#i bet he didn't fully believe in those stories but got stuck with them-

[lullybaju]

It's already April and i'm happy to tell that i'm not only halfway through the The Count of Monte Cristo, but i'm already past the 1000th page - about chapter 77. HELL YEAH!

Anyway, apart from the man who plans and controls every aspect of his existence in a way to give life to his revenge, there's a selected bunch of aristocratic people in 1830s Paris, who are acting as if a big cockroach is flying over their heads, that i would love to share here my thoughts about.

Roses are red, violets are blue and Albert is still annoying, Franz is still a promising supporting character and Maximillien and Valentine are boring as fuck, like the most of romantic core of novels. However, as a protagonist he is, Albert kept developing his character and showed few more layers of himself by proving to be a kind of a late modern Narcissus - and a freudian case - as he explained that he doesn't intend to marry any woman because his mother is the most perfect of them all.

De Villefort family and Danglars family are the two cores of the big four traitors that caught my attention the most. M. de Villefort is the strongest villain and his family is the most villainous - especially Héloïse de Villefort, who is trying to kill almost the entire family by poisoning them with poison she compounds by herself - but the Danglars family are the one serving villainous taste of entertainment: they are the fabulous mix of the stupid greedy husband, the adulterous wife and the pretentious "i'm not like other girls" teen daughter. They don't have the best plans, but they do have the people!

As a dark horse, Benedetto or Andrea Cavalcanti rises by being a character who plays a character... in a character. He's so layered that i think he competes directly with Albert for secondary protagonism at second half of the novel - and with great potential to beat him. Does Benedetto or Andrea Cavalcanti really know who are him? Certainly not. Unfortunately, his multiversed personality entirely seems to love pursuing dumb scam plans.

[yamaoni]

The Second Great War of Remnant has begun. Once more, Vale and Mantle are embroiled in a massive conflict, only this time, they are on the same side against Atlas.

I don't think it was a coincidence that so many people drew parallels with the last episode and WWI. We've never seen people fight that way in RWBY. Grimm don't use projectile weapons the way humans do, so the benefits of the trench are diminished; especially if you compare it to the drawbacks.

Now, I understand not everyone in the Atlas military has their aura unlocked and the squishy soldiers need some cover, but if The Long Memory didn't nuke every grimm on Atlas, the lines would have been overrun and then there would have been nowhere for them to retreat to.

You think the very real hand to hand struggles in the trenches of WWI were bad, imagine being trapped in a narrow trench with a bear. Or having this thing explode out of the ground under you.

I refuse to believe no-one in Atlas ever thought, "if we put the dirt from the trench in a box, no only can we give our soldiers cover, we can also give them an elevated position to fire from."

The top of a wall has been the primary defensive position for the people of Remnant for a long time. You can see them in the establishing shots of most settled places the team has visited. So why are we seeing a trench now?

Simple.

Show, don't tell.

RWBY has done a pretty great job, especially in the last few seasons, of showing the audience what it is trying to convey without explicitly telling them. They especially like drawing from well known folk lore to give insight into the future of the show.

Only difference here, instead of drawing the parallel between characters, they're drawing parallels between worlds.

Remnant's first Great War started with Mantle suppressing freedom of expression, the destruction of Art and Color. Ironwood always has little in the way of color, but in his first broadcast since everything started hitting the fan, he has none.

That broadcast also included evacuation ships being blown up by fighter-bombers, Dunkirk. It threatend to level a city if they didn't surrender, Battle of Brittan. All delivered by a dictator trying to scare his opponents into submission through careful use of film.

Theories

If the rest of the season is WWII, I have several theories on plot direction. Considering how well they did keeping up with both ends of the battlefield it wouldn't surprise me if they followed all of them at the same time.

Operation Dunkirk

Or, the evacuation of Mantle.

Players: Penny, Nora, Ren, Happy Huntresses

The Happy Huntresses involvement is a given. Not only has saving Mantle been their goal the whole time, they're also stuck in the middle of it right now.

Penny is the Protector of Mantle. It would be a shining moment for her character to fully throw off the virus Watts implanted and overcome Ironwood's threats to do so. Just crossing my fingers that it doesn't end like the Iron Giant.

