#official raven branwen

[strqyr]

— call it a raven effect™ cos she sure has that on her teammates

[deadbeatbirdmom]

Raven what’s your opinion on Weiss, Blake and yangs relationship now that they are all dating each other?

Who're Weiss and Blake?

Oh. Yang's Schnee and her catgirlfriend.

All dating each other?

Eh. Chip off the old block. Here's hoping it turns out better for Yang than mine did for me.

[mr-branwen]

Do Team STRQ have official birthdays?

I was just thinking about how Yang’s birthday was the other day, but that lead me to wonder if Team STRQ ever had official birthdays announced too. Like I imagine Taiyangs would be close to Yangs because why not, maybe the Branwen Twins’ birthday is in the Fall. Idk about Summer’s

Just some shower thoughts

[hartxstarr]

guy who claims to love manga hasnt actively read manga in two months. but im getting better.

[aceironwood]

OCIN: Beacons of Hope Volume 2 - Chapter 4

Chapter 16: Volume 2, Chapter 4 is now available!

Chae-Yeong and the Branwens visit an underground fight club in Vale during their search for Torchwick. But plans change as they find that Torchwick is attendance at this fight club too-- and he’s recruiting

[bestworstcase]

You know, if the possibility of Summer not only being Salem's final lieutenant, but also possibly the person who accidentally killed the Spring Maiden (and who might also be Gretchen Rainart based on a previous theory mentioned somewhere)...

That's gotta be reaaaaaaally awkward if Summer was ever around Hazel at any point.

i’ve mentioned this before i think (<- i assume by “mentioned somewhere” you mean you read a theory post but can’t remember where in which case, the op was probably me, i’ve been on this train for a while) but:

the official story is that gretchen rainart, after enrolling at beacon academy, “tragically lost her life” on a training mission

per lionheart, the spring maiden was “determined, at first, when she inherited her powers, but the weight of responsibility proved to be too much for the child. she... ran. abandoned her training, everyone. that was over a decade ago.”

per raven: “she was scared when we found her! weak! no matter how much training i put her through, she never learned! she wasn’t cut out for this world! and with those powers, she would’ve been hunted her entire life. what i did—”

(“and which we are you referring to?”)

raven: “that’s why i tried to leave when i did. i’m not afraid, i’m smart.”

raven left taiyang shortly after yang was born. this would be approx. 15-16 years ago as of the beginning of V1. however, her statement that she “tried to leave” suggests that she stayed (reluctantly?) entangled with ozpin’s cause for longer.

eyeballing it, summer left when yang was around five and ruby about three. this would be about 12 years before the start of V1 and 3-4 years after raven broke things off with tai. since raven and summer were obviously still in close contact then, this tracks with the interpretation that leaving tai <> leaving ozpin.

‘more than a decade ago’ is vague but presumably means >10 and <20. so spring running away would have occurred approx. 10-18 years before the start of V1.

hm.

“nice story. but if gretchen’s death taught me anything, it was never to trust you.”

let’s consider the case of the runaway spring maiden. and, more specifically, the assumptions the fandom (myself included) have tended to make.

first assumption: the spring maiden trained in mistral or at haven academy.

no one ever says as much. qrow’s suggestion that the spring maiden was “picked up” by the branwen tribe after she ran away does not, in a world where trans-continental travel is commonplace (and was explicitly safer a decade+ ago than it is now), necessarily imply she ran away from haven. weiss got picked up by the branwen tribe after she ran away from atlas, after all.

likewise, amber’s presence at beacon and, later, fria’s in atlas prime the audience to link the spring maiden to haven. however, both amber and fria were in the academies because they were medically fragile and not expected to live for very long; prior to cinder’s attack, amber was traveling in rural vale, tailed by qrow. it also makes sense, in general, not to keep the living keys to the vaults in the same fortress as the vault they can open.

second assumption: lionheart knew her.

this follows from the assumption that she attended haven, but look at what’s missing from lionheart’s account: he never uses self-referential pronouns. his syntax leaves it ambiguous whether he knew this girl or if he’s simply repeating information he was given.

third assumption: raven’s “we” is the tribe, and she’s talking about finding the spring maiden after the girl ran away.

