#i thought i blocked this clown

[menlove]

people often assume blocking someone is a very personal decision that takes lots of effort when in Reality it takes 2 seconds and usually just signifies "I think you're fucking annoying and don't want you looking at or adding to my posts get outtttt of my house"

[kienava]

So someone asked me to make a post about Blake’s development so far in order to discuss the question of where Blake’s character can progress at this point in RWBY given that her arc with Adam wrapped up in V6 and she didn’t really carry a plot line in V7-8. I do media and story things for a living, but I’m also an intimate partner abuse survivor - needless to say, Blake’s story is important to me. Hopefully my perspective helps answer concerns about Blake’s story being “over,” because I think it’s very much the opposite.

(Continued below the cut because this turned into an entire essay.)

I want to preface this by saying I understand why it might be difficult to picture what Blake’s story looks like going forward. I largely credit this to the relative dearth of compassionate, healing-oriented narratives about abuse survivors in media. A lot of what we see is either revenge fantasies or stories about facing the abuser and arriving at a point of ultimate catharsis. In some sense, this is a broader fault in the standards of western storytelling, which is oriented around that singular, climactic catharsis, but that’s another essay. In truth, a mostly linear progression towards a pivotal point of recovery isn’t how healing from abuse works. It’s a messy process, and life is rarely as linear as in fiction. I think RWBY incorporates that nonlinearity into Blake’s arc very well.

Speaking of Blake’s arc, let’s look at that.

When we first meet her in volume 1, she’s introduced as an aloof, independent loner who’s very resistant to getting closer to people. Most of her classmates perceive her as mysterious and alluring at best, callous and cold at worst. Once we start to understand more of her history, it’s easier to see her attitude as the defense mechanism it is. She wants to keep people at arm’s length because she doesn’t trust them not to hurt her – but she also believes that she will harm people she gets close to just because of who she is. That whole Beauty and the Beast dichotomy, you know? Adam told her that she ruins things. It doesn’t help that he groomed her into a terrorist organization and thus her surrounding community has also labeled her a threat. She’s got a few overlapping layers of distorted thinking to work through when it comes to her image of herself and others. The way she perceives people is, at first, overwhelmingly informed by her traumatic experiences with Adam and the White Fang.

It’s pretty strongly implied that Blake bent the rules in the forest and intentionally selected Yang as her partner. When we first see Blake dashing around in the shadows, Yang is taking down a Grimm while sassing it to death. Blake talks later about how Adam’s charisma drew her to him initially, so it’s no surprise that when she was choosing her next partner, she gravitated to the same superficial qualities. During the first White Fang arc, after her self-destructive spiral, Blake starts to genuinely trust her teammates for the first time. That trust is tested when Yang fights Mercury. In this moment, Blake is confronted with the possibility that a pattern might be repeating itself: what if she was drawn to Yang for reasons beyond the superficial? What if Yang doesn’t just share Adam’s positive qualities, but his negative ones, too? The impulsiveness, the violence, the abuse – but Blake stops herself. She chooses to trust that Yang isn’t Adam, and she says as much. She’s accepting that Adam is in her past and electing to move forward. How perfectly, neatly linear. 

Then the end of volume 3 happens.

For an abuse survivor, the idea that an abuser you’ve gotten away from might come crashing back into your life is possibly the scariest thing in the entire world. This is exactly what happens when Adam shows up, and Blake’s worst fears come true. He makes a point of hurting someone she cares about simply because he can to prove that he still has power over her. Blake runs because she thinks the only way she can protect the people she cares about is to be away from them. That paradoxical duality of (1) fearing harm will be done to her by others and (2) doing harm to others herself rears its head. 

One specific question I was asked is why Blake talks about Yang so little in volumes 4 and 5. If Blake isn’t talking about the people she left behind, is she even thinking about them? I say, well of course she is. It’s coloring her entire attitude.

