnant! Rule over Humanity and Grimm alike! Me, it's Forever Queen, and you, my delectible King Consort." Jaune watched as Blake's shadow seemed to churn and bubble as the corrupted giantess spoke.

"Sure, any kind of peace would be nice. B-but... that's just trading people like Ironwood and Salem for other, equally terrible options. We will just have to find another way-arrrgh!" Jaune shouted as he launched at Blake, only to feel her slip through his hands. She can still make shadow clones! He mentally shouted at himself as he rolled across the ground to avoid a counter-attack. But it was his evasive action that threw Jaune into Blake's trap. Jaune felt his limbs sink into his own shadow, leaving him flat on his back and entirely at Blake's mercy.

The Grimmified Faunus lorded over Jaune as he struggled against her shadow powers. "Jaune, Jaune, Jaune... That heart of yours always got you into trouble, and I love that you still want to do good and be courageous. But right now, I don't want or need that." Blake said as her clothes melted away into shadows, and she knelt down, flooding Jaune's field of view with just her wet, dripping pussy. "You can be a just ruler once we've conquered Remnant, so for now, just enjoy the ride." But just before Blake slammed her pussy onto Jaune's face, the blond released a burst of Aura, freeing himself from her trap.

"You are corrupted! I'll save you too, even if it means beating you!" Jaune triumphantly cried out as he jumped to his feet. He was no longer a human but something entirely superhuman. What he couldn't achieve as a man, he could achieve as Kamen Rider Beowulf. He ignored the throbbing bulge that ran down his leg as he focused his power to try and charge once more. But his burst of confidence was shaken with every step he took as Blake didn't move a single muscle; one moment, he was staring at her smug grin and humungous breasts, and the next, his limbs were wrapped and bound.

Gambol Shroud!!! How could I have been so forgetful! Jaune mentally lamented as he had once again thrown himself into Blake's trap. He watched as Blake dragged a black claw down his suit, causing it to quiver and peel away, exposing his nude body underneath. He watched as several inky-looking tailed coiled around and massaged his cock and balls as Blake continued to smirk. Their touch left him biting back deep, needy groans; Jaune knew just how sensitive he was under his armour, and now, Blake did as well. Everytime he opened his mouth, silent groans fell from his lips instead of words. His hips developed wills of their own and began to relentlessly buck into Blake's touch, needy and desperate for more.

"Be mine and I can show you pleasure the likes of which you've never seen." Blake sensually purred into his ear. "Abandon everything and become ~MINE~." Jaune could only whimper as he lost all control of his body. "Hmph... well, it looks like I will just have to fuck all your brains away." Blake licked her lips before she slammed her pussy down onto his face.

[my-forgotten-notepad]

Jaune taking the stain of evil, letting it corrupt mind body and soul; all for the chance at saving Remnant from the immortal Witch who is set on burying the world in the dead.

The last thing Jaune sees before he lays down that final time, are his childhood friends and fellow huntsmen performing his mercy killing while he still remembers who he is and why he did what he has done.

Because I love snarling profile shots of Grimm-hybrids….

[witchblade]

im glad i got to grow up in that specific age bracket where a lot of my edgy preteen style media was alice in wonderland themed like people haven't stopped making shit slop alice in wonderland but dark now media but i feel like i grew up in the apex of it

[mask131]

So... Wicked is coming back in style. And as such I need to make a little informative post.

Because since as early as my arrival onto the Internet, in the distant years of the late 2000s, a lot of people have been treating Wicked as some sort of "official" part of the Oz series. As part of the Oz canon or as THE "original" work everything else derives from (literaly, some people, probably kids, but did believe the MGM movie was made BASED on Wicked...) And as an Oz fan, that bothers me.

[Damn, ever since I watched Coco Peru's videos her voice echoes in my brain each time I say this line.]

So here's a few FACTS for you facts lovers.