before V9, this was more plausible, but i don’t think it adds up now that we know raven was still at least notionally aligned with ozpin, via summer, as recently as twelve years ago. in order for “we” to mean the tribe, raven would have had to actually leave (as opposed to “trying to leave”); thus, either summer was conspiring with raven while raven was leading the tribe, or raven met the spring maiden after whatever went down with summer, in which case the third person involved is a complete mystery. the former is possible, but i think the simpler explanation—that this “we” is ozpin’s circle—is more plausible.

especially because what raven says lines up with what lionheart says. except for “she was determined at first,” but even if lionheart did know her, raven was clearly much closer to her and is the type to see through any façade the girl might have put up. (pyrrha was also “determined” but you know that if raven knew her, she would remember how scared pyrrha was. same principle likely applies here.)

fourth assumption: “what i did—” is solely about raven mercy-killing her.

which, it might be.

but if “we” means ozpin’s circle, that would mean raven was training the spring maiden on his behalf—and because it doesn’t really make sense for #3 to be anyone but the spring maiden, we can assume with high confidence that raven had a kindred link with her, ergo she loved the kid like her own family.

the spring maiden “ran away.” gretchen rainart “tragically lost her life on a training mission.” raven “tried to leave.” summer and raven and a third person were involved in a rogue mission to end things once and for all, none of them ever came back, and raven never told anyone what happened.

all of these things happened a bit more than a decade ago.

“what i did—”

i think she’s talking about summer’s last mission. the young spring maiden was overwhelmed, scared, struggling to learn what she needed to learn—and she had a huge target painted on her back because of salem. raven cared about her. if she wasn’t cut out for this world, the one defined by eternal war between ozpin and salem, then maybe the answer is to change the world. end it, once and for all. (sometimes it’s worth it all to risk the fall?) so she conspires with summer to do exactly that.

and then it goes so catastrophically wrong that a) summer joins salem, b) there’s a fight, c) gretchen is mortally wounded, d) raven either mercy-kills her or just can’t save her, and e) raven becomes the spring maiden.

ok.

now. if gretchen was the spring maiden, how do we square the circle of “died on a training mission” vs “ran away”?

in V3, qrow talks about having to search for maidens and in V5, ozpin says that one of the reasons he gave the branwens bird forms was to make it easier for them to search for new maidens when the transference of power was “unclear.” gretchen enrolled at beacon “against her brother’s wishes” and hazel holds ozpin responsible for her death; i think she was the spring maiden before she enrolled, raven identified her, and ozpin recruited her personally.

(if only because unknown maidens are mentioned twice in connection with the branwens and that has yet to pay narrative dividends; and it fits quite nicely.)

it does not go well. gretchen gets more freaked out with every new inkling she’s given of the conspiracy and is under intense pressure not to back out or tell anyone on the outside what’s happening. raven, her mentor/handler, sours more and more on the whole situation and eventually decides she’s not going to be a part of it anymore.

she’s not backing down from the fight. she’s not running away. but she’ll give gretchen a way out and make sure no one else can find her, and if that blows up her relationships with the rest of the inner circle, so be it.

so the spring maiden runs away. “abandons” her training, except raven still knows where she is and is still trying to help her figure out the magic because, well, she’s sort of stuck with it until she dies. gretchen can’t go home yet (salem might find her), but she can lay low and focus on mastering this power to defend herself away from the pressure of being one of ozpin’s guardians.

raven refuses to tell anyone where gretchen is. hazel is getting increasingly frantic; either she’s dropped out of contact or her vague, cryptic messages have him worried. nobody at beacon can give him a clear answer.

several years go by. the situation does not improve. somehow or another summer and raven cook up a plan to Fix Everything by taking salem down. it goes horribly wrong. summer joined salem, gretchen is dead, raven is the one left standing with blood on her hands and magic in her soul, after years of obfuscating where the spring maiden went.

what to do?

tell no one about summer. no one would fucking believe her if she told the truth. refuse to answer questions about her bond to summer, no one will think twice about her doing that because it’s what she did when gretchen went missing, too.

tell hazel gretchen is dead. he deserves to know. what happened, and why it happened, but leaving out summer’s involvement. if she’s vague on how and when—if she makes it sound like she was too cowardly to tell anyone that she, perhaps, let gretchen die (“[you saved yang] once. because that was your rule.” <- qrow really believes this)—or couldn’t save her—she can reveal that gretchen is dead without linking her death too obviously to summer’s disappearance.

