#if for no other reason than to see what salem says

[bestworstcase]

anyways. enough spitballing

i was so right abt fun parent tai

YANG: Do you… wonder why he’s not here? With everybody else? I know Qrow said he’s on assignment, but what’s more important than here? RUBY: Maybe we don’t have the full picture. YANG: I don’t know. Some things you just need to be there for.

first. there are two possibilities: if qrow knows what this “assignment” is, he hasn’t filled in his nieces and the old guard backslid HARD after team rwby fell—the exclusion of ren and nora from the secret meeting in B1 also points in that direction, so it feels quite plausible; on the other hand, if raven knows where tai is and what he’s doing, it seems strange that ruby and yang would not also know, unless the girls haven’t asked her about summer at all (in which case i’d believe that they’re just not really on speaking terms).

like if raven had a conversation with ruby about summer, i can’t see her hiding ‘the full picture’ with regard to tai if she knew about it, even if qrow wanted her to. maiden of knowledge, begrudging oz his secrets, and all.

on the other hand. if the girls know everything qrow does, that would imply that tai’s “assignment” is either an ozpin secret (and oz hasn’t been keeping his promise to be honest, which feels incongruous with him actively fighting his curse now) or a taiyang secret, in which case i am one hundred percent sure it isn’t to do with the crown of choice.

“maybe we don’t have the full picture,” says ruby, thinking about what the blacksmith showed her and what the blacksmith said. that’s the big lesson she learned in the tree, not to jump to conclusions on incomplete information. so that narratively links tai’s mysterious “assignment” to summer’s mysterious “last mission,” which was a “summer secret.” if tai stayed behind in vale to deal with a taiyang secret that not even oz knows about… it’s summer. lol. it can only be summer. if it were the crown, oz would know because ozpin would have given him that assignment in the first place; if it were defending people hiding in mountain glenn, there’s no reason for it to be secret.

but if he knows summer is alive and well and with salem, and he’s trying to, i don’t know, turn her against salem (or ‘save’ her)… well. maybe we don’t have the full picture indeed.

second. oouuugh the weight of what yang doesn’t say. back in v4 she forced herself to put on the prosthetic before she was ready and white-knuckled her way back to functional so she could go find ruby because her dad said he hadn’t gone after ruby because he had “some stuff to look after” at home, and yang thought he meant her; that the only reason he wasn’t out there with ruby was because he had to be here with her.

so she removed herself from the situation—left to find ruby herself—and tai… stayed at home. it’s been months, now. atlas fell and everyone is regrouping in vacuo, trying to prepare for an attack they know will come sooner or later, except tai, who is “on assignment.” what’s more important than here? what’s more important than being here with both his daughters, at the end of the world? if qrow knows, what’s so important that he has to keep them in the dark? if qrow doesn’t know, then it can’t reasonably be to do with the relic at beacon—which is the only thing that could arguably be more important than joining the vacuo coalition.

“some things you just need to be there for,” says yang. my dad just kind of… shut down. and then dad was always busy with school and ruby couldn’t even talk yet; i had to pick up the pieces. i had to keep things together, alone. ruby starts to reminisce about coming to this place with tai when they were kids, and it’s a fond memory for yang too…but one undercut with all of this. the outings were fun—they slowly increased from once a month treats to twice-a-week because ruby got so excited—(ruby is over the moon when she sees the boba shop; yang spends half the walk there second-guessing herself and downplaying the surprise; both reactions speak to their experiences of these outings in childhood)—and why isn’t he here now? why is it, once again, yang trying to pick up the pieces alone while he’s busy with something else more important?—and this time it isn’t even that he’s going to work to put food on the table and make sure bills get paid, he’s just “on assignment” doing… something. that qrow either won’t tell or doesn’t know.

and that feeling is what incites her to talk to ruby about her own failings, and the first thing she says is i don’t need an explanation, because she doesn’t want to make ruby’s crisis about herself but also because she’s about to apologize for not being attentive enough or present enough or aware enough to Be There when ruby needed her.

which is not untrue (surprise! parentified children don’t make good parents for their two-years-younger siblings!) but also. back in v5 when she confronted raven, yang compared herself to raven (you’ll give me the relic and run because you’re afraid of salem; i’m afraid of salem too but i’ll be here waiting for her when she comes after me).

and that’s what yang is doing here with tai (he was physically there and provided for their needs and took them on fun outings sure, but he wasn’t there, when yang looks back on her childhood what she remembers is a sense of overwhelming responsibility and isolation because her dad wasn’t present, and now he’s not even here; she let ruby down in a similar way, being around without really seeing what ruby was going through, but she sees now how she failed and knows what she needs to do to make up for it and she will, she promises, she already is.)

[brightbluekicks]

sometimes it feels like every piece of advice on the internet about combating loneliness from lack of romantic love is directed at people who are introverted and depressed and that no one seems to have an answer when you tell them that your life is fulfilling and meaningful but you still crave affection. like hi. yes. im naturally charismatic and make friends easily. i have lots of hobbies including some that i am literally only doing for my own benefit and enjoyment. i have long term and short term goals that i get a sense of accomplishment out of and i am getting better and better at working on them. i read poetry and listen to music and ultimately feel a sense of joy and wonder and love for the world and my life. i like who i am as a person, and i think i attract good things into my life. so why am i still so painfully lonely?

[pupcuck]

NYMPHOMANIA !

ft. leon s. kennedy x fem!reader

tags. daddy-daughter incest, femcel reader :3, reader wants to get raped so she talks about that, dub-con for like a paragraph, suicidal thoughts, awful thoughts in general, tiny bit of somno, threats, spanking, slapping

note. HAII :3 back on my femcel shit… god i rewrote this like 15 times and restarted over and over so i hate this 😭 it’s clunky so ignore any mistakes!!! feedback n rbs always so appreciated <3 was thinking of og4 leon but.. honestly idk atp !! anyway sorry again for the slow decrease in quality in this .. title has nothing to do w the fic ack ok bye :3

tumblr removes fics that use, for example, tw non-con and any nsfw tags in general from the tags. for this reason, as i’d like my fic to appear in the tags, please understand that this fic contains dark content under the cut. reading this comes at your own risk.

There are two things you want to get off your chest.

You are not, under any circumstances, ugly. Your face just takes getting used to. (This is a cope.)

You have a crush on your dad. No excuse for this one. Cupid is a conniving bastard. That’s that.

These might not seem like related issues, but they most certainly are because being ugly is hard, and having a crush on your dad is equally as hard.

You’re a sweet girl, you didn’t choose to come out ugly, it’s not your fault you turned out this way. It’s unfair, but ultimately no one meant for it to happen

(Well, you hope no one meant for it to happen unless someone had a vendetta against your mother and cursed her firstborn. She’s an irritating lady, you can see why someone would do so.)

You won’t even be the kind of below-average woman who marries a mediocre man to have mediocre sex to make mediocre kids to live in caustic mediocrity. You have one friend, she’s an online friend, and she might be a lonely old man. To be entirely honest you would prefer that. ‘Cause that would mean someone out there wants to creep on you.

If you weren’t ugly, having a crush on your dad would be socially acceptable. That’s why daddy-daughter porn spans pages and pages and pages of Pornhub. Everyone loves to watch a busty, blonde slut on her dad’s dick. If you didn’t have a crush on your dad, being ugly would be perfectly fine— No, that’s wrong.

Being ugly is never fine. Being ugly is on the same level as being a rapist. Being ugly in the presence of people who are objectively not ugly is, like, worse than being a rapist. ‘Cause all the dudes in high school were rapists in the making. Ted Bundy-style shit.

Grope an ugly bitch in the bathrooms and she wouldn’t speak up, and if she did— She just wouldn’t actually. Would be burnt at the stake Salem style. Hung. Crucifixion perhaps. Ugly girls aren’t good enough to die like martyrs did, however. Especially not ugly girls who cry wolf.

Why on God’s green earth would a hot guy go out of his way to slap a freaky-looking girl’s ass, right? Got girls lined up down the halls waiting for him to sign their perky tits, he doesn’t need to rape. It must be wishful thinking on her part, right? A wet dream she took as reality.

Why would you say that? Do you want to throw what he’s worked for down the drain? Accusations like this, they’re not jokes, y’know that? He’s got a scholarship, college wouldn’t take something like this so lightly.

Aw, you miss her. This goth chick in senior year. Your sorta friend. When it all went down and she had nowhere else to go, you invited her over because you’re a nice girl with no nefarious intentions. None at all. When she lay beside you at night, and she opened up, and she thanked you for believing her, you totally did not have your hand in your panties. And you totally did not rub yourself raw while she spoke about it in excruciating detail. You did not treat her rape case as erotica.

The dude got away with it of course. He was on TV the other day in fact. NFL. Baltimore Ravens. Still stupid hot. God, you wish it was you he picked - wouldn’t have told a single soul. Would’ve sucked the sweat from his jockstrap without complaint.

You’re too repulsive to be touched or raped, and you’ve learnt to live with that. Passing out in alleyways would result in rapists who frequent the area to avoid those very alleyways. Only your hand knows the cushiony softness of your tits, the wetness between your legs, how great your mouth feels— Only your dildo knows that, but you can imagine it’s good. You’re a total catch. A nympho. Men love nymphos when they’re pretty, which you are not. So you’re a nympho without the sex appeal. So in other words you are a pervert. A degenerate. A fucking freak.

It’s time to start sticking your fingers down your throat. ‘Cause that’s what gorgeous girls do to achieve that grave-robbed look. Heroin chic. Modelesque. It’s all the same type of beautiful. Emaciated and sickly. Dead girls are the sexiest ‘cause they can’t say yes or no and if there’s no no then it’s a yes. A nymphetic loophole of sorts. Men love dead girls that double as nymphos. Unfortunately, you are well and alive. Walking into traffic seems like fun, but you would be classed as roadkill, and it wouldn’t be tragically beautiful, just embarrassing to get scraped off the concrete like that. Even in death, you would be ugly because you are ugly to your very core. Your bone marrow is so ugly no scientist would want to make stem cells out of it, polynucleotides so deformed— You’re ugly. No need to wax poetic about it. Nothing poetic about being ugly.

