#if yang can have two mothers there's room for more symbolic parental roles in the story lulz

[onewomancitadel]

Something else I was musing on re: consistent symbolic language in R/WBY, referring to Jung and alchemy et al., is that Qrow in particular is (ostensibly) associated with chthonic imagery (the crow, bad luck) but he is most prominently a nurturing and protective figure. Like, his introduction in the story (in V2, when Yang tells Blake about him rescuing her and Ruby) is literally as a protective figure filling in where Tai is unable to; in V4 he's protecting the kids without them knowing; relatedly he's the father figure Ruby rebels against in V6. He is basically repeated over and over to be a Daddy In All But Name (pleazzzz don't come at me with crazy fantheories since I'm just describing his role in the story and the way family dynamics are nuanced).

Which basically goes against his corvid posturing because he thinkssss he's bad luck, but it's his intentions and motivations and care that matter. There is dual imagery to every character across the story, but if you want to simplistically say that Qrow = crow = death (when he literally averts Mentor Death Flags in V4) then it's shortsighted and simplistic. It has to be read on the terms of what the story is thematically/tonally interested in where it is being playful with this kind of thing.

It's why you can't take basic symbolism and leap to really wild conclusions. Not that I've read such things about Cinder before and I've had a chip on my shoulder since or anything.

[itsajedithing]

Rey: The Three Questions of Who She Is

This one took me forever to finish. In this I’ll be discussing the 3 questions Rey will have to answer to understand herself in context of the Hero’s Journey. I wanted to take my time with this one because there was a lot I wanted to discuss when it came to Rey. I kept wanting to go onto other topics and it was difficult to say focused.

1. Who am I, and who is my father? Compared to the other three questions this is the one Rey struggles with the most. Father can be interchangeable with mother or even parents. In the context of Rey’s story we’ll be asking who are her parents since that is one of the main questions in the series. To learn who we are we need to know who our parents are. Through both TFA and TLJ Rey is looking for a sense of belonging, an identity. Part of our identity is around our family name. Family surnames are important in the Star Wars series as seen with the Skywalkers, Solos, Kenobis etc. Rey does not have a surname. This begs the question, where does she, as a nobody, really belong in this grand story? (I will further answer this in question 2)

This being said, Rey did not let her lack of family identity hinder her development of identity. When it comes to Rey’s parentage I believe its a case of becoming better than what her parents were. As I stated before knowing our parents helps shape who we are but it does not mean we are to become just like them. We can learn from our parents own mistakes in hopes of becoming better parents ourselves or just better people than they were. Rey does not let their unacceptable treatment of her define how she chooses to treat other people. She doesn’t let go of people so easily like her parents did with her. By the end of TLJ her parentage has become more of an insecurity than a need to know. She’s known the truth all along she just wanted a better truth. She had hope that just maybe her circumstance could change. This unwavering willingness to believe in the good in others is one of her defining characteristic. It forms her identity sperate of her parentage. She’s actively chosen to become a better person than her parents.

2. Why am I here? “I need someone to show me my place in all of this” Now that we know that Rey is essentially a nobody in this space opera, the rest of TLJ is set up to answer this question. She gets her answer from the Force vision. Her purpose is to bring balance back to the galaxy in partnership with Kylo/Ben and bring new meaning to the Jedi. Rey is not hesitant to believe in this force vision. She is ready to put it in motion. Because of this, this is where we really begin to see the difference between how Rey and Kylo will handle the same situation. It highlights their different personality traits and how this play into their symbolism of balance.

As many have figured out Rey and Kylo’s relationship is akin to yin and yang, or rather in the Star Wars universe, the light and dark. I could write a whole other post on that but I’ll try to remain focused. These two can only fulfill their purpose when they are able to work together. One of the things that makes them capable to work together is who they are. In my post on Kylo I speak about his rejection of self. Rey is in direct contrast to this with her need to know who she is. Kylo Ren, or rather Ben Solo, comes from a line of war heros, jedi masters, and royalty. Much comes to mind with his family name. Rey on the other hand has no legendary family, no status, not even a last name. Rey does not fit into the space opera in which is Ben’s origins. He a somebody, she a nobody. This contrast allows the two to learn something about the other and in a way learn about themselves. Rey brings a fresh start to the Skywalker clan. She has no baggage of a name to drag her down. She’s okay with who she is. Ben Solo will see that she does not let her name define her but her actions. He already sees a new beginning in Rey. See both the light and the dark within.