Nora is currently Penny's tether to sanity, so she has to go with, and I doubt they would separate Ren from her for the next arc so he's going too.

Surprise twist for this plot I'm betting will be the Starwars "they aren't warships, just people" scene everyone loves to rag on. After all, the broadcast went out that they needed help and, at least at Dunkirk, it was fishing boats and pleasure crafts that retrieved the 338,000 surrounded on all sides.

Why We Fight

Or, countering Ironwoods propaganda.

Players: Robyn and Qrow

For one, these two are unaccounted for and in the heart of Atlas' military machine. If anyone has means to do so, it's them.

The film, Why We Fight, also countered the dramatic cinematography of Goebbels propaganda by painting it as ridiculous and making a folksy call to action much like Robyn has done in the past.

Operation Fortitude

Or, the deception of Ironwood.

Players: Emerald, Jaune, Oscar

This is the mission to make Ironwood think the team is going after the relic. This theory is why I actually thought of and wrote out this whole thing. Thanks @maxiemumdamage, I had things I was supposed to do tonight.

https://maxiemumdamage.tumblr.com/post/644291955872890880/willing-to-bet-my-own-soul-that-emerald-uses-her

Only difference in my theory and their's, is Jaune is going to be playing the part of Penny.

I say this for two reasons. One, Joan of Arc pretended to be a man. While we've gotten both Jaune pretending to be something he's not and him in a dress, this would pose the first time in the story he could do both. Two, it would put him on a direct collision path with Cinder. It needs to happen at some point to bring his arc to a conclusion, but man I hope we're not about to watch him burn.

With Ozpin active again, Oscar has to go along to direct them to the vault. He's also one of two backing the idea of Emerald joining the team and Jaune wouldn't be willing to work with her without him.

Operation Overlord

Or, busting down the doors of Atlas Acadamy.

Players: Ruby, Blake, Weiss, Yang

Where Operation Fortitude was the faint, Operation Overlord was the real deal. For those that aren't history buffs, this is D-Day.

I think this is the reason we've only seen the main team fighting together once since their split from Beacon. And even then, that fight was at most pairs of fighters and not all four of them supporting one another.

RWBY tricked us into thinking season 4 was the post-timeskip level up we come to expect from anime when really we ended up watching the training flashbacks as they happened instead.

We've seen hints of it with the various team ups and combinations, but are we really ready for how much ass kicking they are about to do?

I'm hoping for a One Piece level of badass entrance that can give me shivers whenever I go to watch it again like the walk to Arlong Park still does to this day.

(Aside: if you try telling me RWBY isn't anime, I'm just going to ignore you. Anime is an art movement. If you don't understand what that means, watch this video. https://youtu.be/uFtfDK39ZhI)

Now last and certainly not least

Operation Valkyrie

Or, the death of Ironwood.

Players: Winter and Marrow

The long awaited defection. Plenty of speculation has already floated around about if and when these two where going to cave to their morals and jump ship. I don't know how many of us were expecting the straw to break the camel's back to be a nuke held over Mantle, but I certainly wasn't.

What worries me, is Operation Valkyrie failed and all its conspirators were executed. As if there weren't enough death flags for Winter before.

Even if it's not Winter that kills him. I don't see Ironwood surviving this season. Even if it means he goes out like another hated dictator. It's not like it would be the first time RT had a fallen hero chose to use his own sword.

Wildcards

Or, Murphy will have his due.

Players: Cinder, Watts, Neo, Tyrian, Mercury, Clover

These players can go any which way. Three we know for sure are going to be active in the coming episodes and I wouldn't be surprised if the other three play a part as well.

Oscar made a hell of a light show for Tyrian and Mercury to see behind them. Not to mention, Salem will still need a ride home when she pulls herself back together.

Clover keeps getting mentioned even though he's hospitalized. If he was truly out of commission for the rest of the season, they would have made us think he's dead before bringing him back like they did with Penny.

Up to now, what we've seen is a three way conflict. But one of the hallmarks of Remnant's First Great War, was making temporary alliances to fight off grimm.

The grimm might be gone, but the wild cards can't complete their own objectives if they are dead. The question is who's goals better align with their own.