Dad is the closest a human being can get to perfection. A divine image. Michelangelo is, like, dead and gone. David should've died alongside him. Dad deserves to take his place in the Accademia Gallery. With the way people gawk at him, he might as well be art. You’re surprised he doesn’t sell tickets to merely exist in his presence. He’s hot like a Calvin Klein model, and mom is hot like a regular model. Due to how you’ve turned out, you have a few qualms with your mother.

Like, what the fuck happened to you in her womb? Did someone take a mallet to one side of her belly to ensure her child came out as asymmetrical as one can be? A lack of nutrients maybe? Was she dieting during the pregnancy? Did dad fuck her too hard? Busted her womb up or some shit.

It simply might be that two rights make a wrong.

Or you were a tester before she popped your siblings out. Little ichor-filled putto. They were child models, scouted in their diapers, and you would stand behind your mother and the cameraman so hurt you couldn’t even feel jealous. Now they’re all grown up, fully-fledged erotes, and they’re working and doing all this shit you still haven’t managed to get a grasp on. Navigating the world as an ugly bitch is terribly hard.

Rape kinks are developed, dads get crushed on - awful, terrible things happen when girls are ugly and alone and unable to leave the comfort of their bedrooms.

Pretty girls have daddy issues that are dealt with in standard pretty girl fashion - finding emotionally unavailable, salt-and-pepper-haired men to fill every hole, including the one in their doll hearts. The thing is pretty girls don’t go for their dads. ‘Cause a lot of the time dads are gross. Dads do not look like your dad does. And to be fair you don’t exactly have daddy issues. Your dad is present and he doesn’t hit or shout or do anything out of the norm. Maybe this is a you issue.

It is a you issue, not even an ugly girl issue or an any type of girl issue. It’s your issue and yours alone.

It is your issue that when Leon asks what you want for dinner you almost ask for his hand around your throat or his hand in marriage. Either would be fine. Both would be preferred.

Severing your relationship would be even better. Goddamn, girls with absent fathers are lucky. You wish he was anything but your dad— It’s just that if you weren’t his daughter, dad wouldn’t ever look your way, he would pass by you like every man does.

Dad is a busy guy, and he’s a strange guy in the sense that he’s never really bothered with you. He loves your sister, and he loves your brother. But everyone loves those two. You don’t think he likes you very much, you can deal with that. Doesn’t mean you have daddy issues ‘cause no one likes you very much. So it’s a you issue and you should try harder.

Leon’s home early today. He’s collapsed on the couch, withered into himself like he always is after business trips. Mom said not to disturb him. You don’t. Then you do. This is like crack to you. Dad.

More specifically, dad without mom hovering over him. Dad’s sleeping so your brain is not stewed by his intense gaze. It only ever lingers on you for merely a second, but your stomach flips like you’ve got appendicitis and your legs spread involuntarily.

He’s a light sleeper, you’re well aware. He’s also a living, breathing Ken doll so you don’t put much thought into it when you reach out to ghost your fingers along the bridge of his nose. So pointy it could pierce your clit. Your clit. His nose. Oh, it could work so well, you want to grind yourself to mush against it.

Until dad shifts, he’s so beautiful up close you almost forget he’s real, not a wax figure. You trace the straight edge of his jaw, then thumb his petal lips, dragging your pointer finger over the fuller bottom one to push the tip into his wet mouth. Your dad is a slut. ‘Cause he sucks for a good second or two. Heat licks at your insides. You might vomit. His spit glistens like cobwebs when you take it back. That hand is shoved down your pants. That finger finds your clit, uses what spit is left to get it nice and wet. Which is totally unneeded, you’ve been soaked since god knows when, your pussy doesn’t know when to quit.

Feels good knowing that a part of dad is in you, his spit pushed into your hole. You’ll give him something back, it’s only fair, you smear your slick on the spot you traced. His tongue pokes out, likely to combat dry mouth, it swipes along his bottom lip— He tastes you. Heat engulfs you, chars your body from the inside out, the scent of rotting meat is in your nostrils.

Dad tasted you.

Holy fuck. You sit there with a trembling smile, staring down at him and he does not rouse. Shit, you’re creepy and you know it, but you’re not stupid. What other chance do you have? You unzip his old shearling jacket, underneath is that compression shirt that fits him too well. You map out the ridges of his abs, the slight dip between his pecs, every hard line that makes up his body. He smells so sexy, lavender and leather, must be some sorta pheromone ‘cause all you want to do is drop your face into his tits to bathe in that scent, to have it stick to your skin. Shit. Holy fucking shit. You’ve got a sex doll instead of a dad. That explains the distantness. He’s made of silicone.

The door clicks the moment you find it in yourself to click open his belt.

“What're you doing?” Mom ruins everything. She’s had it out for you the moment you formed in her womb. “He’s sleeping, don’t disturb him.” She says tersely, placing her Coach Tabby on the coffee table.

“He was cold.” That’s why his nipples are peaking, piercing the fabric of that shirt. Should be illegal to wear that in public. He’s asking for it.

“Yeah?” She asks, unconvinced, bending down to unclasp her heels.

“Yeah.” You stand up, dad’s indirect kiss on your cunt, shoot her a nasty sneer before you scuttle away to your bedroom for the rest of the day.

There are stairs that creak and stairs that don’t. You hang around down here at midnight often so you know the right path to take as to not alert your parents of your presence. They’re speaking about you.

“—be careful around her.” Truly, you hate your mother.

“What is there to be careful about?” Right? You tell her dad.

“Just, just be careful. She doesn’t y’know.”

“She doesn’t what?”

“She doesn’t get off her ass, she doesn’t talk to anyone but, well, I don’t know actually, she doesn’t talk to anyone at all.” You could pretend and say it hurts, but it doesn’t. There’s nothing insulting about the truth.

“What’s that got to do with me?”

“You’re a guy, she doesn't talk to guys.”

“We don’t talk much either.” Dad is too stiff to make conversation, and you collapse anytime he breathes in your general direction.

“Yeah, but, Leon.” Mom sounds exasperated, but she’s not getting her point across well. She should know better, dad’s skull is thicker than cement. “I’m worried.”

“What, for me or her?”

“Her, obviously, I don’t want her to… I want her to get out, like, I want her to do stuff,” mom sniffles, she is so putting this on to make dad feel guilty. “It’s so hard to watch your adult daughter just sit in a room and do nothing all day, Leon, she’s like a big fucking baby, why is she like that?”

“Babe,” he coos, and your knees buckle.

“Go talk to her.”

“What?”

“Go talk to her about it,” Mom repeats, voice shaking. “She doesn’t listen to me.”

They go back and forth for a few minutes, and then dad sighs and says fine. You make haste back to your hovel that doubles as a bedroom, crawl into bed and try to look natural.

Leon clears his throat before he knocks, when you don’t answer he pokes his head in. He says your name and you stir, sheets taut to your body as you peek up at him.

“You should open a window in here.”

When you don’t respond, he sits at the foot of your bed, looks around and nods. His gaze is scathing. Not purposefully. You just take it that way.

“Dinner’s ready,” he lies, then he leaves. His perfume lingers, and you touch the space he was sitting in, his warmth remains.

The day after that, you’re in the living room, tuckered out after mom forced you to help her with the groceries. You’re not cut out for this sort of life. The living sort of life. You were made to rot.

“Door wasn’t locked,” Leon says when he steps in, he puts his keys down, shucks his jacket off, tracks mud halfway down the hall and into the kitchen.

“Your shoes, Leon,” Mom groans, “she came in last.”

“Oh, sorry,” you say absentmindedly. If it doesn’t include tits or dicks or pussy it is none of your business. You have enough energy to keep up with one thing and that is your porn addiction. Groceries really took it out of you.

“You should be careful, rapists might come in, murderers or some shit.” Leon is speaking to your mother. Not you because he has seen your face and he knows very well that an ugly girl like you would survive out of sheer ugliness.

Mom snorts, “I think you’re the scariest thing that could walk through that door, honey.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, huh?”

You’d like to know what that means too. Well, you get the gist, ‘cause you’ve heard all those stories. Dad and his wandering hands.

“You know what that means.” The sound of lips smacking is enough to have you feeling sick, dizzy as you cling to the walls and make your escape. “Did she leave— Quit it, Leon— Hands off, can you go talk to her, please? Properly this time.”

He forgets to knock this time, or he can’t bother to knock. Dad sits in that same spot, he opens his mouth and closes it about five times.

“Mom’s worried about you,” Leon says robotically. “You good?”

“I’m great.” Your tone is unconvincing, but he clearly doesn’t care enough because you're his dirty little secret. Not in a sex way. You would do anything for it to be in the sex way. Dirty little secret as in the ugly kid he chooses to ignore purely because you’re ugly. Dad doesn’t like ugly girls, you know that. He doesn’t think they’re worth a second glance, even a first glance is too much. Dad is superficial and his love is plastic.

These are all things you’re making up in your head based on assumptions. This is how all attractive men think. Ugly girls aren’t worth rape, dirtying your dick in ugly pussy sounds like a hassle. If you were pretty, you wouldn’t fuck an ugly guy. Even as a self-proclaimed ugly girl, you still wouldn’t fuck an ugly guy ‘cause they’re gross, and it’s not like they want you. Ugly guys shoot high and aim for pretty girls. Duh.

So you get it. Honestly. Whatever. Dad doesn’t like you. That’s okay, you don’t like him as a dad anyway. You love him like an obsessive lover. A hallway crush that stars in your late-night rape fantasies. And you’re fine like this. You’re so fine.

“Can I… Can I actually have a hug, dad?” You muster up what is left in your hollow heart to ask him that. It’s a big deal.

Leon blinks at you, levels you with his blank stare. He’s so handsome you want to blow your brains out, it’s an easy feat because you’re always looking for reasons to blow your brains out. Every straw is your last and yet you’re still here.

“Sure, sweetheart.” Dad opens his arms, and you crawl towards him, head on his shoulder as his arms loop around your waist. Oh, god, you will your heart into giving out. Dying right here in dad’s arms is ideal.

He holds you so gently it’s brutal. He crushes you with the weight of his loveless love. Dad’s so good at pretending you almost think he cares.

“Can you… I want to stay like this.”