3. Is the course of my life determined by free will or by fate? In this question let’s assume that free will and fate are acting at the same time. Free will is a means to how one will achieve what is their fate. We see Rey play an active role in determining where her life is going.  This is most likely due to her life on Jakku. We seen in TFA when she has a chance to leave, she leaves. When she finds hope for the rebellion in Luke Skywalker she goes to find him. She does the same when she goes to convince Ben Solo to leave the dark side. When she has a chance to improve her circumstances she does so. (This is interesting as you could consider her to be passive in her choices up until TFA since she is on Jakku waiting for her parents to come back.) Because of this, I don’t foresee this question being a huge issue for her in the next movie if she hasn’t already answered it. Instead, this question will come into play in understanding Kylo Ren / Ben Solo. As stated before, Rey is active in deciding how her fate will play out where’s Kylo is not. As seen in the throne room she can not understand why he won’t leave behind the first order and join her in the Resistance. Kylo has felt little control over his life. When he finally decides to kill Snoke and then team up with Rey he gets a taste of what it’s like to start taking control of his life. He feels the connection with Rey and thinks maybe his vision was right and she does truly understand him. But when she turns to save the resistance, he’s defeated again.

You can’t blame Rey for her decision either. She’s trying to do the right thing. I believe because of their active/passive dynamic she doesn’t see why they can’t work together and why they can’t save the resistance at the same time. A do now, worry later attitude. In the next movie I believe this will be addressed. Ben will understand why she made the choices she did and so will Rey.

I stated in my post about Kylo that Rey is not there to save him, he will have to save himself. Rey’s choices in her life act as an example to Kylo of what can happen when you actively participate in your life. She shows him that he has to take an interest in his life again. Their fates are already intertwined, but they will have to make the choices that will bring them together.

Again I hope I explained myself well enough. I had to get all my thoughts out one way or another. I might do other post later on for Finn, Poe and Rose.

My post on Kylo

[valkyrieelysia18]

(Magic Academia) Introduction to the Elements

"I hope you know exactly what it is that you're getting into."

Oscar involuntarily gulped. Of all the people who had to be helping him with this particular lesson, it had to be Weiss. Not that he thought she was a bad person (far from it), but she wasn't exactly what he thought of when he thought of a good tutor/teacher.

Granted, he'd been hoping to spend some more time with Ruby, but he was pretty sure that almost any of the others in the group would have been better at this. Well, maybe not Nora, but other than that....

Weiss' glare sharpened as her volume rose. "Are you listening to me?!"

Oscar straightened up at attention, the two of them of them completely alone in the study room at the dorms that the ice mage had commandeered for this study session. "Sorry, won't happen again!"

The white haired girl observed him before she sighed. "Look, I know that we're not the closest and you're still getting used to all of this, but it's really important that you understand the differences between the elements."

The former farm boy sighed. "I know, I know." Considering I pretty much displayed all seven elements when I got here despite having no clue how that is possible.

"So long as you understand. Now, what did you know about elemental magic before coming to Beacon?"

He scratched his head trying to remember. "Well, I knew of the four main elements: water, earth, fire, and air. Granted, that was because I was an Avatar fan..."

Weiss groaned, sitting down next to him and opening a rather large book for him to see a rather intricate magical circle with seven border points. "You and Ruby are impossible. Anyway, this is the Wizard's Great Glyph; one of the most recognizable symbols to reference the seven magical elements. They are by clockwise in this picture: fire, water, earth, air, light, dark, and lightning. Every magic user is tied to one of these elements. Well, with some exceptions....."

Oscar resisted the urge to laugh nervous and got into questions. "Yeah, well I'm not sure how this is going to work for me either."

She observed him slightly before giving her own assessment. "As someone who has the ability to learn all seven elements, I think it would be best for you to least learn the basics of each element. The downside to that is you might end up a 'jack of all trades, master of none' type when it comes to elemental magic."

"Is that a bad thing?"

Weiss shook her head. "Not necessarily, but it means you probably will not be able to learn the more higher tier spells or develop a specialization. For example, I am a water mage, or as some would call me an Aquamancer. As such, I know a wide variety of different water spells, but I'm specializing in ice spells in particular. So I would learn a spell like Blizzard while another aquamancer that specializes in water's liquid form would learn Tidal Wave."

The young man sighed, his brain already starting to hurt. "It all sounds complicated to me."

"Well, let's start with some of the more basic details about the elements and we'll work our way from there. As I saying, most people have only one element and it's quite common for children to have the same element as one of their parents. For example my mother, my sister, and myself are water mages. However, this isn't always the case."

Oscar nodded, remembering a conversation from not too long ago. "Yeah, I remember Jaune saying that each of his sisters had a different elemental magic. That must have been something."

Weiss nodded as well, her eyes somewhat dimmed at that thought. "And I'm pretty sure that's one of the reasons Jaune hasn't really been in contact with his family since coming to Beacon. I know what it's like to have one sister as an example, I can't imagine what it's been like for him."

The farm boy agreed with her. "Has there ever been an example of a mage who hasn't had an element affinity?"

She shook her head. "Not according to history, but let's focus on one unique situation at a time and today we're on your lessons. From what I understand about it, an person's element can reflect something about their nature or personality.'

