#luimnigh reads roman holiday

[luimnigh]

...okay, I'm starting to get suspicious about the fact that we now have two redheads of the same shade who were abandoned as children by their mothers in Mistral.

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

I like to hear some of your headcanons i think that would be interesting. About anything you fell like.

RWBY: Emerald, Qrow, Ruby, Penny, and Neo are all autistic. Emerald and Qrow are a case of me deeply relating to the way they latch onto people, to that deep autistic fear that once you lose your person you can't find another and you don't know how to fix that. Ruby and Penny are more traditional cases of 'these people have a laundry list of autistic traits', in particular Penny is very much an autistic fantasy where every one of her traits are embraced so she's never masked. She reminds me a lot of my younger self. Neo is credited directly to @luimnigh's reading of her, but once I read Roman Holiday I got that too, she's nonverbal and very hyperfocused and has difficulty with social situations and executive function.

Also everyone in that series is some level of queer. Except maybe Salem, but that’s more because she’s almost singlemindedly devoted to Oz as her ‘one great love’ and has never moved on.

[luimnigh]

Huh. I wonder what Akaibara means.

-googles-

Of course we're introduced to Neo breaking a red rose vase.

[luimnigh]

"She particularly liked the story about the girl trapped in the tower by her evil father."

...at this point, I think everyone's going to be attacked by their favourite fairytales by the end of the show.

[luimnigh]

...are ALL of Mistral's criminal gangs Nursery Rhymes?

We've got Little Miss Muffet, Little Poll Parrot, and Little Jack Horner.

[luimnigh]

Oh hey, Huntsmen and Huntresses can be fined for reckless endangerment and destruction of property.

...wow, Team RWBY are lucky that no-one found out about the mech fight with Torchwick.

[luimnigh]

...starting to suspect Neo is neurodivergent.

She struggles with understimulation and she hyperfocuses on things she enjoys.

[luimnigh]

...he leaves behind a business card when he pickpockets people?

Okay, honestly, props for the sheer style of that.

[luimnigh]

I like how when Neo designs her own outfit, attention is drawn to the fact that it has pockets.

[luimnigh]

So anyway, I don't think Trivia Vanille is Neopolitan.

I think the Neo we see in the first chapter is, in fact, actually Neo, and has Trivia's parents convinced she's an imaginary friend.

While reading the chapter, I started thinking it was possible the "imaginary Neo" was real, but the thing that sealed it for me?

Trivia's parents mention a Doctor Mazarin.

Cardinal Jules Mazarin was first minister to Kings Louis XII and XIV of France. He succeeded the infamous Cardinal Richlieu of Three Musketeers fame. And in a sequel to The Three Musketeers, a book called The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later, there is a certain story about Louis XIV.

Regarding the legendary Man in the Iron Mask.

A secret identical twin brother of Louis XIV, imprisoned and forced to wear an iron mask to conceal his identity.

[luimnigh]

Oh hey. The silhouette of Neo they put on the first page is her Volume 7 model, complete with Roman's hat.

Even as it begins, a reminder of how it ends.

[luimnigh]

...hmm.

Well, that was a fun read. But I'm left with a question:

How long before the show did these events take place?

Roman ends the novel with a plan to take over the Dust of Vale, which is literally his plan in the show.

And like Roman says, with Xiong dead (the dust explosion destroyed the floor he was on), and Lil' Miss Malachite retreating, they've suddenly become the only game in town.

It's only the fact that Roman has a Vale PD mugshot in Episode 1 standing between him and his meeting with Cinder.

This all could be taking place a few years before the events of the show, or a few weeks.

[luimnigh]

Neo's a black tea person.

...as someone who's been indifferent to Neo until now, I'm really starting to like her with this book.

[luimnigh]

...that bank robbery read like a superhero story.

I just love the variety of genres RWBY contains.

[luimnigh]

Honestly, I'm starting to get the feeling someone on CRWBY has a thing against a guy named James, because this is the third asshole dad/asshole surrogate dad with a variation on that name.

[luimnigh]

So apparently, as with the last two RWBY books, a preview of Roman Holiday's first two chapters is available online.

So I'll be tagging everything with "rwby spoilers", "roman holiday spoilers" and "luimnigh reads roman holiday".