#i do not remember ever feeling this AMPED about fictional media or a character before like

[scalpelsister]

anyways i need to be humanely euthanized <3

[blacksunisvalid]

Analysis: Did the Death of Pyrhha raise the stakes?

I want to start this by saying that people who were smarter and more qualified than me have talked about other problems with the character of Pyrhha and the writing behind her, and also with other things like the Arkos dynamic. But this has been something I've been thinking about for a long time, and I wanted to ask the question in the title: Did Pyrhha dying really raise the stakes of the series? The answer after I've come to about this is no, it didn't, but we as an audience believed they had been. Let me sort of explain what I mean by this, and use some other series as an example.

When Pyrhha died, we knew very little about her. We knew she was an arena fighter and was one of the best of the best. We knew that this had left her to be mostly friendless, and wanted to be viewed as normal, based on her interactions with Jaune, we can tell she felt good that someone was seeing her as a person and not The Invincible Girl. And we know that Pyrhha is socially awkward, with her habit of apologizing for things that aren't her fault, and the sort of awkward way she would say ' Hello again.' But beyond that, anything for Pyrhha is a head-canon or a bit of a deeper reading of what's present. We didn't know if she had a family at the time, what her goals were at Beacon, and for the rest of her life. We know the above things, and that she liked Jaune. An important thing to note is for the most, we are told these things. We are told she doesn't really have friends, and we are told people put her on a pedestal. But we aren't shown this. This is less effective as we have no context for this.

I think a lot of people will agree that when characters die in fiction one of the saddest things is the fallout other characters go through as a result of their death emotionally. When I think of some of the saddest deaths in fiction, it's usually not the death itself, but the way people around them react. One of the best examples of this for several shows ( spoilers for all will be here, hence the spoiler tag) is the death of Maes Hughes from FMA and FMAB. Maes Hughes was a supporting character, but we knew a lot about him. He was Mustang's best friend, supportive of the Elric brothers, and a loving husband and father. We also know he was very supportive of Mustang's plan to advance and change the world once he had more power. Importantly, for the most part, these things are shown to us. We see Hughes on the phone gushing about his wife, we see Hughes showing tons of photos of his family. They didn't have to tell us ' Hughes cares about his daughter' because we knew that. And so when he died, it was devastating to the audience because we had to see how everyone reacted, and these were characters we knew also. Everything from Mustang crying and saying ' It's a terrible day for rain' to Hughes's daughter crying and asking ' Why they're putting dirt on daddy' at the funeral. These are characters who we cared about, and so seeing them in pain was awful to experience.

But with Pyrhha, we don't really have that. I forget the exact volume, 6 or 7 but even when seeing a redheaded woman talk to Jaune at Pyrhha's statue when they leave flowers, we don't know who that is. We don't know if that was her mother, her sister, an aunt, or just someone who had known Pyrhha. Everything about that ( unless RT has revealed on social media) is speculation, and while a good scene, it doesn't really solve the problem I mentioned above, we don't really know people like a family who would be the most affected by the death of Pyrrha.

Jaune and Ruby were both affected by the death of Pyrhha, with Jaune reforging his armor to be a tribute to her. But the problem is, at least to me that it doesn't feel deep enough. Using a different example, the death of Peter Parker in Infinity War. Some of the first words Tony says in Endgame are ' I lost the kid.' At first, Tony is not willing to risk his wife and child on the chance of bringing back everyone else, because he got incredibly lucky. We've seen the arc of Tony, and this, while maybe selfish is understandable, he's always made the sacrifice play, and so seeing him saying for once he won't is satisfying. But then he sees a picture he has with Peter. Trying to play it off as curiosity, he sees if he could actually invent time travel, and then he does. It's subtle, and it's not tossed in our face, but it's there that the death of Peter really affected Tony and played into his survivor's guilt.

One could say that Jaune wants to kill Cinder for what happened to Pyrhha, and that is a fair example of growth. Volume 1 Jaune probably couldn't fathom taking a life, and by Volume 5 he was trying to murder Cinder in the battle of Haven. But Ruby saw her die. And other than activating her silver eyes ( Another issue others have talked about is how she doesn't really wonder what the silver eyes are) I can't remember really her ever commenting on it. Contrast this with the death of Penny, which is some of the best voice acting the series has for Ruby.