The Wicked movie that is coming out right now (I was sold this as a series, turns out it is a movie duology?) is a cinematic adaptation of the stage musical Wicked created by Schwartz and Holzman, the Broadway classic and success of the 2000s (it was created in 2003).

Now, the Wicked musical everybody knows is itself an adaptation - and this fact is not as notorios, somehow? The Wicked musical is the adaptation of a novel released in 1995 by Gregory Maguire, called Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. A very loose and condensed adaptation to say the least - as the Wicked musical is basically a lighter and simplified take on a much darker, brooding and mature tale. Basically fans of the novel have accused the musical of being some sort of honeyed, sugary-sweet, highschool-romance-fanfic-AU, while those who enjoyed the musical and went to see the novel are often shocked at discovering their favorite musical is based on what is basically a "dark and edgy - let's shock them all" take on the Oz lore. (Some do like both however, apparently? But I rarely met them.)

A side-fact which will be relevant later, is that this novel was but the first of a full series of novel Oz wrote about a dark-and-adult fantasy reimagining of the land of Oz - there's Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, Out of Oz, and more.

However the real fact I want to point out is that Maguire's novel, from which the musical itself derives, is a "grimmification" (to take back TV Tropes terminology) of the 1939 MGM movie The Wizard of Oz. The movie everybody knows when it comes to Oz, but that everybody forgets is itself the adaptation of a book - the same way people forget the Wicked musical is adapted from a novel. The MGM movie is adapted from L. Frank Baum's famous 1900 classic for children The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - and a quite loose adaptation that reimagines a lot of elements and details.

Now, a lot of people present Maguire's novel as being based/inspired/a revisionist take on Baum's novel... And that's false. Maguire's Wicked novel is clearly dominated by and mainly influenced by the MGM movie, with only a few book elements and details sprinkled on top. Mind you, the sequels Maguire wrote do take more elements, characters and plot points from the various Oz books of Baum... But they stay mostly Maguire's personal fantasy world. Yes, Oz "books" in plural - because that's a fact people tend to not know either... L. Frank Baum didn't just write one book about the Land of Oz. He wrote FOURTEEN of them, an entire series, because it was his most popular sales, and his audience like his editor pressured him to produce more (in fact he got sick of Oz and tried to write other books, but since they failed he was forced to continue Oz novels to survive). Everybody forgot about the Oz series due to the massive success of the starter novel - but it has a lot of very famous sequels, such as The Marvelous Land of Oz or Ozma of Oz (the later was loosely adapted by Disney as the famous 80s nostalgic-cursed movie Return to Oz).

So... To return to my original point. The current Wicked movies are not directly linked in any way to Baum's novel. The Wicked musical was already as "canon" and as "linked" to the MGM movie as 2013's Oz The Great and Powerful by Disney was. As for Maguire's novel, due to its dark, mature, brooding and more complex worldbuilding nature, I can only compare it to the recent attempt at making a "Game of Thrones Oz" through the television series Emerald City.

The Wicked movies coming out are separated from Baum's novel at the fourth degree. Because they are the movie adaptation of a musical adaptation of a novel reinventing a movie adaptation of the original children book.

And I could go even FURTHER if you dare me to and claim the Wicked movies are at the 5TH DEGREE! Because a little-known-fact is that the MGM movie was not a direct adaptation of Baum's novel... But rather took a lot of cues and influence from the massively famous stage-extravaganza of 1902 The Wizard of Oz... A musical adaptation of Baum's novel, created and written by Baum himself, and that was actually more popular than the novel in the pre-World War II America. It was from this enormous Broadway success (my my, how the snake bites its tail - the 1902 Wizard of Oz was the musical Wicked of its time) that, for example, the movie took the idea of the Good Witch of the North killing the sleeping-poppies with snow.