"Really?"

"Yes, when you meet a bunch of different mages that have the same element, you tend to notice they share similar traits. That isn't to say that your element dictates these things, there are many who differ from what's expected, but you should probably have a general idea of what to expect from them."

Oscar nodded, for some reason feeling more interested than he felt he should have been by Weiss Schnee's analysis. "Alright."

"First off are fire mages or pyromancers. Those that have this element are very emotional, passionate people. They are risk takers, thriving on adrenaline, and while not as precise as the other elements their raw power is often enough to destroy their enemies and leave utter destruction in their wake."

He resisted the urge to laugh. "Well, if that isn't Yang to a T, I don't know what is."

Weiss rolled her eyes before getting back on topic. "Tell me about it. Anyway, next is water. Water is often said to be the most graceful of the elements, but it is also the element of adaptability. Having to work with both liquid and solid forms, aquamancers need to be aware of their surroundings and be able to flow and change their style to suit the battle itself. Like myself, that doesn't mean that they start out that way. More often than not, they need to learn to adapt.

"Then there are the earth mages or geomancers. They are practically stone walls, taking immense damage onto themselves while outlasting their opponents. They tend to be the strong, silent types that only say something when they think its necessary."

Oscar considered that description a bit. "Huh....that  really doesn't sound like Pyrrha."

She nodded. "I know, I was surprised as well, but like I said not every mage is going to be like this. I just find that most are. Next are the air mages or aeromancers. Out of the seven elemental types, they're actually most rare, but also tend to be the most creative. They're often free spirits, often doing their own thing, and using it to catch their opponents off guard. Goodness knows, Ruby's plans can be a bit...out there at times."

The young man perked up in interest. "What kind of plans?"

"I'll tell you some of them later. Moving out the main four, now we come to the more unusual elements. These ones don't really have mancer title that's used frequently like the first four. Light mages can learn offensive spells, but their primary role is that of a healer. They tend to be good support, both on the battlefield and off of it. Often times, they are the more calm and earnest types, serving as the literal heart of a group."

Oscar nodded, Ren's temperate nature did seem to line up with being a light mage. "Then there's dark mages."

"Correct, granted they do tend to get a bad reputation considering how their magic works. Like light mages, dark mages can also learn offensive spells with their element, but their primary magic works by inflicting it directly on their opponents. Whether it be healing themselves by stealing their enemies' energy, gaining more aura in the same way, or inflicting temporary status ailments, dark mages tend to face a lot of scrutiny and suspicion by those who don't have magic. They tend to be quiet introspective loners, but just because darkness is their element, it doesn't make them evil."

"Blake's proof of that."

"Exactly, then there's the final element of lightning. Lightning is perhaps the most difficult element to control. In fact, some lighting users can be even more reckless than most fire mages. People who are lightning mages tend to be very strong and energetic in order to channel it properly. They can sometimes come as a little eccentric, but at their heart are mostly good people."

Oscar wisely chose not to think too much on that with Nora before glancing down at the picture. His eyes were somehow drawn to the circle in the center with a strangely familiar rune. In addition, it seemed as if the other elemental circles seemed to connect to this other circle.

For some strange reason, he felt himself point to the detail and ask before he really thought about it. "Hey, what's this for?"

Weiss's eyes followed where he was pointing before rolling. "Oh, that is a fairy tale."

And if Oscar's interest wasn't piqued before, it sure was now. "A fairy tale?"

"That's the symbol for Divine, the fabled eighth element. Some crazy myths aside, there's no evidence to suggest that divine mages every existed or what a divine mage would even be capable of doing. In my opinion, the symbol is probably just to symbolize magic as a whole rather a completely different element."

Despite her words, the young man's hazel eyes lingered on the symbol. "If you say so..."

Weiss cleared his throat to get his attention, which worked and then she went on. "Now that you bit more about the elements, where do you think you should start? I know Jaune is helping you with the general stuff, but you're going to need someone to help you with elemental magic."

Oscar pondered that thought for a while before finally answering. "Well, if I had to start anywhere, I suppose I would prefer earth magic. I guess it's the farm boy in me, but I guess I feel more connected to the earth and land than the other elements right now."

She nodded with a smile, flipping the book a coupel of pages until it reached the earth section. "Understandable. Besides, Pyrrha is probably the best to get you started. Until then, here's some things you should read to get started...."

Yes, I used the Legend of Dragoon when thinking up the magic for this story. And I'm not sorry, it's a really good game and it's a shame they never made a sequel. This whole thing is a little exposition dump. Don't we all love those?

Oh boy Volume 5. You've somewhat destroyed some of my headcanons.  Some of which were connected to my Crown's Proving AU (which if I write I will need to fix). Oh well, them's the works.

Next time, I think I will do something with Summer and Qrow, but before that I need to go back to Fan Fiction and please my Star Wars fans. Pray for me.