“Uh, sure, sweetheart,” Leon calls everyone sweetheart. Sweetheart is his default. Sweetheart ranges from Auntie Ashley to babysitters to lifeguards and retail workers who aren’t getting paid enough to deal with some old man making eyes at them. Not that anyone minds dad’s attention. It’s fucking unfair. Mom is babe, and your sister is baby, and your brother is buddy or sport or tiger or whatever shit he pulls out of his ass. And you’re sweetheart because you’re not important to him. His firstborn daughter is not important to him ‘cause she’s ugly. More of a specimen than a human.

You would do anything to keep him here.

“Dad?” You whisper into his neck.

“…Yeah?”

“I want you to…” Your lack of life flashes in front of your eyes. Bedroom. Bedroom. Porn. Bedroom. Porn. Porn. Dad. Not much. What have you got to lose? “I want to— I want to fuck you.”

Dad is silent. Then: “Oh.” He never makes the move to pull away, so you sit snugly in his grip for a few seconds longer.

“I— Dad, I touch myself thinkin’ about you.” Your stomach ties itself into a Gordian knot.

“Yeah, okay, why don’t we— Yeah, fuck, I see what she meant, okay. Wow, that’s a lot. Sweetheart, why… Listen.” Dad says a whole lot of nothing as he takes your hands off him.

“Please… I love you, dad. I really like you— I know it’s weird, dad, I do, seriously, I know, but please I just… I just like you.” There is no explanation for it. “Dad… Daddy.”

He full-on winces. It’s like you’re being flayed. Something inside of you just— Just shatters. Not your heart ‘cause it’s pumping more blood than it ever has. Fragments of your sanity splinter into even smaller segments until there is nothing left but nauseating levels of mental disturbance.

“If you don’t…”

“You seriously trying that right now?” Leon scoffs, and he’s so cocky you get hot under the collar.

(Between your thighs too, but that’s a different story.)

“Yeah, I’m serious— If you don’t… If you don’t do it- do it with me, I’ll tell mom you… I’ll tell her you raped me.” In actuality, you would never tell mom if daddy raped you. You would treasure it, keep it in a heart-shaped locket and think about it when you get off twelve times a day. Getting your pussy reamed by dad’s cock would fix you right up.

“Don’t— Are you okay?” Leon smacks your hand away, his tone is even.

“You do it too— I know you’ve done it, I know how you and mom met.”

His face drains, pallor yellowish. “That don’t… That’s different.”

“How is that any different?” Different ‘cause he’s hot and mom is hot. Leon passed it off as a drunken mistake and they end up getting together. It’s not rape if the perpetrator is a hottie. You agree, but still— It’s not fucking fair.

“‘Cause I didn’t do this.” Leon gestures abstractly.

You kiss him, hands braced on each of his tits, digging your fingers into the meat to feel him tense and harden like he’s wearing a chest plate. “You’re so hot dad,” you whine into his mouth, and Leon is quick to push you off, your wrists in his hands. Makeshift handcuffs.

“Listen, sweetheart,” Dad is using his dad voice. It’s like porn to you, only makes you wetter. “I don’t like hitting girls, but you’re givin’ me a damn good reason.”

“You can hit me, daddy.” You offer your face to him, stretching your neck forward, closing your eyes as you wait for the impact. It lands firm on your cheek, his fingertips catching the tip of your nose. Fuck that felt good. Shit. You think you’ve creamed your panties. “Again, dad, hit me again—“ He does. Harder than the last time. Your head knocks backwards, and your brain must have a dent in it.

Dad puts you over his lap and you’re so sure you’ve entered the pearly gates. Or the innermost circle of hell. Probably that ‘cause Jesus Christ are you steaming.

“I hate stupid little sluts that try it out on me,” Leon drags your sweats over the swell of your ass, “Do you have a dick?”

“What, dad— No!” You tell him, more mortified at his question than you are by your bare ass under his palm. Fuck— You’re so wet it’s disgusting, dripping down your thighs and surely staining his lap. Thick like treacle.

“No? Were you gonna rape dad with this stupid cunt?” Oh, you hope he spanks your pussy. Porn makes it look delicious. “You look like you might have a dick with that face of yours.” He traces the seam of your cunt through your panties. “Or is your pussy just fat?”

Good fucking lord.

“Dad…” You arch into him, only to have a hand come down on your left ass cheek. One. Two. Three. They all hurt bad as each other. Four. “Ouch!” That one hurt real bad. Five. You feel like a naughty child. This is not as hot as you thought it would be. More dull and embarrassing. Not even the good kind of embarrassing.

Leon puts you on your knees, the hand wrapped around your jaw forces your lips into a pout, and you think he is going to kiss you— God, you close your eyes and wait for it, lean into him, shit you’d pop your leg if you were standing up. He spits in your face and it trickles down the bridge of your nose.

“Got me dirty with that filthy pussy.” Dad speaks offhandedly, he speaks to you like you’re dog shit. Not dog shit stuck to the bottom of his shoe. Just dog shit on the side of the road. Like the sort that bothers you enough to complain about it, but it doesn’t ignite any real anger.

His hand remains tight on your jaw, then he drops it to fish his fat cock from his pants to slap the drippy head on your cheek. The sound ricochets off the walls. Hits you like a bullet. Holy fuck. Dad really just did that. You giggle, batting your lashes up at him as pretty as an ugly girl can, and he grimaces so it can’t be pretty.

“Christ, you nasty fuck,” Leon snickers at the look on your face, “What’s wrong with you?”

“Daddy,” you whimper, nosing the tip of his dick, he smells so good you want him in your mouth, “I jus’ love you lots.”

“God, I hate ugly little freaks like you.” He said that already, no need to rub it in. Another slap of his cock on your face. Your heart beats for him and him alone. “You know what I think?” Dad guides his cock into your warm mouth. “Shit, that’s good— I think your mom is a liar.”

His dick is all you’ve ever wanted. It’s heavy on your tongue, though the longer you suckle on the tip, the weightier it gets, and he’s wet. Dripping all over the place. You must get that gene from your dad.

“‘Cause I don’t think,” he grunts, palm resting on your forehead to push you off his shaft, “I don’t think I could make a kid this ugly.”

“No,” you say breathlessly, “No, you’re my dad, my daddy.” Crouched down below him, you lave over his balls, putting more effort into this than you have done with anything else in your life. Gargling dad’s balls is your best work. Nothing else you have to be proud of.

Your pussy is pulsing, shit has its own heartbeat, you drop your hand down to soothe your poor cunt, rubbing figure eights into the bulge of your clit over your panties. It’s not enough, you push them to the side, your fingers slip a couple times, not enough, only dad’s fingers are enough, only his cock will plug up your leaking hole.

“Get off me,” dad instructs, and you might be glued to him, but you detach yourself immediately. “C’mon, stand up.” You use his thighs as leverage, standing on shaky legs that threaten to give out at any second. He takes your shirt off. “Cute tits gone to waste,” dad sighs like it’s heartbreaking. “We could've done something about it, y’know? Could fix your face right up, just had to ask daddy.”

“Really, dad? I want to be pretty, daddy, I want to be pretty for you, you never call me pretty— Daddy, I want to be pretty, please.” You clasp his shirt, and he brings you into his lap once more, raising your legs to slide your panties down so you’re free bleeding on his lap. Free bleeding without the blood. Just good old pussy.

“Messin’ with you, sweetheart, can’t fix that dog face,” dad coos to you tenderly, and the plain-as-day insult flies right over you. Dad could get you to sell both your kidneys if he keeps talking to you like that. “Just gotta live with it.”

You have. You have lived with it. That’s what you do. Live with your ugly face. You could die, that’s an option, but you choose to wait it out. ‘Cause dying is pretty scary no matter how much you want it. And Leon’s dick is hard beneath your pussy so there are things to live for. The world isn’t all cruel.

“Up,” he taps your lower back, you raise your hips and he presses his cock to your stretched hole. Toy after toy after toy. All to ready yourself for dad. When you sink down on him, your body convulses. It’s the sweet release of death. Or an orgasm. Fuck. Dying on dad’s cock is— You haven’t died on his dick, he fucks you through your high, feet planted firmly on the ground as he thrusts upwards, dick angled just right.

Heroin is meant to be good. You’ve seen Trainspotting. Better than any cock— You don’t believe that for a minute. Unless he’s leaking smack straight into your pussy, numbing your walls. Could be that ‘cause god— You’re not really thinking, not that you think much, when you decide to shove your fingers into his mouth.

“Daddy, can you taste me?” You ask him, giving a languid grind of your hips down onto his cock, you regret it immediately ‘cause it’s so good your cunt squelches loudly. “Do you taste me, dad? Dad—“

“Yeah,” Dad says, muffled, “Shoving your fingers down my fuckin’ throat, you little psycho, ‘course I taste it.”

Shit. Shit. Shit. Daddy looks so pretty with his lips wrapped around your fingers, you fuck them in and out of his pink mouth, his tongue runs along the length of your fingers like he’s sucking a nice cock. Treating your fingers better than you did his dick.

Daddy’s splitting you in two. He fucks you without a care in the world. ‘Cause he doesn’t care about you. One-time-use pussy. You’re disposable like the gloves you get with box dye. Like a plastic spork. His cock is so deep he might as well tear open your middle and fuck your guts. Leon grabs your hips, forces you up and drops you down. The air in your lungs has no time to build up— You grasp at his shirt, bouncing in his lap like you’re a fleshlight, and you would be so happy with that title. Dad’s personal fleshlight. It makes you giddy.

Leon’s cock twitches inside of you, when he lifts you off of him, your pussy clings to the tip, holding on for dear life, insistent on milking daddy’s dick, taking every drop of his cum.

“Daddy…” Your head drops to his shoulder. “Please, daddy, am I pretty? Can you call me pretty?”

His hips stutter, and you don’t have to see his face to know he hesitates. It’s a struggle to call a girl like you pretty. “You’re so pretty, sweetheart.” Then he dumps his load so deep— So deep, you warm to the thought of having your daddy’s baby. You already fucked so why not go the extra mile?