if ozpin hears that gretchen is dead from hazel—when the infuriated meltdown rampage happens—then he can quietly tap qrow to confirm (by talking to raven) and restrict who knows the truth; hazel’s explosive grieving anger is easy to spin as hysterical paranoia.

and playing gretchen’s death “close to the chest” is a classic ozpin move. after all, learning that gretchen has been dead the whole time will only sow negativity, and the situation doesn’t materially change very much either way; they’re looking for the spring maiden either way, and everyone is aware that gretchen might die before they find her, so they’re already keeping an eye out for unknowns. qrow knows the truth, but he’s not about to spill the beans to anyone without ozpin’s say so.

and summer’s the one who suggests recruiting hazel to salem, because it’s her fault gretchen is dead but she can at least bring hazel into the fight to tear down the system that led her there. (“you’ve never wondered why she recruited you? you, specifically, to help her find the relics?” <- a narratively interesting line of attack in that it explicitly puts this question in front of the audience, follows up with an unequivocal confirmation that salem sought hazel out very deliberately, and follows that with ozpin’s overtly manipulative and unsatisfying answer of “because hazel is easy to manipulate.” lots of people are easy to manipulate. why choose hazel? how did she even know about Just Some Guy who lost his sister?)

like

all it really requires to tie everything together around the discrepancies is for ozpin (a liar) and raven (a matryoshka doll of secrets she refuses to talk about) to be, er, lying and keeping secrets. and narratively gretchen being the spring maiden just makes sense, to almost the same degree that summer joining salem just makes sense. it’s intuitive. it fills in gaps the narrative quietly circled in V8. it tracks with gretchen being so important in the same volume that makes a huge thing of how no one knows what salem is really after. no more gretchens; so you’ve decided against vengeance for your sister, after all this time?; in pursuit of a new world.

but yeah like. it’s fun because hazel is so malleable and so good at pretzeling his thinking that he could conceivably have been told the truth—summer killed gretchen—and still been talked around to aiming all of his fury and vengeance at ozpin because 1. ozpin is the reason gretchen got pulled into this mess, and 2. gretchen died in the crossfires of a fight that broke out when summer learned the truth (that the war was one-sided paranoia), and 3. for salem and summer the point of this war is to end the paranoid conspiracy so nothing like this can happen again. but my god, the tension between him and summer could probably cut glass.

[pilot-boi]

I think the biggest ass would belong to either Raven Branwen, Harriet Bree, May Marigold, or Arrastra Skye.

I think I am by far the least appropriate person to ask this, and @remy-steel-official I curse you for putting this burden on me

[biggreenneatbox]

Bumbleby Big Bang Post #2

...okay, so full disclosure: this isn't an official second BBB post from me. Clickbait-y title is clickbait, and I do apologise.

We are only supposed to have 1 story entry per person per year, understandably to not overload one's self with too many projects, and not only have I already uploaded on 13th December, but the last post was yesterday, Christmas Eve 2023, by the incredible pugoata.

Even then, this subject was discussed rather at length within the BBB Discord Server little over a month ago, even as a silly little idea a few people threw around. As per the rules of the Big Bang:

"Do not discuss your BBB ideas in the server, or in public, at all"

As this was indeed a BBB idea discussed within the server, it cannot be entered officially as a story.

But from the simple question posed "What would it look like to write a Bees Story from a perspective other than the Bees?", that stupid idea was in my head. And then due to a mental health nosedive, I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands, and a crazy idea in my head to follow through with after that brief talk.

And thus, 3 weeks later, this. Despite waiting until Christmas Day itself to post, it is not itself a festive story. Just wanted to put that out there before expectations were formed.

I held off posting so that everyone could enjoy the fruits of everyone who worked on their BBBs' labour, but now with that buffer out of the way, I'd give you something for the next couple of days worth of binging. I thought I'd also offer out to anyone who wanted to give it a shot:

Any artists who want to draw part of this story - so long as you credit this story as the inspiration, you have my full permission to do so!