[dokidokitsuna]

Goldilocks in Grimmland

This is so, so premature...but my muses have been with me from start to finish on this idea and I adore it, so I'm talking about it now! :D

So in the RWBY NeverFell AU, Yang's little mishap during the Vytal Festival actually follows her around for quite a while; with pretty much everyone but her closest friends whispering behind her back about what she did to Mercury. This is very isolating and frustrating for her, especially since she knows from Ruby's eye-witness account that Merc was definitely faking his injury. She's determined to figure out how and why she saw that illusion, and also kinda wants revenge against Mercury for low-key ruining her life. ^^; And her investigation eventually leads her back to him...except, he looks a bit different now. Shocked by his Grimmification and eager to know more, she dives even deeper into the mystery.

Unfortunately, by this time, Salem has arrived at Beacon, parking her giant whale outside the premises similarly to the way she did in Volume 8. ^^ And upon landing, it creates a Grimm-based ecosystem-- a dark forest that gradually spreads outwards the longer it stays there, only adding to the population of Grimm overrunning the area. That's a whole other issue, that the rest of Team RWBY will probably be helping with. For Yang, it's mostly just a giant hindrance to her investigation. She's got suspicions about Mercury (and knowing he's a silver-eyed warrior, suspicions about her deceased mother) and she's sure that the answers are somewhere in that Grimm-whale. But with the death-forest of Grimm surrounding it, it seems impossible for her to get there.

Until, she remembers she knows someone with a semblance that's perfect for the job. ^^

+++

There are several reasons why I love this idea: it gives Yang the spotlight for once in her life; it makes Mercury relevant; it provides an opportunity to get members of the main cast close to Salem.

But the biggest one is: IT GIVES ME AN EXCUSE TO USE REN!!!!! (≧∇≦)ﾉ

I've always loved Lie Ren; like Penny, he's one of those characters who's just impossible to screw up (in basic concept, anyway...). Across RWBY's many adaptations and spinoffs, he's always adorable and always looks cool in combat.

The only problem with him, and the reason I've rarely spoken about him, is that...people don't seem to care about him?? ;_; Specifically, in the source material, he's given so little to do that there just isn't much of a reason to care about him. He barely has any motivations that don't boil down to some variant of "protect Nora". Even Nora herself is given character connections and talking points outside of "her man", but Ren has no one and nothing else. He gets a couple episodes of spotlight in Volume 4, and that's it for the whole series. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I mean, just think about this: Ren is the only member of the main cast who doesn't have a character song. o_o Look it up, it's true. I had to look it up just to make sure, because I found it appalling...this is a character who was originally voiced by the creator of the show; why is he such an afterthought???

So I decided, if I don't like this, I gotta do right by him in NeverFell, somehow. And it was REALLY hard to think of a place to put him, until I suddenly struck gold with this idea. ^^ Yang's little 'detective story arc' had been a thing for a while, and although I wanted her to be separate from Team RWBY, I never really liked the idea of her being alone. A character like her works best with someone to bounce off, and Ren's coolness is a great contrast for her bubbly personality.

Plus, I think putting Ren in a position like this could service him, too: not only does it give me an opportunity to add his semblance, backstory, and maybe even a Nuckelavee fight to the plot in the absence of a V4 timeline; it could give him a chance to "flesh himself out" the way Nora did in V7. Y'know, allow him to really connect with someone besides Nora-- and then, maybe seeing how similar-yet-different Yang is to his childhood friend is what'll get him to realize that he's never done this before. That maybe he's stuck to the familiar dynamic of that early relationship for so long, that there are different sides of his own personality that he's forgotten about. Sides that are coming out now that he's on this new adventure, with a new friend~.

[chaikachi]

Little Red Riding Hood, The Big Bad Wolf, & The Silver Bullet

Aka I did an Oscar as The Little Prince analysis and now I wanna do one for Ruby's allusion in honour of the 10th Anniversary.

I know most if not all of us are familiar, but I'm still going to start with a summary.

Little Red is a story about a young girl in a red cloak who is sent into the woods at her mother's behest to bring baked goods to her sick grandmother. There, she meets a malicious wolf that asks her many questions, to which she answers all truthfully and without hesitation. The wolf takes this information and uses it to beat the girl to her destination where he then swallows her grandma whole and disguises himself in the woman's clothes. There he waits for the child to arrive and come closer so he can swallow her up too.