Dad doesn’t kiss you, but he lays you down and tucks you in like he never has before. “Your mom’s worried.” He goes back to the topic at hand and you groan, covering your face with a pillow. “Hey, we can, uh…” Leon scratches his head. “We can y’know…” He shrugs, glances down at you. “Can do that if you try pulling your weight a little.”

The promise of your dad’s cock is enough to have you applying for every job in a thirty-mile radius. Dad’s cock is a fix for an ugly girl like you. You’ve got a pussy only your daddy could love, and you think you’re more than okay with that.

[slocumjoe]

Biggest complaints about each companion

Warning, reference to in-game dark subject matter.

This is subjective and mostly me wishing for a more thoughtful story, with themes beyond robot racism.

Cait: TDLR; Her backstory is too much for how it's handled

It feels like Cait got thrown every bad thing she could have. With trauma in characters, less is more, and in Cait's case, it doesn't help that her writing is more interested in her trauma than who she is as a person. Like Cait only matters as a character because of what she went through and what that demonstrates about the wasteland, rather being a person first.

I would like to point out, her parents waited until she was 18 to sell her. Because, apparently, age of consent matters to sex slavers. It demonstrates a lack of commitment to the dark topic, which usually means you should tone it down. Leave one aspect, and keep the other. Abusive parents or slavery, not both.

Since Cait is our only basegame raider companion, you could use her to humanize raiders by showing how the cycle of trauma creates them. "But Gage—" is a little bitch.

Codsworth: TDLR; Focuses too much on his pre-war relationship to the player

What was Codsworth doing those 200 years? Did he just hang out in Sanctuary? Did no one ever come to Sanctuary in the meantime? Codsworth has no relation to the plot or world beyond Sole.

I think Codsworth should have had a quest about how he went out and tried to help where he could, but now doesn't know where those people are, and wants to know what became of them. Something to give Codsworth a connection to the wasteland. Or maybe Codsworth shouldn't have been the Sole Surivor's robot at all, just one that wandered into Sanctuary and met them. Then you could have a point that the first human the Sole saw after freezing (Kellogg) was cruel, but the first 'soulless' machine was kind, which makes a point about the main plot and the idea that being human doesn't make you 'human.'

Curie: TDLR; Should have been related directly to the main plot

Curie is a robot that is put inside a synth—which is, biologically, completely human in all but a chip in their head and the circumstances of their creation—and is totally fine. She learns to breathe, gets thoughts and feelings in a way a Ms. Nanny wouldn't, and handles sensations without bricking.

Send this bitch to the Institute and BOS, are you kidding me? Curie is walking proof of synths being more than machines. She has wants, imagination, potentially even dreams and nightmares. This is never brought up by anyone.

Also, Curie is a robot, and then inhuman, but still a person, and she uses science and her compassion to help the wasteland, where those who would destroy or enslave her use it to further their own egos.

Danse: TDLR; MAKE HIM SAY SORRY TO NICK AND HANCOCK

Danse's real character arc starts at his final affinity post BB, and then it doesn't go anywhere. He never learns to accept himself, or synths, or ghouls. Danse is a character that shows the terrible function of 4 Affinity Talks, because he needs, like, 10 of the things.

Danse needed his likes/dislikes updated after BB, interactions with Nick and Hancock, and a proper character arc where he unlearns his worst traits and the BOS's bullshit.

Deacon: TDLR; Dead wife? Really?

Can Deacon not just be a goofball man who used to be a bigot, and now works hard to help the people he hurt? Because Barbara and her death implies that Deacon didn't change because it was the right thing to do, but because bigotry personally affected him.

If there must be a death, make it that his community tore itself apart trying to find synths among them. Y'know, like...a witch hunt? In Salem, maybe? Since we didn't do anything interesting with Salem, one of the most interesting places in the USA? Deacon sees this and sees that it doesn't matter if synths are human or not, hatred will inevitably hurt anyone, because it doesn't actually care who you are. Hatred doesn't need a reason, only a target. The Synth plot should have been an allegory for McCarthyism instead of slavery, change my mind.

Hancock: TDLR; He's a historical LARPER that doesn't do anything in terms of a narrative.

No, Todd. You can't make John Hancock a ghoul and call it an OC.

Hancock could have had a story about identity crisis, idolatry, and trying to escape your past. We also get hints at a complex political issue in Goodneighbor about the push-and-pull between the desire for total freedom/anarchy, but the need for some kind of law and order. Hancock has a casual friendliness, and acts like 'one of the people,' but he is the mayor. There's tension there. Can your leader be your friend? Can your friend call all the shots while still being on equal footing with you? Can you lead a group of people who look up to you as a hero, and still retain modesty and not subconsciously separate yourself?

I like Hancock, he's fun, he has a lot of interesting narrative stuff. But he doesn't do anything with it. It could have been a nice parallel with Elder Maxson, too.

MacCready: TDLR; Small inconsistencies + dude, go get your son???

Mac doesn't ever go back to Duncan, and Duncan never comes to the Commonwealth. I understand that the former is for game play reasons, but the latter feels like the writers forgot that Duncan exists.

MacCready has some issues with the likes/dislikes. I think they're mistakes instead of intended, but still. For example, in the Vault 81 quest. MacCready likes letting Austin die. He dislikes it if you give the cure.

There's also Sheffield, the soda addict in Diamond City. MacCready claims to have never seen someone with a sugar addiction, but Zip, from Little Lamplight, had an addiction.

Mac is mostly fine, aside from these inconsistencies. The Dead Wife thing sucks, but I allow it because it's pretty fundamental to his story, rather then being tacked on for sad points.

Nick: TDLR; Eddie Winter is a stupid bad guy with a stupid quest and Jenny Lands is a stupid tragic backstory

Eddie Winter being the first ghoul ever is mind-bogglingly bad. You're telling me that they made ghouls before the bombs? And even if they did, Winter couldn't be the first. How the fuck would anyone know that radiation makes you immortal if you do it right, otherwise?! So, that's a contradiction within an already contrived premise. And not only that, but he just. Leaves a bunch of holotapes with a number on the back, that make a code to the basement of his favorite sandwich shop, which just so happens to be on the same street Jenny gets fridged?

So, Eddie Winter (or one of his goons) was eating one day, looked out, saw the fiance of the detective hunting him and recognized her (????), shot her, and then presumably returned to his fucking sandwich??????

And then 2 centuries later, a clone of that detective somehow finds the holotapes, untouched, unmoved, still functioning and retaining the painted-on numbers. The numbers didn't...fade? Wipe off?

You can keep the concept of Nick wanted to finish something Pre-war Nick didn't get to, but this...this isn't it.

Like, Skinny Malone was right there. Maybe just Darla shows up when you free Nick, and then later Nick has to contend with Malone and the Triggermen in some grand conspiracy with Mayor MacDonough, Hancock, and Piper.

Preston: TDLR; The radiant quest mechanic fucked him over and his voice actor needed some retakes

The moment you get Radio Freedom, Preston should have stopped giving quests. Easy fix there. It would have saved him almost a decade of shitty memes.

The real problem with Preston is that his VA beefed it bad. I can quote some of his lines with perfect inflection because the VA just did it so poorly. X6-88's VA had to play a monotonous, little-emotion character, and he still nailed it and gave X6 a lot of personality and distinction. Preston sounds like a modded-in character. And Jon Gentry is a pretty good actor! He has a great live-action presence in his demo reels on IMDB. I think he just struggled to put his performance into his voice rather than his presence/body language, and they didn't let/have him do a retake.

Piper: TDLR; So much potential, so much failure. Piper is a shitty reporter, and that could have been a great opportunity to have commentary on the ethics of journalism.

Journalism is supposed to be a duty to the people. It has responsibilities and ethics that are very easily misunderstood or forgotten for the sake of the next article. A good journalist is not always accurate. An accurate journalist is not always kind. A kind journalist is not always good.

Piper is not a good journalist, because her writing is not informative, it isn't news or useful info. She writes about MacDonough being a synth—she's basically writing callout posts on her blog.

Piper is not an accurate journalist, because she never has evidence for this claim. She says MacDonough is a synth, that the Institute took the Survivor's baby even if the Survivor says no.

Piper is not a kind journalist, because she fearmongers and makes things worse for synths. She complains that no one believes or trusts her word, but the second thing you ever see in Diamond City is a man trying to kill his brother for fear he's been replaced.

This is all fine, if addressed and explored. But it isn't. Piper seems to be chasing the high of exposing authority, and both times, she's right. We, the player, know she's right because we find out later she is. Imagine if we didn't. Imagine that reveal scene never comes. Every issue of Publick Occurances is trying to start a witchhunt, and Piper doesn't notice that it's working.

So, let's make her arc about worrying about her sister.

X6-88: TDLR; BRUH HE HAS NOTHING

No backstory, no relationships with other characters, no quest, no character arc.

TODD. You had the chance to humanize the Institute, or at least show what it's like being an Institute synth that isn't free. And you, instead, put all that time into fucking KELLOGG. You think I give a fuck about KELLOGG? I don't even give a fuck about SHAUN.

🌠Honorable mentions🌠

Gage: Hypocrite that thinks becoming the problem is fixing the problem, also he has both eyes. What do you need an eyepatch for.

Strong: Bethesda Super Mutants suck shit. Y'know Erikson fron Far Harbor? Would rather have him.

Longfellow: Dead Wife Man. Again, would have preferred Erikson.

Dogmeat and Ada: Perfect, no notes.

Best companions are:

Dogmeat, for being doggy

Ada, for being robot lady

Preston, for being perfect aside from two technical, Doylist issues.