Two surprise twists I can see here. One, Mercury stabbing Tyrian on his way to defection. He was raised by an assassin and has not going to get a better chance than that. Two, Clover joining Operation Valkyrie. He might have accepted that sacrifice is a necessary evil to ensure Atlas' survival, but might go Schindler's List on us and find horror in what Ironwood plans to do.

TLDR

I spent way too long writing this out. All the WWI imagery means we're getting a WWII movie with RWBY characters. Major death flags for Penny, Jaune, and Winter.

Also I finally figured out how to do a readmore. Apparently it's just been a long time since I updated.

Note: kept seeing things talking about clovers death and I kind of went ???? Isn't he barely alive in medical? Went back and watched that scene and though I am 90% sure he is dead still kind of weird that they have him in his own room instead of a morgue and the initial framing made my mind instantly think he was propped up on a hospital bed. I mean, I guess we needed to have all the ACEOPs there for their reaction to Ironwood... but it definitely made me think he was alive. That and they have a bandage on his chest wound... when he's supposedly dead. Also have a phantom memory of Harriet saying something about him being in critical but I think that's my memory playing tricks on me.

Having his face exposed instead of covered by the sheet and seeing him in the same frame as Winter being treated also didn't help my gut reaction of "Oh Shit! He's alive? How?!" If I'd followed up more on the "how" might not have made the blunder of writing his return as the final twist in my theory. Oops

[angelcorebabyowo]

Title: Honeydew

Warnings: Brief mention of suicidal thoughts

Summary: Lydia, Johann and edward get ready for a party and it's all OOC because yeah

"I don't even want to go!" Johann complains adjusting his poet's shirt and flopping down into the window bench with a huff as Lydia just as quickly starts to brush through his unkempt hair, he even closed his eyes whenever the strokes got gentler. He typically didn't go to parties unless he was performing and he, sadly, wasn't invited to do that this time. Honestly, the only reason he agreed to go was that it was considered rude to ignore an invitation from the mayor so he felt as if there wasn't really even a choice. Maybe he should just fake sick to get out of it, that wouldn't be all that bad, just a simple little head cold.

He sighs softly and leans back into his sister so that he wasn't jerked around as much, he was a bit tender-headed so it made it easier on both of them now that he wasn't wincing every three seconds. "It'll be perfectly fine babes, don't stress so much. You'll get gray hairs if you do it too much." Lydia warned with a small grin, her unnaturally sharp canine teeth looking unnatural amongst the normal ones. A few years ago she dragged everyone into sharping them but she continues to do it every time they run down even slightly. It would be weird if she didn't make it look so damn good " Although I bet you'd love that, huh?"

"Oh, you better believe it" Johann joked sticking just the tip of his tongue out of his mouth by habit. That wasn't a lie, he always fantasized about the thought of having grayish-silver hair at a young age and everyone in the family knew it and would make fun of him at every chance they could. He knew it wouldn't be a good look or actually enjoy it but it still made him laugh every time so he didn't really think that far ahead on the subject. His dad had gone completely grey by the time he was 30 and Edward, his brother, was starting to already so signs of it at the ripe age of 16 so it was possible that he could develop early on as well. "Could you imagine me being completely grey by my 20th birthday? You'd have to start calling me sir in a sign of respect!"

"You get no respect, none" Lydia laughs and stops brushing Johann's hair for a quick second before starting to do the very loose twist with her fingers. It was one of the easiest hairstyles she knew that could be done in half an hour or less. "Put it in a bun or just leave it down? Either way, it's getting twisted because I've already started."

"Maybe in a bun? " He mumbles leaning more onto the window and looking out at the city the setting sun was hitting just perfect to cast a somewhat orange and pink glow on the tops of certain buildings.  He assumed his apartment complex was one of them do to the height alone. He sometimes wanted to just sit on the ledge and watch the sunset that way, one false mood and he would plummet ten stories down before landing in the pool below. He wondered if he'd still be alive by that point. 

"A buns always a safe option." She whispers interrupting his thoughts and gently putting his hair in a bun before taking a step back to look at her handiwork "Its a little high but I think you should be good. That way it's nearly a safe bet, not one person would recognize you." 

"Do you think Avi would still recognize me though?" Johann questions as he looks into the vanity mirror and puts on a fix inspired mask. He forgot why he picked a fox, maybe do to their cunning abilities or something along those lines. He'd picked it out when he first got the invitation weeks ago so all memories seemed to just fade from him. 