There are actually two popular versions of this story with different endings that we often look back to.

In Perrault's story, there is no happy ending. They're both eaten up, the wolf is content. The end. But in the Grimm version, there is an additional character... the Huntsman (aka the woodsman). He hears the wolf snoring after its meal and ends up cutting the beast open & saving the victims. Then, with the help of Little Red Riding Hood, he kills the wolf before it can do anymore harm.

All in all, it's a story about childhood innocence being lost, learning not to trust strangers, and being mindful to always follow the correct path. For if you stray too far, you may lose track of time, invite unwanted danger, or find yourself lost.

In RWBY, we have some very clear allusions here since it's the basis for so much of the show as a whole:

Little Red - Ruby Rose

The Mother - Summer Rose

The Grandmother - Maria

The Hunstman/Woodsman - All Three of Them

The Wolf - Salem and her Grimm (but ESPECIALLY The Hound)

They're all pretty self explanatory.

Ruby has the red cloak, her og trailer is clearly inspired by the tale, she loves baked goods, she's referred to as "Red" and "Little Red" by Torchwick & Cinder. She's also a huntress. And, by and large, her entire arc is about losing that childhood innocence and the view that life "is like a fairytale" as well as struggling with what the "right path" to follow is.

Summer is the mother (baker of cookies) and also the huntsman (slayer of giant monsters). The battle axe being her weapon choice alludes well to the alternate name, Woodsman, as well.

While Maria as the grandmother makes the most sense. Another silver eyed huntress that becomes a mentor figure for Ruby.

And while Salem, her war, & the Grimm (that are all emblematic of that loss of innocence) can absolutely symbolize the wolf... There's a reason why I want to focus on The Hound.

All three previous characters are connected by a very specific common denominator: Silver Eyes.

And the hound is no different.

Just another huntsman... but one devoured by the malice of a canine. And, if Ruby's theory is right, that's the same fate that Summer met as well.

And if you think about Silver Eyes specifically... What is one of the most famous lines from the original fairytale?

"My, what big eyes you have grandmother." "The better to see you with, my dear."

Which, when applied to the grimmification of SEWs, is HAUNTING.

Terrifying when you remember "Woah... you have silver eyes". Also thanks to Behind The Scenes content, that Ruby's hair design was always meant to "be a bit wolf-y". And that since Volume 4, Salem has been interested in capturing Ruby alive... I am WORRIED ABOUT HER.

Some interesting things about silver though that ARE worth noting...

1. "In folklore, a bullet cast from silver is often one of the few weapons that are effective against a werewolf or witch."

2. "The term silver bullet is also a metaphor for a simple, seemingly magical, solution to a difficult problem."

3. "In the Brothers Grimm fairy-tale of The Two Brothers, a bullet-proof witch is shot down by silver buttons, fired from a gun."

The lyric "Yeah I'm a girl but I'm also a gun" from Triumph really tells us point blank (lol) why Ruby is so important to this war against Salem, huh.

I'm gonna end this meta on a fun little easter egg; a hidden fifth character allusion to the original Red Riding Hood fairytale: The Woods.

Now I know what you're thinking, the woods aren't a person, they're a location. But they're INCREDIBLY important to the story.

Overall, the woods are the world outside of the cabin that Little Red grows up in. Whenever she travels beyond it, she's liable to meet all sorts of horrible tragedies and monsters. But I want to talk again specifically about The Hound & just where Ruby first meets them: Atlas.

Or, more specifically, Ironwood's kingdom.

For those unfamiliar, while Jimmy's main allusion is the Tin Man from Oz, his last name gives us a hint to another subtle allusion: Járnviðr. Aka the Iron Wood of Midgard in Norse Mythology (a mythos that's been alluded to a lot in RWBY).