[sir-adamus]

this isn't directed at anyone specifically, as this is a sentiment i've seen a lot, but i think some people were expecting some kind of catharsis in regards to Neo being punished or just straight up dying in the volume 9 finale because they don't personally like and are therefore dismissive of the character; and then making claims that it was bad writing that she didn't get the shit kicked out of her and was then killed, but instead getting to bow out gracefully and taking the first step to improve on herself and find herself again (which, i have to say, is not a redemption, the claims of 'bad writing' always paint it as such which is weird to me - it's like, the start, at best)

and i've been seeing this sentiment for months and, from the perspective of someone who never really had an issue with the character and liked the way she was handled, every time i've always had the same question of like, is it bad? or do you just not like it? cos let's be real that's been a major, major problem in this fandom for years, and even the people who complain about it coming from the loud vocal minority are often guilty of similar behaviour, just in more 'acceptable' ways

there was this really good post i reblogged the other day, which i'll link here, which basically covers my general feelings on this in regards to media in general, but in specific regard to the show;

a) the main characters' priorities have never been on personal payback, and neither has the show's (which it makes a point with several times, with Yang and Blake giving Adam multiple opportunities to stop and just leave as just an example, which he doesn't take), so there's no reason for them to go after Neo when she's no longer a threat

b) by the time WBY would've had the opportunity to 'punish' Neo for everything she did, Neo was possessed, and in the aftermath of that, was no longer hostile to them because of the events leading up to her getting possessed in the first place

RWB/Y is a show with lots of thematic resonance, we see parallels and layers and one of the major themes in the show is grief, and how you handle it; in the Ever After, Neo serves as a microcosm of Salem - she lost the one positive (though ultimately co-dependent and not particularly healthy) relationship she had after a horrible childhood of isolation and instead of coming to terms with her grief, she dedicates herself to revenge (which was her characterisation click moment when she returned in volume 6, as that return actually gave her motivations and a goal, versus how she was in volumes 2 and 3, where she was just kinda there and didn't have all that much to her) and it consumes her, so when she actually does get that revenge she wanted, instead of there being any kind of catharsis, she's just left hollow and empty because she has nothing left, which leaves her open to getting possessed by the Cat

but after being freed from possession, Neo has no reason to keep fighting because of that prior realisation, and comes to the conclusion that she needs to move on, with the best opportunity to do so being letting the Tree help her. and this is what loops back to the post i linked; Neo is given the option to stop and change and she takes it

does it come too late? sure - but by the same note, better late than never. besides, the Ever After is a fairytale world where the normal rules don't apply, so 'late' isn't as damning as it would've been

[kaibutsushidousha]

To be honest, your discussion of Minase's positive and negative qualities piqued my interest. What do you think are the main recurring fgo writers' strong and weak points? Also where would you rank the lilim harlot event?

For the sake of brevity, I'll stick to one per writer. Picking apart everyone to the extent I did with Minase would take forever and would be better done after their respective Ordeal Calls.

I hesitate to call Higashide's comedy his strong point because his huge hits are about as frequent as his huge misses. I suppose I'll go with clarity for Higashide's main strong point. Even when I think he sucked at delivering his point, I can always tell what he's trying to say, which is not something I can say about Sakurai's most compressed scripts. His weak point is his lack of ambition. It's nice to have at least one person in FGO's team who will never try to escalate things, but I can't see it doesn't make his stories more forgettable in the long run.

Minase was already detailed in his own post.

Meteo’s best quality is a tone setter. Requiem, Salem, and all his events come with an atmosphere that feels very tangibly different from what FGO usually does. Often his events are bad, but never they lack a unique identity. Which segues into his weak point, being that many of his events are comedy events and the man is simply not funny. Bullying Erice is his only consistently good joke, and when he tries other things, the results are more miss than hit. See Las Vegas and Wandjina World Tour for major examples of comedy events that failed hard at the comedy side.

Nasu is a master recycler. I don't know how he does it but the man is constantly reusing the same structures, the same themes, or the same dynamics and somehow it never feels repetitive. There is always something that makes the whole recipe feel fresh and unique despite being so easy to recognize the same usual ingredients there. And what I dislike about Nasu in FGO is how he's still stuck at the concept of selling waifus from the girls with routes days. Everyone has their list of characters who get ship tease with Fujimaru but only in Nasu's case it feels like an overwhelming majority and that some of the choices create too large of a difference between the summoned character and the character in the main story. Was it really necessary to do this with, say, Morgan? Melusine? Tenochtitlan?

And Sakurai I saved for last because one major reason this post took this long is that I was struggling to sort out what is characteristically good and bad about her. Well, even now I don’t have a simple and satisfying answer. Things can’t be simple with Sakurai, unfortunately. One friend of mine described the experience of reading Sakurai scripts as “playing chess against an opponent that doesn’t tell that you are in a game of chess” and that’s honestly a fascinating way to phrase it.

Sakurai is an intriguing combination of inflexibly ambitious and inflexibly professional. She has grand ideas for her characters and she will include them in the script without fail. But she's also strictly adherent to script size limitations. While Nasu is making Camelot and Avalon le Fae with total disregard to every possible limit, Sakurai is cramming so much into Septem's and London's microscopic file space that it becomes utterly incomprehensible. Nasu wrote Last Encore's plot as a whole ass novel and hired Sakurai to convert that into anime scripts because Sakurai is his expert in fitting a lot of stuff into tiny spaces. Tunguska was tossed at Sakurai because probably no one else could fit into its raid event constraints. And because she doesn't compromise on what goes in, her alternative is not revealing the mysteries about her characters but laying out all the hints so the players can figure it out themselves, which is a really fun thing once you're used to it (read: aware that you're playing chess against her).

And the answer to "Where would I rank the Lilim Harlot event" is 1st place.

[blue-scorpion-king]

Adam Taurus was an horrible person.

Might as well say this: I am an cis man and I did not like Adam as an person. At all.

I honestly don’t give a damn about his ‘wasted potential’ as a villain.

He was both an spiteful, arrogant, manipulative leader of an group that turned extremist, thanks to him, and an horrible lover/boyfriend for Blake.

I don’t think he really knew what love is supposed to be either.

And that he let all of his ego, sadism, and racism go to his head as he ‘fights’ for the cause.

Aka, wanting to grab power for his own mission of killing every human and faunus who does not believe in his methods and ulterior motive.

And no.

Just because he had an sad backstory with being oppressed and literally branded with SDC on his eye, it doesn’t excuse everything that he did.

It just does not excuse it.

It is similar to even with the good that Ironwood did, the path of him snapping and  was there. And even with that it looked like that he could grasp the whole situation and fully realize the error of his treatment towards Mantle, declaring martial law, training an school full of teens for war basically, all that.

All it took was him caving in by the sight of an Wisp Grimm’s visage of Salem and him getting more and more tunnel vision, trying to fight through Salem, not around it, for him to turn on the very heroes that want to him, even with the sensitive info about why Salem is doing what she does, the Relics, and such.

And that the heroes did not want to sprinkle in some lies to keep Ironwood from having an unpredictable reaction and plan of if he found out.

Also, you want to know why Blake did not end up with Sun? 3 main reasons: Blake wants to face the current state of the White Fang more than falling in love with an man that she sees far more like an brother from another mother than anything.

She made her choice to run to keep Adam away from everyone that she cared about in Beacon, even with that she knew that she made an bad choice.

& lastly, she had Yang in her mind ever since Beacon fell, until she reunited with her team in Haven and tried to mend the team relationship.

And did not run away again.

Back to Adam though.

Adam was not an ‘Beast’ to Blake as an Belle.

He was an god damn Gaston. : P

He was beaten by the 2 people that he tormented.

Especially the one that got her right arm cut off and struggled, but ultimately got up, trained with her dad, went to find her team, including her sister, find her biological mother with her bandit tribe, and realized something while fighting Adam with Blake in Argus. 

It might have been like this in her head: 

‘...Why was I so afraid of this guy? He is *pathetic*. Yes, he cut off my arm. But... He is just so shitty as a person. And so cheap with his Semblance too.’

Keyword: Might.

So yeah.

Good riddance.

I am glad Adam is dead. : P

And I don’t care for his ‘wasted potential’. He ran his course and ruined himself.

No one else to blame but himself.

-Also, can a big portion of RWBY haters realize that not every villain needs to be 3-4 or more layers deep. As long as they do their role right.

Like an villain making you hate them. If they can do that, they have done their job.

Adam Taurus is one of those. 

Though, I am not saying you should hate Adam or like him. More power to you.

I am just explaining my stance on him as an person. Even with that he is fictional.

I know this.

But don’t hate on people who like him or hate him.

This applies to EVERY single RWBY character in the show.

Especially Blake & Yang.

They are together-together now, since V9. 

Please get over that, people who are pissed at their very existence.

The RWBY fandom has enough people throwing insults over trivial shit and opinions. While others are just trying to enjoy the franchise.

We don’t need more of that.

And I am not mad at those people as of right now.

I am just disappointed in them.

Moving on to the last point of this post. And then I am done-

To emphasize: He was an true piece of shit. : P Like *God.*

--------------

~The Bat~

[showtoonzfan]

I really try to understand and reread the Ken document to see where Viv’s supporters are coming from, but I’m sorry, all I thought when I was done reading it is that Vivienne is just mentally unstable to the point where she can’t carry a normal and steady conversation without either being petty or freaking out. I think that’s why so many of her peeps and fans excuse her because they see her in a vulnerable state and see her say she’s “shaking” and that she can’t handle this, so everyone coddles her and thinks that Ken must have said something to warrant a reaction like this out of Vivzie…….expect….they didn’t.

Ken never harassed or poked Vivzie, they never got angry and forceful, but when they reasonably give Viv VALID constructive criticism about how she should be crediting her artists since she’s leading an INDIE team (and can’t figure that out apparently since she compared herself to fucking Disney) apparently that was enough to send Vivzie off the edge immediately and think that Ken was attacking her, when Ken said it themselves, they were just talking to her. To have fans paint Ken out to be this needy person who demanded credit in unwarranted aspects is disgusting, because what they said in their document was true. They HAD been responsible for writing MAIN plot points, jokes, and ideas that all made their away into the final product, and the fact that they only got an “additional writing” credit rather than having their name up with Viv, Dave, and Raymond is bullshit.