Really small scenes could have helped a lot with this. Some of the examples of things I think could have helped-

When Jaune is calling out team attacks, he accidentally calls out Arkos or a move which relied on Pyrhha, only to realize she wasn't there, and there's a brief moment of silence as it sinks in all over again. ( Example: Shotaro from Kamen Rider W calling for Phillip in the last episode but Phillip wasn't there)

Jaune or someone else does a move in combat that Pyrhha had taught to them. Some of the others see it happening, and they briefly see Pyrhha with them. ( Example: Kakashi seeing Minato in front of him when Naruto performs the Rasenshuriken)

Let the characters talk fondly about Pyrhha with a sense of wistfulness. An example of this would be a difficult battle, and then after the battle, they say something like " If Pyrhha had been there with us, well that would have been easier." Tense silence, and then someone, maybe Jaune chuckles and agrees. It's okay to talk fondly about those who are no longer with us. ( Example: The Justice League cartoon when in an alternate world, Flash is dead and Green Lantern and Hawkgirl talk about him with playful annoyance.)

No one really talks about what her death means for them or how outclassed they seemingly are. An example of what I mean is in Kamen Rider Ex-Aid when a character named Kiriya, or Kamen Rider Lazer dies. The characters are told he died because he 'knew too much' and so a lot of time is spent in uncovering what it was he knew. It became a meme of sorts in the fandom about ' the real reason Kiriya died.' On top of that, the characters lament on how it's concerning that their enemy has a Level 10 form while the highest they can reach is Level 5 as an example.

Pyrrha's death and the fallout from it ultimately remind me of the Justice League movie. We're told the world misses Superman and is a worse place without him. But the DCU hadn't spent enough time building up a Superman the world at large would mourn for, or a Superman who did so much for the world that in his absence, things fell apart. I felt the same way with Pyrhha's death, we were told that it mattered more so than anything.

Now that I talked about what I feel is the emotional failure of the death of Pyrhha, I want to move into the other side of it, raising the stakes. Yes, killing a character is a great way to raise the stakes. It's the most lethal version of The Worf Effect (TVTropes some it up very well, basically a character we know to be strong losing to a new character to establish the new character is strong, IE Thanos beating the Hulk as Infinity War opens). But I feel that Pyrhha was not the right character to do for this for the following reasons

We don't really know strong she is. We are told she was a prodigy, but we are never really shown what that means. The only fights we see her in are CRDL, students at Beacon, and while she does beat them all, this is also the only extended fight we have for them, so we don't exactly know how difficult it would be to beat them. Mercury, but he threw the fight purposefully to get information on her, so we have no idea how they would have stacked up if they fought. ( I think she would win but still) Penny, which even if the fight ended in tragedy is the best possible matchup for her since her Semblance lets her control metal, and the fight which ultimately cost her life in Cinder. We knew Cinder had the power of half a Maiden and got the other from killing Pyrhha, but we don't really know what 'half a Maiden' amounts too because we don't know how strong Cinder was before becoming a Maiden, so it's impossible to say what the amp was. I'm not an expert power-scaler, but killing a character to show someone is strong works if we have a much better sense of how strong they were. The example of this is the death of Jiraiya against Pain in Naruto. We know how strong Jiraiya is as a member of the Three Sanin, which by the narrative would roughly put him on par with Tsunade, the head of the village at the time, and Orochimaru who had trained Sasuke. Jiraiya dying shows the audience that Pain is stronger than the current Hokage and protector of the village, and most of the cast. We never got to see Pyrhha sparring with RWBY or other members of JN_R to show how much stronger than them she is. If we had seen this, and then Cinder killed her anyways, it would have been much more d effective and plant a question in our mind: " How can the main cast hope to defeat Cinder?"

Killing Pyrhha wasn't really an objective for the villains, and it was more so good luck that happened along the way. Sure, Mercury gathers data on Pyrhha, but it seems like Cinder wanted to destroy Beacon more than get Pyrhha out of the way. Even the set up of Emerald making Pyrhha kill Penny amounts to nothing, as in the same volume, Pyrhha dies before the consequences of this can be addressed. Pyrrha was in the way of what Cinder wanted, and Cinder killed her which can be an effective set-up, but in my opinion, it's more effective if the villains have been planning specific things, like toppling a public figure like Pyrrha. In BNHA, people try to take out All-Might, and for good reason, he's seen as the Symbol of Peace. Small scenes could have built this up for Pyrhha also. After Mercury gets information on her, just have the villains make small statements about how she's in the way, and that they have to do something.