Whiiich if you look at a stanza (40) in the infamous Völuspá, a historic poem which is chalk full of Norse myths, you get the following passage:

In the east sat an old woman in Iron-wood and nurtured there offspring of Fenrir a certain one of them in monstrous form will be the snatcher of the moon

A poem that talks all about the Biggest Baddest Wolf of the Norse pantheon, Fenrir... who is the offspring of a powerful Witch...

and is destined to eat the moon...

All within the Iron Wood, a character Ruby spends an entire volume contemplating on whether or not she can trust...

And the moment she does finally tell Ironwood the truth? The secrets she was keeping? The woods become unsafe, the witch and the wolf appear, and everything else falls apart. Resulting her and her team lost and very far from home.

Say what you want about analyses like these but CRWBY knows what they're doing, okay?

[silentmagi]

A Mother's Love: Does the Grimmification alter Summer's mentality directly or give her any Grimm-esque abilities? Like, for example, a sixth sense for when one of her girls is having a bad day?

A Mother’s Love

She does have a heightened sense of emotional empathy, and enhanced hearing, smell, and vision. She is also more prone to anger and protectivity of her family/pack.

She also has sat on Raven to keep her from leaving more than once since their return.

[balis77]

You know, I've been kinda thinking a little bit about modernizations of Fairy Tales/Fables and how they reinterpret characters in a more serious or gothic light. The whole Grimmification trope and how it gets used in regards to individual fables, and I kinda realized there's one famous one in particular that really kinda gets the short stick: Snow White. A lot of dark Snow White versions kinda go for pretty surface level takes: "Oh what if Snow White was a vampire" or "Oh what if Snow White/The Dwarves/The Prince were evil" or "Oh what if she was a badass" and god knows how many deconstructions of the whole true love's kiss bit (rightfully deserved btw). But something I feel gets ignored is that like, the base story of Snow White herself is actually kinda sad without really needing to change too much.

Like, Snow White is a child. A literal child, 7 years old in the original story, who gets forced to flee away from her home and more or less any civilization for reasons she does not/cannot understand. There's some versions of the story where she's so terrified when the huntsman initially comes for her that she straight up begs him to let her live even if it means she has to never go home again. And again, she is a literal child when this happens. Then, after she meets the dwarves and everything, she's still a child. A stranger offers her a present and she takes it not because she's just gullible or foolish, but because she's a kid who's receiving a gift for possibly the first time since she's left home.

Honestly I feel it might actually be more interesting to look into how that kind of experience would impact someone, instead of the usual playing with the setting and character aspects. What being a kid who's thrust into fearing for her life and fleeing everything she knows because of some random cruelty would do to someone's psyche over time. Like, there's a lot of metaphors you can make out of someone being forced to leave their life behind at such a young age for reasons completely beyond their control (Refugees, LGBT+ people being cast out after coming out, victims of racism, etc) for one. And on a character level, having the dwarves/the prince/whatever help her deal with the resulting emotional baggage and trauma would be really fucking interesting and hold a lot of potential that hasn't really been explored in a lot of adaptations, at least to my knowledge.

Just something that's been on my mind recently.

[howi99]

I had an idea of changing the ships name when Jaune is the Rusted knight. (Most of them are referencing alice in Wonderland or fantasy story)

RK x Weiss: White queen

RK x Ruby: paint them red

RK x Blake: Cheshire's cat

RK x Yang: Pendragon

RK x Pyrrha (Or Tarnished Spartan): until death do us apart

RK x Neo: Mad hatter

RK x Nora: Reforged Knight

RK x Willow: Either Broken dream or shining light through the snowstorm.