So behold, my second (albeit unofficial) story written for this year's BBB:

The Diary of The Bumbleby

"The Diary of The Bumbleby (or: The near comprehensive written chronicle of how basically everyone on Remnant was aware of Yang and Blake's romantic feelings for one another before Yang and Blake themselves were)" - by Weiss Schnee - Chapter 1 - FeugoFox42 - RWBY [Archive of Our Own]

All images were made by me using the website Hero Forge for custom D&D Miniatures, as I cannot really art properly but I wanted there to be something for people to look at that could be thrown together fairly speedily.

There are the rest of images below the cut that should appear in the story (hopefully 🤞), but it does contain minor spoilers within, so proceed with that knowledge at your own discretion.

Yang Calabrone (née Xiao Long)

Blake Calabrone (née Belladonna)

Maid of Honour Ruby Rose, and Best Woman Weiss Schnee

Blake's Bridesmaids: Ilia Amitola, Sun Wukong, and Nora Valkyrie

Yang's Bridesmen: Oscar Pine, Lie Ren Valkyrie, and Jaune Arc

Parents of the Brides: Ghira and Kali Belladonna, and Taiyang Xiao Long

Wedding Officiant and mother of a Bride, Raven Branwen

Ring Bearer Extraordinaire and the Bestest, Fluffiest Boy on the face of Remnant, Zwei

Wedding Stylist and Wedding Photographer respectively: Coco Adel and Velvet Scarlatina

Maître d’: Old Man Shopkeep

Qrow Branwen and Winter Schnee

Guests (in no particular order): Flynt Coal; Neon Katt; Fox Alistair; Neopolitan; Fiona Thyme; May Marigold; Emerald Sustrai

And finally...

...yeah, you're gonna have to read the story to know what the fuck that is about

Please, enjoy this random crack fic, and Merry Christmas!

[bafflement]

/sideeyes Qrow's symbol [And Raven's...]

Did anyone else notice that Raven's symbol has a clock in the wing, and Qrow's has a gear? Oz's symbol is a gear and his whole... thing, is based around time for, well... reasons. Teams are four members strong, but there's an exception, the Atlas arc and Ironwood's Ace Operatives. But... what if they had a form to guide them?

Because I can very much imagine a set of teenagers at Beacon, all seventeen-ish, meeting during the whole 'lets throw people off a cliff' and going to yell at their headmaster. Only to discover a fifth teen. Oz might have silver hair at that point... but he's still so terrifyingly young. None of them can quite believe a kid their age is the headmaster and Oz, blushing, can only shrug and blame Vale's council. If Summer is anything like early season Ruby, she hears that and thinks 'new friend!' and, since she's the leader, the others go along with it. Qrow and Raven are kinda sceptical, but Oz is so happy to be seen as his actual age, even the Branwen twins can't deny that sweet smile and the desperation in those too old eyes.

So he trains with them when he can slip away, five teens just allowed to actually be teenagers without Ozma's mystical bullshit getting in the way [much]. But they can never do it openly. Oz might be as much a teenager as the rest of them, but he's also been fighting Grimm since he was fourteen, the experience he gained from the collective Ozcarnations enough to make him a legend in his own right. Oz is very much a full Huntsman, for all that the ethics of that are iffy, it's still less iffy than those council idiots giving him Beacon.

So. Officially, team ST[O]RQ has four members, just like any other. But then? Then they get told to pick symbols to represent themselves. There's no way for them to register all five, colors or symbols... but by then Oz has granted the twins flight. So Taiyang picks a flaming heart, divided as though into wings of his own in tribute to their silent fifth member. Qrow chooses a gear to go inside his wing symbol, an echo of Oz without being obvious. He hopes. The gear is commented on several times over his time as a Huntsman, Qrow has certain regrets. Raven, whose favorite fairytale growing up was the infinite man and is rather sus, adds a clock to her wing symbol. Hey, Oz... she has suspicions. Maybe tell her? Nah? Okay then... that'll never backfire on you.

So the team forms. A white rose for Summer, a golden spread heart for Tai, a black wing with a clock in it for Raven and a red wing with Oz's gear in it for Qrow. He adds a second gear, hoping to be less obvious, but that doesn't really succeed either... hey Qrow, you can be a bit too adorable at times.