Pyrrha being chosen to be the Fall Maiden doesn't really make the most sense. From a set-up perspective, it does, the villain killing the hero before they can achieve a powerup, and said power-up is the hero's best hope. ( Examples of this being the Muteki form in Kamen Rider Ex-Aid) But we're not shown why Pyrhha was chosen. As I said above, because we don't really know how strong she is, it could have been Weiss, or Yang, or Blake, or Nora because we don't know what qualities she was chosen for. On top of that, both Glynda and Winter were there, and arguably more powerful than Pyrhha, and would have been better choices. The set-up for me just doesn't work, and so by extension to me, Pyrhha's death felt like they wanted her out of the way, and needed a reason.

This was an incredibly long-winded post, but I hope I was able to get my points across. What do you think?

[poweredbycoffeeandwine]

Kissing Day: Andromeda

This prompt for Kissing Day 2017 is from @thesecondsealwrites from the way I said “I love you” prompt list: A taunt, with one eyebrow raised and a grin bubbling at your lips. And I know I said ME, but really whatever characters/otp you think it fits best. :D

I have only begun writing for these two, and though they aren’t quite at this stage in my planned one-shots, they are certainly making their way here. Hope you enjoy! Pairing: Camille Ryder x Liam Kosta

Things around the Tempest felt sluggish. Crew members went about their assigned tasks, but once the ship was en route, lost among a sea of stars, very little work went into flying. Sure, daily maintenance was a part of it: weapon and gear check for individuals, some of the crew liked to trick out the Nomad with new upgrades, Liam and Jaal found weird projects. Almost none were sanctioned, but it kept them busy so Camille wasn’t going to complain.

Worn out, ready for a break of her own, Camille did a quick circuit of the ship. She spoke to a few members briefly, and headed to her quarters. Stripping down to her boyshorts and favorite hoodie, courtesy of Liam, she pondered the morale of her crew. Leads for the mission had gone cold, the few settlements they had were secure at the moment, so tension was up. Everyone was antsy at being cooped up in a small ship. Or worried about what could happen next. Whether viability would continue to increase. With the slow down, many had started dwelling on the memory of families left behind.

If she didn’t stop thinking about Pathfinding for a moment, she was going to go crazy. Ryder picked up Swords and Shields, the novel she had been reading. It was one of her favorites, though she wouldn’t brag about it. Pure, unadulterated romance written long ago by Varric Tethras. What details of his life remained sounded unbelievable and outrageous. Those few that had heard of him were certain that most of his life was fiction created by the author himself. He certainly knew how to keep the reader happy.

Nothing captured her attention more than a fantasy world full of adventure and dragons, mages and knights. The best part, in her humble opinion, involved a love struck Templar Knight-Captain looking for an appropriate gift for his lady love. They celebrated Kissing Day, a holiday not only celebrating love, but friendship as well. He worried the guard-captain, a tough as nails, woman shaped battering ram he was enamored with would reject his gift.  Hilarity ensued over his choice of marigold flower crowns and bouquets. She had looked into it once to determine if something like that had ever existed, nearly giddy to have uncovered bits of truth.  Her eyebrows raised to her hairline as she slammed her beloved book shut. “Of course!” She yelled excitedly. “We will have a party, It’s September!”

“Pathfinder,” SAM’s voice filled the room, “if you are in need of assistance, Dr. Anwar and I were discussing the merits of traditions left over from the Milky Way. She seemed to particularly feel the loss of such events.”

“SAM, you are a genius! She would be amazing, just remind me not to let her help with the food…”

“Of course, I suppose that should be on our private channel?”

Ryder rolled her eyes, “No, I want you to embarrass her by bringing up her failed treats from Liam’s movie night.” After a few ticks of silence, she replied, “That was sarcasm, yes, private channel.”

She needed to get a lot done, and fast. Never before had she been so happy to be enroute to Kadara Port. That place was an absolute hole, but at least an enterprising someone could find anything they were looking for. She grabbed a pair of pants, ignored her need for shoes, and called Suvi to her room. Once together, she hatched her brilliant idea, and bunkered down to plan. They worked through the night cycle, only breaking to eat, and eventually to sleep.

                                                        —

Early morning never found Camille at her best, but she was amped. Ready to start the day, she addressed the crew. “Good morning everyone! Tonight you are all invited to my quarters for a special event! Time to dust off those civies, find something nice to wear!” Suvi made her way over grinning from ear to ear and the pair bolted for the airlock giggling conspiratorially.

Both women were surprised by Liam awaiting them at the entrance. “Where are you lovely birds of to, alone, in Kadara? So keen to find trouble. Pathfinder, you know it’s a rough place.”

“Ah, and I thought chivalry had died.” Camille replied in a honey sweet tone. She faked the pose of a swooning girl, and peered at him through her lashes. “Come to escort little ol’ me through the throngs of mercs and other things that go bump in the night?”