RK x Ren: Journey to the west

RK x Qrow: A dusty old knight

RK x Winter: The princess and the pauper

RK x Salem (before Grimmification or not evil): Fairy tales do come true

RK x Salem: Second chance

RK x Cinder: Ashen knight or Protector of the flame

RK x Raven: The raven and the fox

RK x Summer: Fallen heroes

RK x Alyx: Fallen between world

RK x Penny: Forgiveness

Now the pollyship I thought of:

RK x Weiss x Winter: Siberian soldier

RK x Pyrrha x Penny: I'm sorry

[ficretus]

Cinder's Vacuo design speculation

Been thinking about Cinder's potential Vacuo design. In all of her main outfits she embodies the femme fatale archetype. In Vale you have her red dress and catsuit. In Mistral she leans into dragon lady aesthetic. While in Atlas you have her in seemingly skintight leather outfit with some dominatrix elements. So not only are all of her main outfits within femme fatale archetype, they are also regionally appropriate (Vale and Atlas outfit with Western version of femme fatale archetype, with Atlas having more modern look, Mistral having East Asian version).

Since Vacuo is Middle East inspired kingdom, then I suspect her design might look something like this:

As a design inspiration I leaned into Egyptian aesthetic, more specifically popular depictions of Cleopatra, one of the most famous historical femme fatales.

For hair, I went for shoulder length hair. To me it makes sense symbolically as well as fitting with the Egyptian aesthetic. It's bit fanned out to appear bit like Nemes, pharaoh's headdress.

Mask could remain the same as in her Atlas design, but I decided to go for kind of a Anubis mask. It's also return to her catsuit's domina mask.

In all of her previous main outfits neck is covered. I decided to cover it with variation of Usekh collar worn by Egyptian nobility. Her brooch is attached to it.

Collar area was left naked by design. Cinder's previous designs allowed you to see progress of her Grimmification. It was only an arm during Mistral, visible after her sleeve tore. In Atlas she wore sleeveless outfit so her newly corrupted shoulder can be seen. Logically, next area to be corrupted should be her torso, hence why I left it uncovered.

Dress leans into popular depictions of Cleopatra. Went for black-gold color scheme, carried over from Atlas design. White would have been more appropriate with this design, but I don't think it works with Cinder as a character, while red doesn't work with Egyptian aesthetic. Belts added at waist as carry over from Atlas design as well as symbolically tying up Cinder.

Bracelet at right arm since it tends to be covered in her major outfits.

For footwear I chose sandals. Cinder usually wears some kind of high heels, but heels in the sand go beyond my suspension of disbelief.

Since Cinder likes to hide her appearance, especially her Grimm arm, I'd pair this with full body cloak.

[jessaerys]

my new place is so grimy i'm still toiling away at the de-grimmification mines. it was definitely not cleaned in between tenants ): idk how people who pay nyc rent do not get radicalized on the spot we should all be rioting on the streets. i say on a weekly basis

[multiverseofmisfits]

Before there's Grimmification, there was...

THE HJÖNKENING

[ancientforgcd]

"Grimmification? What exactly does that imply?" It was an interesting term for certain. "The last time I tried that several centuries ago, I created a Hound made out of a Silver-Eyed Warrior. It was a fun experiment, but ultimately nothing impressive."

"Did this other Salem manage to refine the power of the God of Darkness and keep their original form, while corrupting only their soul and essence?"

Mention: @multiverseofmisfits

[rwbyazre]

tell me everything about dr merlot, i miss my funky scientist (everything that isn't spoilers for future chapters of course) — aphy ❤️

Dr Merlot is currently 66 years old, having been born in Atlas and raised in a moderately wealthy family similar to many scientists in Atlas.

His fascination in the Grimm had been there since early childhood. He wanted to know how they worked, where they came from, and so would dedicate every second of his waking time studying all the books written on the subject. This fascination was always seen as strange, and Merlot was never a very popular person because of it.

But he didn't care. He didn't like people, he didn't see the point in forming bonds, he wanted to learn and so he did. The only one who didn't brush him off was his parents, who loved Merlot even with his weird obssessions.

As he got older, he would pester Huntsmen on their findings, eventually using his family money to pay them to go back into the field and jot down everything they could about Grimm. This way, he built up an extensive collection of notes that would be the basis of his university thesis.

They were so thorough that his tutor suggested he went into publishing them, and so Merlot did.