"Avi would recognize you even if you didn't have a face or hair, now stop being a love-stuck puppy and both of you finish getting ready. " Edward interrupts walking into the room. How no one heard him walking down the hall with the obnoxiously loud heels was beyond everyone. He was also wearing his mask already. A cream scaled one with a few black scales mixed into it as it added ' Flavor '

'Snake' was the first thing that came to Johann's mind whenever he first saw it all those weeks ago, and even today his mind couldn't stop from going to that place no matter how many times Edward insisted it was a dragon inspired one. Johann still wondered what kind of snake it would even be, maybe just a simple corn snake. Edward wasn't that mean, after all, he wouldn't pick something venomous after all. 

"I am ready." Johann insists pointing to his outfit, the only thing he had to do was change into some dress pants and he'd be off to go.

"I was talking about both of you. More specifically Miss. "I'll do it later" over there," Edward says, he had a point after all. Lydia wasn't even remotely ready to go at that point. Her hair was pulled into an over-the-top and eye-drawing hairstyle and her nails were done to perfection, but other than that her clothes were just basic pajamas "go get dressed before we leave you at home." 

Lydia smirks before patting Edward on the cheek in a taunting manner. "Talking mad shit for someone who got his license suspended."

"Johann can! Right, you can still drive?" Edward questions flopping down onto Johann's bed with a loud sigh as the bed creaks under the new weight. He winced at the sound but overall didn't say anything about it. 

"I'm 15 years old and haven't even taken the exam yet" 

"Didn't ask how old or if it was legal just asked if you knew how."

"I refuse to let either one of you drive my car," Lydia says before walking out of the room to actually go get ready knowing that the other two would actually leave her behind. 

"Our car!" Edward calls before leaning over and closing the door fully and sighs loudly again before laying up against the headboard already messing up his golden capelet and neon blue shirt. He really couldn't stand not being the center of attention for a single second, he always dressed like that so it wasn't that far of a bet after all. "We have ten minutes before it starts but you know the saying-"

"Arriving fashionably late is better than arriving on time, shows how little you care."  Both of them say at the same time although while Edward sounds cheerful Johann just sounds even more tired then he always does as if he was trying to drag it out for as much as he possibly could. Johann sat at the vanity trying to figure out how he was going to cover up the bags under his eyes that, even with the mask, were extremely prominent. he eventually just settled on leaving them there as it seemed to add character to the entire look. (He was going for a renaissance era poet who just lost his husband due to some mysterious illness. He seemed to actually be hitting all of the points except for the crying but no way was he going to cry in front of people.)

They sat in silence now, it wasn't awkward, in fact, it was more comfortable than anything. Edward was doing something on his phone and Johann was trying not to have a panic attack because he was actually going through with this while struggling to fit pants that were a little too tight on. Alright, so maybe it wasn't all that comfortable but it was close enough to it. 

After about 20 minutes Lydia rushed in with a smile wearing bother her outfit and mask on. It was a multi-colored short yet puffy dress that fell off the shoulders and a mask that looked suspiciously like a peacock with the number of feathers that seemed to be hastily glued on. "All they had at the store was the plain ones so I had to glue the feathers and sequins on myself so now it looks as if a 3-year-old designed it!" she complained before going over to Edward and promptly laying down on top of him with an over the top sigh. "Woe is me."

"Well whose fault is that L? We offered you to come with us weeks ago but Noooo, you needed to wait till the last second like some sort of troublemaker," Edward says pushing her off and then promptly standing up and rubbing his eyes slightly and throws the keys he had been hiding in his pockets to Lydia with a pout. 

"Off we go come along little children!" Lydia says before walking out the door again, the sound of her boots echoing through the mostly empty hall. The only thing in them was a few paintings of fruit painted in over the top and crazy colors and a single statue at the end of the hall that they won at an auction a few years ago for like a thousand dollars,

It wasn't worth it.

"We're the same age!" Johann argues running after her trying to put on some of his slip-on shoes as he walked. It didn't fit the look but no way was he also going to wear heels, that was pushing it too far for him at best. 