Viv’s point she had made of Ken’s writing only being in the “early stages” is literally a lie because what they wrote ended up in the final product, not only writing main jokes but Alastor being in the pilot and investing in the hotel, Angel being there for free rent and being the first hotel patron, Charlie trying to convince those of redemption ect. And then when the two brushed it aside, good ol’ perfect Vivzie called Ken an abuser to others, saying false things behind their back while ALSO pretending to be nice to them upfront. That’s my biggest issue. Tell me one instance where Ken was “abusing” Vivzie. They weren’t, Viv is just so fucking emotionally sensitive with zero thick skin and sees anyone daring to criticize her as an attack, and she’s STILL like that to this day. I really don’t see how people can read a document of her not only tracing and not crediting someone, but talking lies behind someone’s back while also being nice..and STILL support her, I really can’t. And it’s funny when some of y’all think that we want Hazbin to cease to exist or Helluva to stop running….no….we don’t give a shit about the shows, we want Viv to get the consequences of her actions and her victims to get justice. We want her to own up to what she’s done, especially the recent drama, and yet she never does cause in her eyes she can do no wrong. She always fucking acts like she did nothing wrong, or blames her behavior on everyone but herself. She’s a 30 year old woman, she acts like a child and needs to be kicked down a notch. She never learns from her experiences or gets better and it really is tiring to see people side with her EVERY single time, despite their being countless evidence clear as day that she’s an entitled brat, with even ANOTHER spindle-member coming out and revealing that they were mistreated as well:

All I can say is that I hope more members are inspired to come out, and not afraid, especially since there are ex members who came out that we haven’t heard a word from, like Salem Squidder, the person above, even Ashley Nichols. People need to realize that wether you like Viv or not, people were HURT by her, and she needs to come forward and confront it, not vague tweet and hide behind her fanbase, leaving everyone to fight her battles instead of herself.

[deadbeatbirdmom]

I've been thinking about how everyone in Vacuo knows Raven is the Spring Maiden. At least I presume everyone knows if Sun knows. Raven must have been using her powers to help for her to be included in that secret council, which might explain why it's not a secret that she's the Spring Maiden.

I've got to wonder if it came as a surprise to anyone. In theory Yang was keeping it a secret, in practice I agree with other posts pointing out it's not that hard to guess. It also wouldn't be the first time a revelation about Raven was shared off camera.

There's how Jaune, Ren and Nora knew Raven was Yang's mother in Volume 4, something I presume Ruby told them, because what Yang revealed to Blake in Burning the Candle wasn't exactly common knowledge, and I doubt Blake said a word to anyone about it.

Is Yang a hypocrite for lying to Qrow at the end of Volume 5? Personally I think there's a big difference between keeping it to herself that Raven is Spring Maiden, and between what Ozpin did after promising no more secrets.

Why do I think Yang did it? There's a few possible reasons:

(Under a read more cut because this post is getting longer)

Protecting Raven, who wanted to flee from Salem so much that she let Yang take the relic. Telling anyone that Raven was the Spring Maiden would increase the chance that someone would try to drag her into the fight against Salem. Also the more people who know, the more danger Raven's in from anyone who wants to be the next Spring Maiden.

Yang quite simply needed time to process things. That Raven killed the previous Spring Maiden when she was apparently under Raven's protection. That Raven let Yang put a target on her back instead of Raven aka taking the relic which Salem wanted. That Raven left her again. That Raven actually cared, leaving in tears and with an apology. That she didn't care enough to stay.

Seeing it as Raven's secret to reveal, and not Yang's place to tell anyone.

And perhaps Yang figured that it couldn't help if she did spill the beans, because Raven wanted to flee Salem, not fight. What could Yang say? "Oh, by the way, Raven's the Spring Maiden. She's gone because she's terrified of Salem. Help us fight her? Not on my life." It wouldn't be easy to say that your own mother valued her life more than yours. Much as I do like Raven and find her a fascinating character, that's precisely what she did when she let Yang take the relic. Raven is quite frankly a disaster, and that's part of what makes her interesting.

On the plus side it seems Raven decided to side against Salem after all, what with her presence in the secret council in RWBY Beyond. Perhaps what changed Raven's mind was losing Yang: I figure she felt it when Yang went where Raven's Semblance couldn't follow.

When was it revealed off camera? It certainly was at some point. Whenever Raven arrived in Vacuo, possibly zapping Grimm with Maiden powers so she didn't even need to say she's the Spring Maiden? Yang deciding to tell her friends somewhere between leaving Mistral and falling into the Ever After, and word spreading before Raven even showed up in Vacuo?

CRWBY I have questions. There's also only 3 episodes of RWBY Beyond left, I doubt I'll be getting answers.

It does amuse me to think of Yang bracing herself and opening up to her nearest and dearest about Raven being the Spring Maiden, after they arrive in Vacuo but before they know it's such common knowledge that Sun knows.

Yang: "Raven's the Spring Maiden."

Yang's friends and family: "We know. We guessed, and you're not much good at lying."

Cue shocked Yangichu. I made cursed art of a shocked Yangichu, although nothing to do with the Raven reveal (instead it came from this post).

I don't know how much sense I'm making here, I'm very tired. Oh, that reminds me, there's a Yang gif related to being very tired:

[mrgladstonegander]

MORE BOOTLEG DUCKTALES ‼️team science (oops! all identity issues!) edition

team magic here

archimedes gallas / gyro = more like other versions where he's nice but this man is carrying SOOOO much guilt. insane amounts. his entire character is focused on how much his self-worth is down the drain (also hes being haunted by the narrative (phoebe/della)). also he's half japanese. based off the onagadori

cherry pekin / huey = has a similar problem to archie where she has overwhelming feelings of needing to seem mature, and responsible, where she overworks herself

sydney eggtooth-diazi / fenton = REALLYY wants to seem like a Professional Normal Dude. repressing EVERY urge to wear silly ties. sees morality in a black and white sort of way and it WILL cause problems later. he puts archie on a pedestal and its super obvious and it just makes archie more mentally ill

salem milly / gandra = planning to really lean into how she joined fowl bc they were the only ones that supported her. mainly the contrast with how the Main Family supports each other with unconditional love, the love she has is purely conditional, and she's constantly convincing herself that she Wants to do bad things, and that she doesnt care about these people, because despite how she says she only listens to herself, shes stuck to FOUL, and thats her 'family'. based on mille fleur d'uccle

frankie loon / fethry = IT IS PART OF TEAM SCIENCE‼️ after getting back to mainland after being alone at sea for four years, he joins as a janitor. pulling back the marine biology in the sense that he is interested in EVERYTHING. man of a 10000 copies. winning the idgaf war (DOES care abt how his family is disinterested in his interests but its FINE because HE cares its fine its fine. he's accepted he'll be alone). its presence WILL send everyone else into a shock about their identity. hopefully it'll happen vice versa as well

widget-time-tech / widget / gizmoduck / lil bulb = theyre being consolidated and also theyre lil bug guys now!! i dont care if you hate bugs theyre cute as shit!! widget is Usually in the little ball, but also helps control the suit with sydney. it still has anger issues so it'll make things harder for sydney rather than just silly incompetence. and it was DEFINENTLY made to be a superhero ai. no other purposes. at all. certainly not messing with the fabric of time. just helping the ppl of the town :)

mad clucktor / mad clucktor = iwhile he IS a villain he isn't necessarily a bad person. hes a physical manifestation of the part of archie that WANTS to be alive! that KNOWS his worth! he doesn't have to work himself to death to make up for his guilt!

and he's the reason why toby is even active. why he's back

toby / boyd = cannot be normal abt this sorry

he was made to be archie's idea of the "perfect boy". the perfect kid. what he wants to be what he WISHED he would be growing up. hes happy, he can do everything right, he's intelligent, he's strong. his existence is free of human doubt and anxiety, he's the perfect boy and if he was in archie's place everything would be fine

but it isnt! he gets used! toby's used for evil through no fault of his own. but he becomes a symbol of things that are "wrong" about archie. toby didn't resent anyone or be upset with how people treat him. toby doesnt have his own needs. he can do whatever people need him to do. toby was his symbol of hope but becomes a symbol of how everything with him goes wrong. he becomes an unachievable goal that archie is trying to be to make up for the existence of toby!!

and so the only way for either of them to be "truly human" is when archie learns that he doesn't have to be perfect. he never had to be. even if he's made mistakes, he still deserves to LIVE!! he doesn't have to hide his pain and discomfort for anyone!! and its okay for toby to be toby!

[lily-orchard]

I'm not even a Belos enjoyer but finale was pretty dissapointing. It felt like Dana just saw that fans hate Belos and decided to not even show a proper flashback for him and kill him in a lame way. Sure fandom loved that he got stomped by Eda King and Raine (for some reason), but I feel like it should've been more like Luz tells Belos that he lost everything because of his inability to change and now he turned into a monster that nobody will remember after he dies or sth and Belos dies while seeing visions of Caleb Evelyn and everyone he's ever killed that don't even look at him so he dies scared with realization that Luz was right. Cuz that "huehue look we are not like the other cartoons our villain is lame and underdeveloped and died by being stomped by Luz's friends huehue AREN'T WE QUIRKY AND NOT LIKE THE OTHER GIRLS CARTOONS" felt lame and cringe like make defeat of a fashist actually worth it bruh

I mean I don't like the Not Like Other Girls'ing of the writing, but I'll be honest I think you're just mad that the Caleb and Evelyn red herrings didn't amount to anything. Those are things that were always afterthoughts and should have been scrapped. Phillip didn't need a secret Cain and Abel backstory to explain his genocide against witches. He was already from a deeply racist and fundamentalist time period.

There's a lot of people who wanted to Caleb to matter and for Evelyn to be a Clawthorne, and the truth is... they don't matter... at all.

I think it would have been worse if they harped on that shit. The time spent particle effect-ing and anime-framerating should have been spent on the main characters, not on the fan theories.

I mean, not to put too fine a point on it, but if you really wanted to just drive the spike through Phillip as a last word, what they would have done would have been for Camilla to take Luz by the shoulder and guide her away from him as he rots in the boiling rain, Phillip starts ranting about how the witches aren't people and will doom humanity with their filth, and then Camilla turns her head back and says "Yeah, I've heard that one before."

Because the thing about Belos is that he is fundamentally an invader. He's an invader of the Demon Realm, but he's also a white Christian British man living in America in the 1600's. He's an invader back in the Human Realm too. He came to the Demon Realm at the HEIGHT of his own previous invasion.

His profession is Witch Hunter. His job was never to hunt witches. It was to hunt women and native people and escaped slaves.

Belos' genocide of the witches on the Boiling Isles directly mirror the Salem witch trials, which were little more than a thin veil to persecute women who didn't conform to Christian morals. And they knew this. They knew magic wasn't real. They all of this.