When Blake returns to Menagerie, she’s back in the place where she met her abuser. She’s at her parents’ house, a place that has been a symbol of everything she left behind when she ran away the first time. Now she’s run from another home. Menagerie is riddled with traumatic memories for her, both interpersonally and on a structural, systemic level. Everywhere she goes could be a place where Adam said something awful to her, made her obey him in some way, asserted control. She also has to confront him in person again, too.

With Adam around, of course she’s not going to risk mentioning Yang. He got one inkling that Blake cared about someone else and cut their fucking arm off. The one time Blake mentions Yang by name, her voice cracks so obviously it’s like she’s forcing herself to get the word out. Through both of these volumes, Blake has other external goals, but she’s still trying to protect someone she cares about. At this point, she’s constantly struggling with two motivations: hope and fear. She wants to make the world a better place, but she’s terrified of what she’ll have to confront in order to do it because of what she’s already lost. Her choice to reunite with her team and fight shows that ultimately hope wins out.

In Volume 6, Blake and Yang facing Adam is essentially the B plot of the whole volume. He appears in flashes before the major confrontation at the end, but the damage he’s done to both of them is intrinsically tied into Blake and Yang’s relationship throughout.

The end of this volume offers the climactic moment of confronting and overcoming the abuser. Afterwards, Blake collapses and cries. Catharsis! Yay! We’re done now, right? This may be why, to some people, defeating Adam is the obvious “end” of Blake’s character arc. Again, I’d argue that this perception comes from how abuse is often depicted in media, but there’s also a very intense pressure in the real world for survivors not to speak out and share their stories. Even people who are abuse survivors might not publicly claim that label for a multitude of reasons. Namely, it fucking hurts to think about it, and also sometimes people are real weird about it. I don’t blame anyone who doesn’t want to carry that weight around all the time. We can see some inklings of Blake dealing with this challenge over the course of the show, though they’re subtle. Early on, she explicitly avoids talking about Adam until she absolutely has to, and even when she does start to unpack what he did, she often talks about it with visible shame (averting her eyes, etc). Unfortunately, shame is a very common sentiment for abuse survivors to carry, and addressing it is a major part of Blake’s journey as she starts to heal in volume 6.

Another point of interest posed was to look at Blake’s role in volumes 7 and 8. There’s an argument that she doesn’t really do anything or that her role is as a somewhat generic support figure within the group. I wholeheartedly disagree.

While Blake doesn’t carry a plotline herself during the Atlas arc, she and Yang embody polarized attitudes towards the global conflict the group is facing, and that contrast serves the larger narrative very well. Because she was raised by activists in a context where she was constantly thinking about civil rights, Blake wants to address the broader ideological conflict at play. Yang, whose childhood consisted of raising her younger sister, wants to help people in a practical, immediate way. Blake is an abstract, big-picture thinker, and Yang is more focused on what’s right in front of her. This isn’t a dig at either of them; it’s just a difference in prioritites. At first, Yang worries that these differing priorities will be a source of tension between them, but when she and Blake talk things through they’re able to understand each other without judgment. Blake is learning to reconnect with the idealist she used to be in her early youth, someone who fought for a cause purely because she wanted to make the world a better place. She’s able to embrace that side of herself around Yang even though they have different priorities, and they’re still able to support each other’s goals.

Furthermore, on a purely interpersonal level in V7-8, Blake has interactions with other characters that speak specifically to the healing journey she’s been on. Yes, these are significantly quieter moments than a fight to the death on a bridge over a waterfall, but that doesn’t mean they should be written off. Quiet and peace are part of healing, and that doesn’t have to undermine the story’s integrity. Dramatic tension is still possible amidst this, as we saw in Blake’s talks with Yang where they discuss their team’s split strategic approaches. When Blake talks to Nora about the importance of not losing yourself in someone else, that’s her speaking from experience. She’s lost herself in a relationship before, and she knows how hard it is to come back from that, but she survived. She healed. The asserted importance of self-compassion in relationships has a unique gravity coming from Blake. She has a strongly developed ability to balance interpersonal empathy with community- and global-level stakes, which we’re already seeing glimmers of at the beginning of V9 as she steps up to come up with a plan on the island. 