“Alright, cheeky. I got it. You can take care of yourself. You don’t need me playing hero”

“Seriously, Liam. Ryder and I have some items to pick up ‘s all.” Suvi announced giving Liam the sweetest smile in her arsenal.

“Even the biggest bugger won’t stand a chance you two making eyes at ‘im. Alright, get going. Sooner you’ll be back that way.” With a quick peck to Ryder’s cheek he whispered low, “I can’t wait to see what you’ve cooked up.”

Thrilled at the idea of meeting him with her gift to the crew, she and Suvi stole off the Tempest hoping to get their hands on everything they needed without involving Vetra.  They bought ridiculous items, not knowing all the specifics about the holiday. They had spent most of their time researching, but it was an obscure holiday, and resources were extremely limited. Suvi proved to be a wonderful ally, just as caught up in the spirit of the celebration as she was. Their many purchases secured, and packaged in a nondescript box, they returned to the ship, banishing all members of the crew from the Pathfinder’s room.  

The next few hours involved lots of noise, glitter, and laughter. Her place became an unrecognizable flurry of petal strewn floors, flower filled jars, lace and fluffy feathers. White cloth fell from ceiling to floor to hide her bed from the rest of the room. Every twinkling light and candle they could find had ended up placed at random around the room. Somehow they had constructed a tree made of flowers as the centerpiece for the party. Love themed food was the tricky part. Instead of attempting an elaborate meal, they threw together sandwiches and cut them into cutesy hearts. They raided Vetra’s cereal stash to make something like a krispy treat, and if Cupid’s punch was spiked, well they were certain nobody minded. They were sure to label dextro friendly drinks to avoid potential illness.

Suvi snuck out of Ryder’s room to get ready, but Camille had a feeling that something was missing. “We have food and decorations, what else is there?”

“Pathfinder, might I suggest you queue up music?” SAM interrupted.  “You have a playlist of a variety of songs Liam created that would suit such an occasion.”

“Again, genius! Glad I keep you around.” “Yes, your demise has nothing to do with it.”

“Was that snark I heard from you?” Camille shot back. “Color me impressed.” She made her way to the console, and searched through her media files from Liam. She was reminded just how often he sent her little things to lift her spirits or make her laugh. She was truly lucky to have found someone so giving. Just thinking about him brought a blush to her face, and she hoped he enjoyed the little gift he would be receiving tonight.

                                                        —

When the time to gather had arrived, Camille dimmed the lights overhead, and got the candles lit. Taking in their handy work gave her butterflies. The room was transformed, and the soft glow of twinkle lights bouncing off her large window overlooking space was magical. Catching a glimpse of herself in the reflection stopped her in her tracks. It had been a long time since she had the opportunity to dress up. She put on her favorite lace cropped tank paired with a wine colored hi-low skirt. Suvi styled her short caramel locks, and helped her with her makeup. She felt beautiful and realized it had been too damn long. The glamour of the evening left her with a surreal feeling after months of trekking through uncharted territory, often times fighting for her life.

She and Suvi welcomed their comrades, and could not be more pleased with how well the entire affair was received. Music played gently, her friends mingled, and she could not be happier. Liam snuck up behind her, pulling her back against his chest. “You look like heaven.” His voice thick in her ear. “Why are you wasting your time with me?”

His thumb gently caressed circles into her side causing her to shiver. “You’re anything but a waste of time, love. Besides, have you seen yourself tonight?” She spun to face him and placed a soft kiss at the base of his neck.

His hum of approval vibrated through her body. “So, I got to tell you, I feel kinda exposed. Songs meant for us broadcast to everyone.”

Alarmed, she looked up at him. Catching his grin and realizing he was playing she leaned in close hand on his chest and whispered huskily, “How can I make it up to you?”

His voice roughened, hands gripping her waist he looked her up and down slowly and asked, “Mind telling me what I might find under that getup?”

Camille raised her brow, and bit her lip coyly. Just when she felt he couldn’t wait any longer she raised up on her toes lips almost touching his and said, “What indeed.” She tilted her head and captured him in passionate kiss. Her tongue traced the seam of his lips, and he parted them to grant her access. Her hands found their way into his hair, fingers digging into his curls. He captured her bottom lip in his sucking and occasionally giving a small nip.  Awareness came to them when she moaned loudly against his mouth, the sound causing them to remember they were not alone.

Breaths mingling together, chests slightly heaving he chuckled, “I can’t wait for these sods to bugger off. We will party just us.”

Ryder beamed at him, and cupped his face in her palm, “Happy Kissing Day, Liam.”