So yeah. Team STRQ probably consisted of five teenagers, each trying to find their place in the world. Summer's silver eyes would normally have been the major issue. Except, of course, that Ozpin is by then at least part Ozma. And magic in Remnant, of either variant, complicates things. Together? No wonder team STRQ is famous this long after it broke up...

[electronicyarn]

The Bandit’s Rose - Chapter 1

RWBY - Raven Branwen/Summer Rose, Taiyang Xiao Long/Qrow Branwen, Summer Rose/Taiyang Xiao Long, Raven Branwen/Taiyang Xiao Long

Summary:

Before there was Team RWBY, there was Team STRQ. And before Team STRQ were huntsmen and huntresses, they were students.

Summer, Taiyang, Raven, and Qrow are four of Beacon Academy’s newest students, and although they don’t know it yet, powerful forces have taken note of them. But if they’re going to survive being pawns in a secret game, they’ll first have to survive each other.

Read on AO3 | Read on FF.net

Raven stared at the campus lying before her with an intense scowl on her face. She’d lived her entire life in the wilds of Mistral, and she’d never seen anything like Beacon Academy’s towering spires or immaculate landscaping before. However, rather than being awed by the sweeping architecture, she was offended by it. The school’s very existence was yet one more painful reminder of how insignificant someone like her was to the world.

Raven’s brother, Qrow, was standing alongside her on the unfamiliar campus. They had both arrived together about ten minutes ago, and tomorrow their first official day as students of Beacon Academy would begin.

Qrow glanced at Raven. He said, “Relax, Sis. You look like you’re about to pop a blood vessel.”

“Shut up,” Raven said.

Raven started walking, and Qrow followed behind her. They were both dressed in threadbare red and black kimonos with bokken, wooden swords, tucked into their belts, although despite their near-identical outfits, Raven had no fear of being confused for her brother. Her impressive mane of jet-black hair was pulled back into a long ponytail and held in place with a simple hair tie. Qrow, on the other hand, had his much shorter hair slicked back. He was also sporting his typical five o’clock shadow, despite it only being mid morning. And there could be no mistaking Qrow’s hunched-over gait for the proud way Raven carried herself.

Read More

[foulfirerebel]

Do you have any complaints About rwby? Or at last something you think could’ve been done better?

A lot,of fellow rwby fans seem to agree the white fang storyline wasn’t handled very well. But at the same time I keep seeing those same people acting like ghira did nothing wrong, that Blake is some badass rebel when canon doesn’t seem to support that currently, etc.

Oh boy. Strap in for this one.

So, I thought as much as I could focus on this since I've had the flu for the past three weeks. And I realize my complaints and thoughts are very small when it comes to this particular subject. But, if you're curious, read on below the cut.

Spoilers for RWBY V1-V9, the books, and games.

So, let's just get one thing out of the way first: I loved Monty Oum's fight scenes but they hurt my eyes to watch now. And I'm not sure why. To preempt a long rant, I'll say this. I prefer the fight scenes we have in V4-V9 to the ones in V1-V3. They contain more narrative tension to me then the earlier ones (Except for the train fights in V2, and the entirety of the Fall of Beacon in V3).

I'm not a huge fan that Yang doesn't get much in V1, with a bulk of her character starting in V2. I'm even less of a fan of the fact that Weiss' racism toward Blake in V1 felt a little swept aside instead of one of the many facets of her character that evolved over time. Ice Queendom, to me, helped this a lot but there's a lot that could be said there too.

As everyone seems to hate the Jaundice part of V1, I will also throw my two cents in: it went by fast for me given V7 was my first "live" volume and I binged all the others. It could've been shortened, made way for Yang characterization or otherwise. Cardin can get yeeted into the sun for all I care.

Now, of course, there's the White Fang part of the Faunus plot. For the record, I don't think it's the WORST racism storyline or allegory attempted (See: Overwatch, Detroit: Become Human, and others for worse) but it definitely needed more polishing. Give Sienna Khan more screentime and more of a presence, show more of the distinction between Ghira, Sienna, and Adam and either 1) Make Sienna's death a full-blown fight scene and last stand, 2) A sneak attack rigged heavily in Adam's favor that gets exposed later on and causes the White Fang to disown him, or 3) Have Sienna live and aid Blake and the Faunus militia afterward.