In summary, Blake’s arc isn’t just about that final showdown with Adam. She faces her abuser, runs away, faces him again, and again, finally evicts him from her life for good - and after that, her story continues.

She goes on to find ways to heal from her past. That process involves renewing compassion for her loved ones, her community, and the world as a whole; learning how to love without fear; and reconnecting with who she was before she was forced to become aloof and detached to protect herself. Although the circumstances of abuse convinced her that she was a coward, she is, and has always been, an incredibly brave character. She’s finally recognizing that at the current point in the story. Ultimately, I think this is the thing connects her to Yang and the rest of team RWBY so strongly: they’re brave enough to love and have hope even when forces of adversity tell them they shouldn’t dare to. Blake is a courageous idealist with a heart full of compassion, and ultimately not even Adam could destroy that about her.

My serious answer to the question of where Blake’s character will go now is that I think she’ll be a sort of de facto leader on the island as Ruby spirals into existential depression. Hopefully that arc resolves in a way that’s consistent with the show’s overall message about hope winning out, and past this volume Blake will still carry that optimistic but grounded revolutionary spirit and continue to be a center of compassion and hope.

My catharsis-oriented answer is this: aside from being trapped on a magical fairy tale island, Blake is free for the first time in a very long time, and she can go wherever the fuck she wants.  

[weirderscience]

heartbreaking: being slightly annoying to a teenager is now punishable with the death penalty

[morrigan-sims]

Happy Aromantic Day of Visibility!

This is your annual reminder that aromantic people exist and are part of the queer community. Happy pride to every aro person out there. Be proud, and don't let the amatonormativity get to you too much. You are valid, and I love you.

I decided to play around with my simself for the occasion, including making a recreation of my bedroom, complete with weird decor and my cats. <3

and here's a picture of the real room (at least this side of it) for comparison

[where-is-caithe]

gut-wrenching being a sylvari and finding this huge and terrible dragon in the Dream of Dreams, threatening all who would wake, and there is Caithe, whole and fully with you, to fight this monster, your destiny to stand with her

and when you see this monster again, now in the real world, she cries that it's here and vanishes. leaving you. to fight it alone.

[youjustwaitsunshine]

checking the seb tag and seeing vague posts and then seeing the abysmal takes the vague posts are about

[hexgh0ul]

have you watched the trailer for the crow ?? what do you think

I’m assuming that this is about the new Bill Skarsgard abomination that’s supposed to be coming out soon and truly I’m so bothered by it. It’s disrespectful to James O’Barr and his loss and the original comic to go and blame Shelly for their deaths and it’s disrespectful to Brandon Lee’s memory and the way most of the original cast and crew didn’t want to continue without him but did after his family pressed for them to because they said it’s what he would have wanted.

And then there are still Crow comics being made currently. They have created a franchise of different stories of loss and revenge and if they had decided to call these two characters anything but Eric and Shelly I probably wouldn’t be so upset about it but respect is apparently too much to ask from Hollywood.

And that’s not even taking into consideration that the director did the racist abomination of Ghost in the Shell and has gone on to say that they took inspiration from Post Malone. An iconic goth character and their visual inspiration was Post Malone.

As far as I can see there is not a single redeeming quality about this movie which sucks so hard because I love Bill Skarsgard’s work and I want to be excited about a new movie from him and a new Crow movie but fucking hell, not like this.