The books became a success, spanning across Remnant, and even earning him a number of awards for his dedication and hardwork. But Merlot didn't want it. He didn't see the point in all the faff, but he did appreciate that people were interested in his work after years being ridiculed.

The problems arised when he found out that Huntsmen were using his work to hunt down and destroy Grimm.

Because he saw a beauty in the Grimm and their persevierance, Merlot had started to see them as creatures just like you'd see a cat or a dog. He believed they were integral to Remnant and had to be preserved, not hunted down and slaughtered.

This started to tank everyone's public view of him to the point that his books were no longer published, because no one would buy them. Merlot's career was dead in the water before it could really begin.

Eventually, he managed to scrap back some respect by being placed on the teams that were studying the human soul. He would come to see the machinery responsible come to life, but that only started his descent. If the only difference between people and Grimm was the soul, what happened if a person no longer had one?

These questions were quickly shut down due to their highly unethical stance, but that didn't stop Merlot. At 36 years old, he left Atlas and vanished from the public eye, being believed to have retired to the countryside in one of the other kingdoms to live in obscurity.

What they didn't know was that he was found again 16 years later by Arthur Watts, who employed him under Salem to continue his work on Grimm experimentation. The knowledge and blueprints he was given, including that of the soul transfer machines that Arthur stole, meant that he could finally start his work on his passion project.

By stealing a person's soul, he could force them through a process known as Grimmification.

So, the Stitched were born.

[squipedmew]

The idea of both Team RWBY and Team OMEN minus Neo following the same path of trying to mimic what Alyx did to get to the tree and just barely missing each other every time (maybe until the thing at the Lotus Market with the Jabberwocker clones and the Rusted Knight) is delightful to me

Especially if Team RWBY are the ones to notice OMEN being there— they had been too focused on their own issues to remember the teensy little detail of Team OMEN also falling (if that is how OMEN ends up in the Ever After and not some other strange way)

Also wouldn’t Oscar be grimmified at this point? Or atleast partially grimmified? That’d be a fun thing to think about.

Meanwhile, Neo is just sipping tea playing the waiting game with the illusion of a dead man she can now conjure, playing the waiting game until either her Jabberwockers find Ruby, or Ruby finds her (or until the rest of OMEN finds her, too)

ok so. I’ve had some time to sit on this idea and here’s what I’ve come up with.

I feel like there would definitely be some timeline shenanigans in this, considering the entirety of the OMEN au hinges on the end of Volume 8 Not Happening. As such, I imagine that OMEN falls into the Ever After, comes across one of those weird Time Fruit things that Jaune found, and badabing, badaboom, they’ve gone back and timeline has changed. As such, I imagine that they’d be in the timeline where the fall of Atlas actually happens according to canon, and team RWBY + Jaune falls into the void.

So it’d be V9 team RWBY + Rusted Knight Jaune meeting with with OMEN Oscar, Mercury, and Emerald, which is super confusing for everyone involved. Ruby’s really confused as to why this version of Oscar is acting so cold towards her and the rest of his teammates (which definitely doesn’t help with her ongoing mental health crisis). I feel like he’d keep the grimmification a secret and just say the scars were from a fight or something, at least until they get into a fight and something slips.

and yeah, Weiss would be the first to notice these other weird versions of Oscar, Emerald, and Mercury running around, but everyone else is too caught up in their own baggage to listen to her. They don’t end up meeting face to face until the whole Lotus Market thing.

HOWEVER: that leaves us with a problem: Neo. So, this is kind of a silly idea, but I feel like to make up for the discrepancy of there being two Neos running around in the Ever After, the memories and experience of both Neos would end up being combined. As such, we still have a Neo who is hellbent on revenge, but with the addition of “oh yeah, I have teammates now I guess?” It’d be very confusing for everyone involved, most of all Neo, as she’d probably have to make a choice about embracing revenge and the past, or moving forward and connecting with new people. (And as we see in canon, Neo’s got kind of a hard time letting go of stuff.)