There are other changes too, mind you, like having the White Fang under Adam express doubt in what they're doing only for Adam or Cinder to silence them or something like that. We got that with Ilia, and I love her story, but we needed some more like that.

The following are going to be under the "just bugs me" complaints, nothing too huge or rant filled and I can elaborate if needed:

I wish we got more Happy Huntresses stuff, because I find the Ace Ops/Happy Huntresses ratio in V7/V8 to be...unevenly weighted toward the Ace Ops. Understandable, but still.

I'm sure we'll get this in V10, but I'd like an update on the rest of the world's current situations. Vale, Mistral, Menagerie, the changes that occurred, etc.

I'll be happy when Penny returns or is confirmed officially to be truly dead. If the latter, I'll be complaining more about "wasted potential". If the former, I'd like to see how she'd be revived.

Summer Rose. I need more answers.

Just something fandom related: Stop going after Ghira and Tai Yang for the love of all that is holy. If you'd like examples of awful parentage, Jacques, Marcus Black, Cinder's wicked Stepmom, Neo's parents, Roman and Nora's unnamed mothers, Raven Branwen and even Lil Miss are right there. Also, Jax and Gill's guardian too.

Grimm Eclipse was fun but...wow, Arrowfell was better as a video game in a lot of ways. Told a better story than GE too.

The only thing I can complain about in the books is not giving much to Sage of Team SSSN, though given "Before the Dawn" had to juggle so many characters I'm cutting it some slack.

Obviously the obligatory "Rooster Teeth isn't a good company"/"The Upper Management are terrible" and all that jazz, please support all the staff and former who have Patreons, Kofis, Twitch Streams, etc.

That's about all I can think of. Again, I'm still addled by the flu and medication I'm taking for it.

TLDR: I just think RWBY needs...well, more of it. More time and budget and space to fully flesh out everything. What we got is superb, especially for starting so small, but I always find more better than less.

[strqyr]

I think it definitely has to be before Beacon because there is an established age limit of about thirty that one needs to be below so they can inherit the Maiden powers, and Raven has a nineteen year old daughter, so I'm pretty sure she's over the cutoff date. Personally, I think she might've been just at the edge of that cutoff date when she killed the previous spring maiden.

i feel the need to clarify that my "before or after beacon" was in regards to raven attending beacon, not the fall. i definitely phrased it in a confusing way, so my bad lmao

BUT. i love talking about the maidens, so. ages. the unofficial official word is that the cutoff point for becoming the maiden is 30yo. usual graduation age would be 21—though depending on how nitpicky you want to get (and i sure do love to nitpick!), raven does say that they were the perfect age, not the right age, so it's possible with their background that the branwens twins were either younger or older than that, as they just needed to be old enough to look 17, not actually be 17—and with yang being 19, add another year or two bc pregnancy and an assumption that team strq was active after graduation longer than like. a day or a week, and what we end up is raven being about 41, give or take. the spring maiden was said to have ran away "over a decade ago", which taking into account how sneaky the writers can be with their phrasing, i'm assuming means anything from 10-20 years.

so, essentially, it completely tracks that raven would have gotten the powers after she left. it can be a close call depending on how you read "over a decade ago", but it tracks.

however. even outside of crwby treating this a spoiler territory despite it being seemingly revealed in the show already, there's plenty of stuff that makes me go huh, what's this about then? things that don't quite track aka i've spent too many hours thinking about this that i've probably led myself astray but i like to talk so here's a list:

raven taking in the spring maiden in the first place. this is someone who left ozpin's group and wants nothing to do with the war, whether it meant helping ozpin or salem, and then she just. lets a maiden—someone who definitely has a target on their back—stick around? as cinder so helpfully pointed out, wanting no part in the war is a ship that sailed the moment raven chose to harbor a maiden. the only way it makes sense if raven believed salem would come for her eventually anyway, which admittedly could be the case; not sure if the shapeshifting magic alone is enough to put a target on raven's back, but if ozpin made it an additional key to the beacon vault and raven knows it, then it wouldn't really matter if there's a maiden within the tribe as well.

another thing that cinder so helpfully points out is that the bandits recognize the power of a maiden, and as such know not to fight back; raven returned to the tribe and became their leader—exact timing unknown—but according to qrow, just her return was enough to see a rise in the tribe's numbers; he then assumes that spring's arrival would have made amassing a following easier, but if he has kept an eye on the tribe enough to see it grow after raven returned, you'd think he'd notice another surge of followers when spring joined and grow suspicious if it lined up with her disappearance—instead, he gets clued in only after seeing shion, which looked like a rush job happening conveniently just as team rnjr were planning to catch an airship to mistral from there... and we know raven was following qrow around that time, so she would have likely known about said plan.