[clownkiwi]

that "people dont actually care for terf shit in real life. so go outside and touch some grass" post that showed up on my dash last night is so out of touch. im glad You aren't affected by that, but jkr still has power in uk politics. she really still can make life harder for trans people over there with her friends & following. terfs just moved to online spaces and they arent too proud to move into public spaces because they dont feel safe around any man. get it right. thats why theyre not in public/you dont hear about it too much in public. also harry potter is still so popular in public spaces & pop culture that the only way Everybody would be Universally Uncomfortable by any mentions of it is if jkr is revealed to be a pedo

[humble-wayside-flower]

jesus christ the whole One Piece Ad-ification of the desktop dash today really is that shitty isn't it

[everysongineverykey]

well, i don't like talking about this kind of discoursey stuff, but i have to say.

this... rubs me a little bit the wrong way? like, okay. i'll admit i really like the way crowley (and demons in general, but especially crowley) can be read as a trans allegory, with all the "the angel you knew is not me" stuff, but. "a bit of a deadname"? how can something be "a bit" of a deadname? a deadname is a specific term really only used in the context of trans people. christian scholars, i would say, mostly would not use it to refer to demons' former angel names.

on top of that, if it's considered a "deadname". why does crowley use it? in season 1? "oh, look, it's lucifer and the guys"? i get that he's drunk, but generally, you learn not to use someone's deadname, EVER (except under specific circumstances, as the case may be). and that's SATAN crowley's "deadnaming" there. you'd think that if nothing else, he'd at least refrain from using it out of sheer fear of the demon king's wrath. no, trans people are not a monolith, and yes, there are plenty who use their deadname when referring to their pre-transition self, but when it comes down to it, this comment doesn't really feel like he thought through that. it doesn't feel like a meaningful piece of a trans allegory. it just kind of feels like he's saying things without really fully understanding what they mean!

[berryblu-soda]

Me (an empath): the catholics are celebrating something today...

*literal parade with drums and all outside my window*

[s-une]

.

[delicatebluebirdruins]

imagine reading throne of glass and thinking that Aelin should have gone from being an assassin working with one person at most (in a environment where she was also being groomed by an asshole) too working with multiple people in a few short months?

imagine thinking that Aedion who loved Aelin like a brother wouldn't be upset of perceived slights

imagine thinking that Aelin was expecting people to worship her with everything that has happened in her past and everyone saying that were just speaking out of their ass

[the-multiverse-theory]

holy shit what the fuck like a million terfs just found me and are calling me a HOMOPHOBE for saying aro and ace people are queer. wtf. bruh. fucking morons the lot of them

[greatgoogly-moogly]

i need to have a rant on ai (art and other uses of it bc it doesnt just affect artist but now writers, translators and pretty much anyone with acces to the internet)

im honestly terrified, as someone who has been drawing and doing commisions, and who in about 6 months is gonna start animation in college, i dont know what im supposed to expect from my future?? i mean, i love technology, i think it has so many amazing uses and can improve peoples lives so much but unfortunately we live in a fucking society where powerful ppl will do anything to stay in power, and people want instant gratification, the fastest and cheapest u can do it the better, i've invested time, money and passion into getting better at art, and i want to be able to make a living out of it, and not even a good life bc we all know how underpayed every artist ALREADY is and how little ppl care about it, i just wanna do what i love and not die yk? and now everytime i draw i cant stop thinking if theres even a point? bc theres an ai out there who could do it better, faster and for way less money.

i've already had struggles with posting my art online bc every social media is obsessed with numbers and algorihms to the point i felt i had to put out a masterpiece everyday to barely keep up, just so people can look at it for 3 secs, maybe like it, comment and share if im lucky and they like me enough, so then i can get a 2 minutes dose of serotonin and go on to make another souless drawing for whatever is popular right now.

i want to have a career in animation, specifically concept art and character design, but i also want to fucking leave the internet and not know anything about the world's state ever again bc its absolutely demoralizing seeing how little ppl care about art.

.

[clownkiwi]

i wish you could woosh away blogs you dont wanna see after tumblr recommends them to you like. 15 times