"Stairs or Elevator?" Edward askes whenever all three make it out of their apartment building and into the main hallway "I'm taking the stair because no way am I getting Vored by an elevator"

"Stop being so mean to me!"Edward whines but gets in the elevator anyway with a pout and it started to go down, Lydia was babbling about how much fun tonight would be and her brothers both groaned in unison. 

"That's baby talk. Grown-men take getting eaten like a champ." Lydia says with a small laugh before hitting the button to take them to the main lobby "Johann baby, what are you taking?"

"I'm already in pain so I'll just take the elevator, fuck walking down 10 flights of stairs. "Johann says pushing his way into the elevator and gently holds on to the railing. "Ed gets in here, I refuse to sit next to you if you walk down down disgusting!"

If this was going to happen all night then what a fun one it would be. 

[aquilasmoon]

The Knight Family

Patrick Knight

Full Name - Patrick Neil Knight

Birthday - 10th November 1971

Sexuality - Straight

Role in Family - Father

Age at beginning of story - 48

Juliet Knight (nee Evergreen)

Full Name - Juliet Lily Knight (nee Evergreen)

Birthday - 13th April 1972

Sexuality - Straight

Role in family - Mother

Age at beginning of story - 47

Francis Knight

Full Name - Francis "Fran" Serina Knight

Birthday - 6th December 1993

Sexuality - Bisexual

Role in family - Oldest child

Age at the beginning of story - 26

Alice Knight

Full Name - Alice Rose Knight

Birthday - 6th December 1993

Sexuality - Strsight

Role in family - Second oldest child

Age at beginning of story - 26

Samantha Knight

Full Name - Samantha "Sam" Rachel Knight

Birthday - 19th February 1995

Sexuality - Bisexual

Role in family - Middle child

Age at beginning of story - 24

Hope Knight

Full Name - Hope Olivia Knight

Birthday - 13th October 2000

Sexuality - Asexual

Role in family - Second youngest child

Age at beginning of story - 19

Chase Knight

Full Name - Chase Roman Knight

Birthday - 15th December 2003

Sexuality - Gay

Role in Family - Youngest child

Age at beginning of story - 16

Information

Patrick Knight and Juliet Evergreen were high school sweethearts. They were your typical teenage love story. Most popular in school, and prom king and queen. They got married at 19 and at 21 they had their first birth. Two twin daughters named Francis and Alice.

A year later they had their second daughter Samantha and decided that three girls was enough for them.

They brought the girls up close and throughout their childhood they were irrespirable. Fran and Alice were parically close. The two girls loved each other, they were each other's best friend and this often left Sam feeling left out. This led Sam into misbehaving to get her family's attention. She became angry whenever the twins would do something without her, even if it was something neither of them could control like joining school a year before her. Because of her anger, Alice and Fran tended to keep away from her and wouldn't want to play with her by the time she was able to join school, making Sam even more mad and lonely.

Sam was over the moon when her parents told them that they were pregnant again and hoped that her new brother or sister could be her new friend.

Unfortunately, her parents didn't let her be with Hope much when she was first born. They didn't want her to act up and scare the baby. Francis and Alice spent most of their time playing with baby Hope and trying to get her to laugh, once again leaving Sam out.

By the time Hope had been born, Patrick and Juliet felt bored. They didn't want another kid and were tired enough by having to deal with the other three. They became even more infuriated when Juliet fell pregnant again five years later. Still, despite their desire to have no more kids they still tried to raise all five of them as best as they could.

The Family lived in a 5 bedroom house in Wales by the beaches. In this house the majority of the ground floor was taken up by the kitchen, with the only other room there being a bedroom which belonged to Sam. On the first floor was the main bathroom, the twins room and the living room. The second floor had Juliet and Patrick's shared room along with Hopes right next to their and Chase with the box room.

Sam had always liked her room. With where it was in the house it meant that she didn't have to interact with her family much. She had the kitchen right at her doorstep and never really would ever need to go upstairs if it wasn't for the bathroom. Having her room on the ground floor and her parents on the top also made it easier for her to sneak out of the house without anyone noticing. The family could go a week with only seeing Sam during family meals which Juliet and Patrick insisted they had every evening.