"She was determined, at first, when she inherited her powers, but the weight of responsibility proved to be too much for the child. She… ran. Abandoned her training, everyone."—does this not sound like raven? i mean, it also sounds like summer, but considering the two are paralleled quite a bit, i think it just adds on; they both couldn't handle the weight of a magical burden, so they left. took different roads but ultimately, they both left.

we also never get the spring maiden's name. ya know, that one thing—besides a photo or something—that could be very useful information to help look for her? even by an off-chance that someone from team rnjr might have run into her—jnr are from mistral / anima, after all—but nope. we've got amber. we've got fria. and then we've got.... the spring maiden. a complete non-character to the point that neither qrow or lionheart have any reaction to vernal, be it of familiarity or recognizing that the powers have changed host.

i don't think this is necessarily proof that raven was the spring maiden before she left—some of this could be explained by ozpin doing some fuckery with the bird thing and raven finding out—but it's enough for me to be a bit suspicious on what's really going on.

[comshipbracket]

Antis DNI

Remember, vote for which ship you DO want to see ending up on the official bracket amongst the other fandoms, only one RWBY ship will make it through to the main poll bracket. Choose wisely!

Propaganda under the cut!

As always, feel free to reblog with your own propaganda and reasonings as to why one ship should move forward while another shouldn't!

Enabler Propaganda (Incest)

"Sister Stuff episode of RWBY Chibi is strong propaganda in my eyes. RWBY Chibi is technically considered non-canon, but a lot of things are still alluded to in the spin off that reference canon."

Red Bird Propaganda (Age Gap, Ruby is 17, Raven is 39)

None that fits the bracket provided - feel free to Reblog with your own propaganda for this ship's advancement in the bracket!

Ice Age Propaganda (Incest)

None that fits the bracket provided - feel free to Reblog with your own propaganda for this ship's advancement in the bracket!

Trouble Twins Propaganda (Incest)

None that fits the bracket provided - feel free to Reblog with your own propaganda for this ship's advancement in the bracket

[frees-erotic-writings]

Official muse list

Note: A name that's been italicized is an oc that belongs to someone else, a name that's been boldened, and italicized is mine.

RWBY: Team RWBY, Team CORS, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, Coco Adel, Velvet Scarletina, Fox Alister, Team NDGO, Jaune Arc, Sun Wukong, Glynda Goodwitch, Ilia Amolita, Kali Belladonna, Ghira Belladonna, Sienna Khan, Winter Schnee, Willow Schnee, Raven Branwen, Summer Rose, Vernal, Emerald Sustrai, Cinder Fall, Salem (Human/Grimm), Grimm, Hozukimaru Wukong, Lyon, Jade, Meryl, Jade, Baelz Zirconia, Zephyr Nikos Zirconia, Lupin Nikos Zirconia, Scarlet Nikos Zirconia, Bast Belladonna Zirconia, Shrike Branwen Zirconia, Desmond Caine, Pewter Pegasi, Wes Goldmane, Terra Firma, Rose Crimson, Crimson Wilde, Sable Leone, Jade Inaba.

Naruto: Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno/Uchiha, Ino Yamanaka, Hinata Hyuuga/Uzumaki, Hanabi Hyuuga, TenTen, Temari, Anko Mitarashi, Kurenai Yuuhi, Tsunade Senju, Konan, Sarada Uchiha.

Bleach: Rukia Kuchiki, Yoruichi Shihoin, Orihime Inoue, Tatsuki Arisawa, Rangiku Matsumoto, Soi-Fon, Retsu Unohana, Isane/Kyone Kotetsu, Nanao Isei, Tier Harribell, Neliel Tu Odelschwanck, Apace, Sun-Sun, Mila Rose.