Let's be honest here. Let's be brutally honest here. Why does Belos want to genocide everyone on the Boiling Isles?

He's mad about his brother's hot new gf

They do magic and therefore it is sinful

It is an integrated society that knows neither colorism, sexism, homophobia or transphobia?

It's the third one. Because to a white christian man 1600's US Colonies, that very notion is profane to him.

Hell when he tries to play the whole "I only care about humanity!" spiel to Luz, Luz looks at him like

Luz knows that were they in the Human realm, she would have been the target of Belos' ire in the place of the witches.

Honestly with that kind of background behind Belos that you can easily extrapolate just by knowing what he is and where he comes from, it was always fucking sad that they backpedaled like fucking crazy and pulled this stupid Cain and Abel bullshit in the first place. Like, you had the best foundation for a villain, you didn't have to add all this fandom bullshit.

But that's the Adventure Fantasy death spiral, isn't it? They start with something actually very biting and edgy, the genius of The Owl House in it's early seasons was that it didn't pull it's punches, and then walks most of it back to replace it with safe, santizied fandom mysteries about secret families and hidden identities and conspiracy mongering. Because you can't really pack hidden mysteries in like a pretentious weeby jackass if your bad guy is just a racist white guy.

Because racist white guys are just pretty straightforward.

Honestly, I think Luz just fucking standing there watching him burn away in the boiling rain, lacking any sympathy for him or his bullshit, silently gloating at the fact that she has completely and utterly destroyed his 400 years of work to undo the Boiling Isles and is content to watch him die like the cowardly, snivelling rat he is to be a and extremely powerful and poignant image

A far more meaningful moment than... whatever the fuck you were talking about.

You want the defeat of a fascist to be worth it, making him practically beg for the mercy of a woman who (were they not currently in a place with magic in it) would have been on his hit list and who he only tried to appeal to because she was the closest thing to a kindred spirit for parsecs, and having her look down at him like he is literally muck on her shoe IS WORTH IT.

What you're suggesting just puts the stupid red herring fandom shit at the forefront. Nobody cares about reading Belos a "reason you suck speech." Nobody cares about Caleb. Nobody cares about Evelyn. Nobody cares about any of that shit.

This is the closest thing we get to payoff for all that dragged out angst in the last 7 episodes, Luz getting to watch this man who fucked with her head and manipulated her good nature die begging at her feet, and you want to center the stupid Roundtable fan theories?

That's ultimately my problem with this entire genre. Because even when we get a really good moment like this, there's people like you saying that it should have been different and presenting ideas that all follow the same templates, and are written by TVTropes, and suck, and position white background characters as more important, and suck, and primarily exist for theory youtubers, and suck, and mimic your favourite anime, and suck, and suck, and SUCK SO FUCKING HARD!

What you said should have been done instead... would be shit. It would just be shit. It would be garbage.

I have complaints about Season 3, but this?

This is beautiful.

[bestworstcase]

That's some compelling meta WRT choice and 'hey, wait, does Cinder *really* need or want the arm gone (again)?' I'll admit to swallowing the 'it's eating her like Grimm mold and has to be Dealt With sometime' premise for a while, but even if Cinder does (try to) break with Salem that'll be some time coming yet. As for a big cup of Optic De-Grimmer solving anything about Salem herself...Summer Rose probably tried just that and got nowhere 'cause Salem's had *eons* to think about All This.

hdkfbd on the subject of summer rose my favorite theory on what went down between her and salem during that initial confrontation is basically: summer hit her with the silver glare, and salem—who may or may not have ever personally been glared before but is of course intimately and painfully familiar with what GOL’s magic feels like on account of it being what makes her immortal—promptly went “ohhh that’s not *his* power, i… need to reconsider some things.” and summer was like. what.

because, yanno, if salem made the same assumption that maria did, killing SEWs was most likely motivated by a desire to eradicate or at least diminish GOL’s influence in the world… and if, upon experiencing it herself, she realized that that assumption was incorrect, the obvious response is to put a moratorium on hunting them down at least until she figured out where that power actually originated from and, well, here’s a VERY CONVENIENT silver-eyed huntress who ozpin VERY CONVENIENTLY broke to the point of taking off on rogue suicide missions and oh you have children? i’m so very sorry would you like to join me so we can stop ozpin from doing to your girls what he’s done to you?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

i have several theories on the grimm arm and why it’s growing; the main three i keep toggling between are:

1. “it can sense your trepidation; you must make it dread you” = the more afraid cinder feels of the grimm arm (and perhaps salem by extension), the less control she has over it, because after all it *is* a grimm, and the grimm feed on fear. hence why it starts to grow only after cinder disgraces herself and spends months with this worry in the back of her mind that she’s not going to be able to earn back her spot in the inner circle. if that’s the case, then cinder being on this trajectory of losing fear / getting bolder and more defiant is the best possible thing she could do for herself, because refusing to be cowed might measurably diminish the degree of control salem has over the arm and thus of her. (the symbolic appeal of this interpretation is…obvious gjdndjsk)

2. the growth and visual blending of grimm and human flesh coincides with cinder’s growing acclimatization to the grimm arm after the battle of haven. v4-5 establishes that cinder is having some trouble with the arm (apparently multiple sessions with salem trying to get it to take, the tremendous and exhausting effort of using it during training sessions, the habit she has of just letting it dangle stiffly at her side), and after her sleeve is ripped off at haven we see that the graft site is still very clean. after this point, cinder becomes gradually more at ease with the arm, hiding it less with every outfit change/adjustment, and her range of motion with it likewise becomes steadily more natural. by the time we see the growth up to her shoulder, the way cinder uses her grimm arm is indistinguishable from how she uses her human arm. thus: its growth might be a direct result of this physical and emotional integration; as cinder gets comfortable with it and masters it, it becomes more genuinely a part of her. (possibly this would explain why cinder seems so unconcerned, if she’s experiencing the growth as the arm feeling more and more natural, more like it *belongs* to her.)

3. …both…?

[bleedingichorhearts]

𝕮𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖔𝖗 XVI

𝕬𝖚𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖗: Man, now why you gotta do all that? Causing all the trouble?

𝕿𝖆𝖌𝖌𝖊𝖉: @kit-williams, @egrets-not-regrets, @bispecsual, @gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan, @sleepyfan-blog. (For the newly tagged. This is considered an older, continued story of mine. So, beware.)

TW // Slightly NSFW.

I hissed as Dacre lightly touched my bruised arm, a tiny coo coming out of the Dark Angel in an apology.

“It’s fine, it just hurts.” I huff, clenching my teeth together when he continued to wrap up my sprained arm. Nuzzling it when he was finished.

He cooed again, more sadly this time. An apology if anything as he laid himself on top of my stomach. My other hand coming up to pat and thread my fingers through his greasy black hair that was due for a bath.

Looking down at him, I could see his conflicting thoughts going through that mind of his. His eyes clouding over while his gauntlet twitched here and there. I could tell that he was telling himself that he should go back and take revenge for his lost partner, but at the same time he has never moved away from my side.

He stuck around me like glue. Never letting me wander off too far without him. Not like I could anyways, having a sprained ankle and arm was not an efficient way to get anywhere, but he took care of me in this… warehouse? Abandoned building? Giving me any food and water bottles that he could find while he goes out to scope out the area.

At least, that’s what I think he does. Sometimes he comes back way later than he planned, frustrated with himself. That’s where he comes in and checks up on me and lays himself down on my stomach. Finding some comfort in it.

It weirded me out at first, but I noticed it relaxed the Dark Angel down like that. He liked how I would thread my fingers through his hair. A quiet purr coming out of him when I embraced him, but I couldn’t help but think of why he was acting so… protective?

I know his partner got sliced into two halves by the Knight, but that doesn’t give him a reason to protect me. If anything, I should have died with Clyde. Whether it was by Dacre hand or theirs. I’ve heard how Astartes gone feral after their supposed bonded died, some ending up in brutality.

So, why didn’t Dacre kill me? Why didn’t he leave me to the Knight? Was it not in his blood, or his duty to do so? Was it out of a command? A dying wish? A promise?

I sighed, gently twirling Dacre hair with my finger. Maybe, I just was the next best thing closest to him? That I was his closest stability?

Though, this brings up another question. Why do I remember the Gray Knight from somewhere? Like I’ve met him before? It would partially make sense if I did. I mean, I don’t remember anything after being stuck in the hospital with little Salem in my arms.

Oh, my little Salem.

I hope he was doing alright. I know he was still alive; a mother knows their child after all, and it didn’t seem like he wasn’t their target. Probably charming his way through. I tried to brighten my mood, but the thought of Salem crying out to me haunts my ears. It gives me delusions that I was hearing him when he wasn’t around at all. It scared me awake sometimes.

Then it suddenly hit me, my fingers stopping mid thread through Dacre's hair, a low hum coming from him. His eyes looking up at me with drowsy eyes.

Thinking back on it, I remember The Knight saying, “Where is she?” Demanding the appearance of someone, some female. Not my little Salem. “I don’t know who you’re talking about there knight.” I remember Clyde responding way too quickly, shifting a lot his spot too. It was clear that Clyde knew what he was talking about, but blatantly ignored the Knights orders. Getting him killed in a… gory, unforgiving way.

“You… knew them.” I muttered out, snapping Dacre out of his drowsy state. “You knew the Knight.”

The Dark Angel resting in my lap rises slowly, curving his body over mine while I shuffled back a little on the makeshift bed. His usual brown eyes staring me down, and I swore I saw a hint of red in them. Something I never saw in this Dark Angel before. He was usually calm and collected, never going further unless he needed to. Unless he wanted to.

This is not the Dacre I remember.

The Dark Angel rumbles lowly, leaning his head down closer to my shoulder and I felt like I had to hold my breath to not agitate the Dark Angel anymore. His breath fanning against my neck, tickling it while I swallowed down my nerves. My eyes following his ever so slow movements.

He presses his lips under my ear, then another and another as I suppress my nerves to shiver at the slow, appalling, and dragging contact. He was not the same Dacre I remember. This Dacre was different, more… shadowed, unpredictable. Did his partner's death change him more than I thought?

“Dacre…” I whisper, his head tilting slightly at my words. “You’re… keeping something away from me aren't you?”