Both twins grew up with big ambitions in their life. With Samantha acting like she was they were determined to prove to their parents thag they were better and that Sam wasn't a reflection on any bad parenting. They both tried hard in school and got amazing grades. Francis planned to become a writer while Alice wanted to be an actress, they knew thag they were hard industries to get into but both truly believed that they could do it together.

On top of thag they also helped with looking after Hope and Chase. They would babysit without question and with their parents obviously growing tired of the whole parenting thing they made sure that both of them got the same opportunity's they did like taking them to after school clubs. But when they went off to university their parents didn't bother carrying on sending them to the clubs anymore. Luckily for Hope, she had just joined High school and had her own bus pass to get herself around.

With the twins gone it felt as if Juliet and Patrick had given up in their other three kids. Family dinners were no more and they didn't even bother picking Chase up from school anymore, Samantha started picking him up and dropping him off herself as she had the free time by skipping her lessons at college.

During the time that the twins are away, Patrick and Juliet do the minimum of amount of work they have to. Hope had started to follow in Sams footsteps and misbehaves during school but doesn't seem to care considering she knows her parents won't. She also goes out with her friends a lot leaving Chase alone in the house a lot while he's only eight.

When the twins come back after their first year and see what has become of their family Fran suggests that they spend their next year at home so they can look after their family. Alice disagrees and says that it's not her problem and it won't do her any good not going back to uni. Alice believes that they have done their bit and shouldn't have to look after everyone when they can become successful.

When September comes around, Alice is the only one out of the two to go back to uni. Patrick and Juliet are furious at Fran for dropping out and call her ungrateful. They told her that if she wanted to play the parent so much then she should and refused to do anything for their kids. This made it easier for Sam and Hope who became close by Sam teaching Hope how to do make up and roll a cigarette and buying her booze. Meanwhile Chase became incredibly clingy from being left alone too many times. He wouldn't want to go into school because he was scared thag nobody would be there to pick him up and he rarely left Frans side and even spent a lot of nights sleeping on Alices old bed because he felt rejected by everyone else.

Fran takes up a few side jobs to try to pay for essentials. Luckily for her, their parents still live with them so they still payed the rent, water bill and electict but every thing else was up for Fran to buy. Hope and Sam didn't have jobs so whenever they wanted money they would go to Fran, and if Fran didn't have any money to give then they would steal off their parents. Fran knew about this but didn't bother telling them off or not to do it. She knew it would go nowhere and if she was honest she would rather them steal from them than her.

When Alice graduated none of her siblings were there. Patrick and Juliet had banned them all from attending but told Alice that they didn't want to go. Alice felt betrayed by her siblings and got into an argument with Fran about it that night. She didn't belive thag her parents would live to her.

The next morning on June 16th 2014, Fran woke up to a note stuck on her bedroom door with an envelop full of money and different bills. The note said that her parents and Alice had gone off for a two week trip to America and would be back soon.

Fran didn't think anything of it at the time.

Two weeks passed and they still hadn't come back. They wouldn't for another six years.

During those six years Fran had managed to get through to Hope and Sam pretty early on. Sam agreed to get a job and they both started to help out more. Hope started working on her school and ended up doing reallt well in her GCSEs. Their main motivation was proving to their parents that they're not failures.

Chase has started high school and was doing average. He wasn't as bad as Hope and Sam but wasn't as good as Fran and Alice.

After a year they began to run out of money and were evicted from their home. They brought a one bedroom flat not far away so Hope and Chase could continue with school. They had to sell a lot of their things and all ended up sharing one room while sleeping on matresses on the floor.

When Hope left school she got a job straight away and went into a science course for college. Fran bad ended up giving up on her dream of becoming a writer and Sam knew that she wouldn't bet a career with her grades. Hope doesn't go to uni because they can't afford it.

On January 1st 2020, Alice comes knocking on their door. Fran is ready to kick her out before she tells her that their parents had been wrongfully accused of several murders and she needed their help to clear their name.

I am fully aware that the actors don't really look that much like siblings but i did the best i could.

Also Emília is three years older then Alicia and Lily but we're just going to ignore that.

The Knight family are the main character in a book i've decided to write called The Knight Trial. So here's some info on them and their backstory.

Also now after writing all of this I low-key wanna start writing one shots about their life before the murders.