His gauntlet shoots forwards and takes me by the neck, squeezing it lightly while he turns my head away from him. Small coughs running out of my mouth. A warm wetness pressing up against the side of my throat.

“Dacre.” I try again, squeezing my eyes shut as he puts more pressure on my neck. A low rumble batting into my ear as I could feel his teeth nibbling at my skin.

I jerked in his hold, crying out when he sunk his teeth into my shoulder. His hand tightening around my neck, cutting off my airflow as I gasp out. My hand coming up to claw at his gauntlet. My vision slowly becoming blurry as he marked my neck.

My god did it hurt, and it ached badly when he let go and lapped at it. Deep, quiet purrs running through him as he continuously lapped at it. Almost sounding apologetic, but they didn’t sound, nor feel apologetic. It felt wrong.

I coughed when he released my neck a bit. My hand that was clawing at his gauntlet falling to rest besides me, becoming suddenly exhausted. My own blood, slathering with his saliva painting against my heated skin.

I whine as he slowly guides me back down on the makeshift bed by the neck. His tongue and teeth still lapping and nipping around the mark he’s made before his head perks up. A small growl leaving him as he looks around the room before he straightens himself up and leaves me to my restless, but tiring confusion.

What the hell did he just do to me? Did he in some way drug me? Making me feel all tired? That Dark Angel didn’t even answer my claim! Admittingly, it was a touchy subject for him, but he definitely knows them.

That was something I so sure of. I mean, it also doesn't make sense they would pop up out of nowhere and that I give birth to my little Salem without knowing who the father was. Without knowing what my past was. It just... didn't make sense!

It was like I was ripped from my life from before, and maybe that's exactly what happened? It was my only logical reasoning left to think about before I fell asleep, too exhausted to try and stay awake.

I just want my little Salem back.

ℕ𝕖𝕩𝕥 ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣: 𝕮𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖔𝖗 XVII

ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕠𝕦𝕤 ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣: 𝕮𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖔𝖗 XV

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕃𝕚𝕤𝕥: “𝕮𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖔𝖗” 𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕷𝖎𝖘𝖙

[skye-huntress]

Ruby and Weiss

A while ago I was asked what my thoughts were on these two characters and the trajectory of their character arcs. I had something of a revelation recently and wanted to do a follow up, especially now after we’ve seen some developments on Ruby’s arc. The focus on this post will be on their relationship. It hasn’t escaped my attention that in this volume especially there seems to be little interaction between these two who were so much closer just a few volumes ago. It has only recently occurred to me that there is a reason why there is suddenly this distance between Ruby and Weiss.

Weiss is in a different situation from everyone else. Her entire life has been reduced to rumble, literally and figuratively. Her home kingdom is gone, and everyone she knew from there, from family to acquaintances, are either dead or permanently displaced. She has been more focused on getting back to Remnant than anyone else because in addition to checking up on her family, there is a lot she needs to do for herself, her family and her people. It’s certainly not helping that she was part of the plan that resulted in sacrificing Atlas, and that she couldn’t at least keep the Staff from falling into Salem’s hands. She’s focused on the challenges ahead while feeling the weight of her choices bear down on her, she doesn’t notice what Ruby is going through.

On the other hand, Ruby can see Weiss clearly. I don’t think it hit Ruby until she made a comment about going home and Weiss pointed out she no longer had a home to go back to. Then there was the moment at the market where she commented about not wanting to keep leaving places in ruin, and Ruby just silently guides Weiss away. Then within the punderstorm, as Weiss stares at the image of Atlas falling, Ruby doesn’t move to touch her or say anything at all. Whether it’s a conscious decision or not, Ruby has been distancing herself from Weiss, and the reason is so obvious I’m actually shocked I hadn’t considered it sooner.

Ruby blames herself for destroying Weiss’ home and ruining her life.

Throughout their journey through the Ever After, Weiss has been a constant reminder to Ruby of her failure to protect Atlas. Of course Weiss understands that if any blame needs to assigned, it is at least shared among all of them, that’s why when she talks about the plan to drop Atlas she uses “us” and “we”. She did not understand that at the time, Ruby was placing the full burden of the blame on herself. There was also the issue of the comments Weiss made about Jaune back at the Paper Village, about how he was unreliable and that they needed to find someone else to guide them. Weiss wasn’t talking about her, but Ruby was thinking all the same things about herself, and it clearly bothered her enough that she threw those words right back at Weiss during her outburst later.

So, there’s the reason that the two of them have been so distant this volume. Now it seems like Weiss is starting to catch on to what’s going on with Ruby and how she and the rest of her friends may have unwittingly contributed to the problem. Right now though, there is nothing for them to do but wait for Ruby to figure out some of her own issues for herself. It will be up to Weiss and the rest of them to accept Ruby’s decision.

Moving forward is where things get interesting though. Ascension will only help Ruby with her internal issues, but it won’t fix the rift that was caused in her relationships, especially with those who were with her in the Ever After. Regardless of how she comes back, she’ll need to take the time to reconnect with everyone and have an honest conversation about her feelings and how her relationships with everyone should work. There’s a bit of imbalance in terms of how everyone relies on her but she feels like she can’t rely on anyone else, at least when it comes to emotional support.

As for Ruby and Weiss specifically, there are definitely things they specifically need to work out. For a start, Weiss needs to let Ruby understand that she doesn’t blame her personally for what happened to Atlas. I also think it would ease Ruby’s conscience if she works with Weiss to pick up the pieces of her life as well as helping the refugees from Atlas. As I’ve mentioned before, the immediate future for Weiss especially is full of hardships and uncertainty even without the ongoing conflict with Salem. She’ll have her family with her of course, but it might be nice if her best friend was helping share the burden as well.

[chaikachi]

I'm thinking about the idea of Oscar joining the "Wants to throw hands with Cinder Fall on sight" squad bc she specifically is the reason things went wrong with the plan. (She's the reason that Ruby fell/died based on what he must be thinking currently.) I can't help it I just love the trope of "character goes absolutely feral when their love interest is hurt" he's already done it once but I want MORE

YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT BUT ALSO LISTEN. IT'S NOT JUST CINDER

Like yes, obviously, but Little Prince in the desert with a venomous antagonist Tyrian?? Little Prince who will have just gotten his rose back?? Also just... they way they have focused on Oscar's protectiveness and attachment to her over the volumes in such specific ways??

Yes, we have the scene at Haven where he gets Big Mad™ when he sees Ruby is hurt (meanwhile Weiss is literally dying in the corner, lmao).

EDIT: I FORGOT THE V6 FINALE

But we also see him pay such close attention to her in the quieter moments too. Standing up for her against Jaune when she's looking down on herself:

Remembering her saying that 'food makes her feel better' and making some for when she and the rest of them get back. WE SAW YOU PAUSE AND LOOK AT RUBY BEFORE YOU FINISHED YOUR SENTENCE OSCAR!!! YOU'RE NOT SNEAKY!!!

The DOJO SCENE?? I don't need to put them all here, y'all get the idea.

But Ruby, this light that has inspired so much of his choices over the course of this story is gone. They reunited at the beginning of v8 for no more than an hour before splitting ways again. Then the same thing happened at the Manor right before RWBYJ fell. You think that boy isn't going to get her back after thinking she was gone forever and be watching her as if she might fall through his fingers again at any moment? When this is how he looked at her before that scare???

That he isn't going to fight tooth and nail to not lose her again?

That there is a very solid argument towards his semblance unlocking in such a moment?

Like, be for real. The kid has been beaten, kidnapped, beaten more, went toe to toe against Salem and not a single one of those instances was traumatic enough for him to unlock it. But both times Oscar's lack of semblance have been brought up? He's been talking to Ruby.

In v5, there's a moment where they focus on Jaune who still hasn't unlocked his and Oz says something about how his journey isn't over, and the same can be said for the rest of them. That unlocking isn't the end but semblances can also evolve we get this framing:

Jaune, who's semblance unlocked that volume finale, Nora, who almost certainly did something to her semblance with her stunt in v8, Ren, who's semblance evolved in v8 as well, and then Ruby... who's semblance and evolution has been teased and talked about for the last three volumes!!

Then in v7, Oscar once again paying such close attention to her that he can tell when she does something differently with her semblance.

I am too lazy to add text to the gif so the convo goes as follows:

Oscar: Have you... always been able to do that? Ruby: Heh, I don't know! I don't normally think it through that much. Oscar: You guys are evolving and I still don't even have my semblance. Ruby: Well, I bet we'll all be jealous when you do.

Like bro, bro, i am shaking you by the shoulders is there ANY OTHER WAY IT PLAYS OUT???? Boy is going to LOSE IT the moment she is in any serious danger and I am so looking forward to it.

[citadelofmythoughts]

I’ll be honest, I’ll always have a serious problem with seeing people want redemption for antagonists with a body count (no hate, just irritation). Like, I understand characters like Cinder and Shigaraki having tragic childhoods, but to me that doesn’t excuse their current actions, especially if they feel no sympathy, hesitation, and/or regret for their actions.

Cinder thus far has killed countless innocents (and Pyrrha especially) with a smile, only ever showing any other emotion when she gets her ass kicked or faced with a disappointed Salem.

Shigaraki only starts to have an issue with what he’s doing when AFO starts to try and steal his body.

They’ve both had plenty of opportunities to show any kind of remorse for their actions, but haven’t so far beyond selfish reasons. To me, they’re no more worthy of redemption than their respective bosses.

And yes, I do get that redemption is a theme in RWBY and that MHA is about rescuing people, but still there has to be a line, and imho they’ve both crossed it long ago.

When I mentioned Neo and Cinder last night, it was less about redemption (which is something they have to choose for themselves and no one else has to accept it or forgive them) than sympathy. I can see and somewhat understand what led them down that path.

My best friend is writing a series whose protagonist has done some truly heinous things even to her own family and friends because of some really, really poor decisions (which seemed like the only good options at the time) and she's finding it hard to find forgiveness even within herself.

But she's trying so hard to be better and that's what makes a good redemption. It's not as simple as saying "I'm on the good guy's side now". You have to do the work, you have to try to make amends. Not for forgiveness but because you are actually trying to undo the harm you've done.