One Piece: Nami, Nico Robin.

Attack on mid: Mikasa Akerman, Annie Lionheart, Potato Girl.

Hellsing: Seras Victoria, Rip Van Winkle, Zorrin Blitz.

Overloard: Albedo, Narberal Garma.

DragonBall: Bulma Briefs, Mrs Briefs/MILF/GILF, Chi-Chi, Android 18, Future 18, Android 21, Majin 21, Launch, Videl Satan, Frieza Force goons.

BNHA: Izuku Midoriya, Tsuyu Asui, Mina Ashido, Ochacko Uraraka, Momo Yayorozu, Jirou, Nejire Hado, Mitsuki Bakugo, Rumi Usagiama, Midight, Mt Lady, Nomu.

YU-GI-OH: Teá Gardner, Ishizu Ishtar, Mai Valentine, Black Magian Girl, Alexis Rhodes, Jasmine, Mindy, Akiza Izinski.

Game of Thrones: Denerys Targeryean.

Harry Potter: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Parvati Patil, Padma Patil, Ginney Weasely, Luna Lovegood, Cho Chang, Fleur Deacour, Nymphadora Tonks, Narcissa Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange.

Pokémon: Delia Ketchum, Jessie, Nurse Joy, Officer Jenny, Cynthia, Arezu, Nessa, Bea, Nemona, Penny, Sada.

Sailor Moon: All inner and outer Senshi

Cyberpunk: V, Panam Palmer, Judy Alvares, Lucy, Joey Brass.

Claymore: Clare, Cassandra, Jeane.

Rosario + Vampire: Outer Moka, Inner Moka, Mizore Shirayuki, Tsurara Shirayuki, Kurumu Kurono, Ageha Kurono, Ruby Tojo, Nokonome.

Jojo's Bizzare Adventure: Jolene Cujoh.

Ghost in the Shell: Motoko Kusanagi

Avatar/TLOK: Toph Beifong, Katara, Suki, Azula, Zuko, Mai, Ty-lee, Ju Dee, Korra, Asami Sato.

Familiar of Zero: Kirche Zerbst, Henrietta de Tristain, Tiffania Westwood, Tabitha, Longvelle.

Helluva Boss: Millie, Loona, Verosika.

DC comics: Starfire, Blackfire, Raven (Rachel Roth), Terra, Wonder Woman, Batgirl (Barbra Gordon), Catwoman, Power Girl, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy.

Marvel Comics: Gwen Stacy, Marry Jane Watson, Felicia Hardy/Black Cat, Rogue, Kitty Pride, Storm, Mystique.

Scooby-Doo: Velma, Daphne, Hex Girls.

Dragon Age: Cousland, Hawke, Inquisitor, Morrigan, Lelliana, Anora, Merrill, Isabella, Cassandra, Bethany Hawke, Sera, Josephine Montillyet.

Mass Effect: Sheppard, Liara T'Soni, Aria T'Loak.

Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks: Princess Jasmine, Esmerelda, Arora, Belle, Ariel (human), Kida, Chel, Helen Parr/Elastigirl, Violet Parr, Pocahontas, Nani Pelakai, Moana, Mavis Dracula, Jessica Rabbit.

Star Wars: Ahsoka Tano, Shaak-Ti, Barriss Offee, Luminara Unduli, Ayla Seccura, Bastilla Shan, Mission Vao, Juhanni, Kira Carsen, Vette, Vaylin, Lana Beniko, Darth Talon, Rey Palpatine.

Ben 10: Gwen Tennyson, Charmcaster.

Final Fantasy: Yuna, Rikku, Payne, Tifa Lockheart, Yuffie Kisaragi, Aireth Gainsborough, Ashelia B'Nargain Dalmasca, Fran, Lightning/Clair Farron, Y'shtola Rhul.

LoZ: Link, Zelda, Imp Midna, Twilight Princess Midna, Urbosa.

Fire Emblem: Lyndis, Minaeva, Shiida, Robin/Grima (M/F), Cordelia, Tharja, Olivia, Corrin (M/F), Camilla, Hinoka, Kageru, Dorothea, Edelgard, Lysithea.

Overwatch: Tracer, Dva, Mercy, Pharah, Sombra, Widowmaker, Ashe.

Elder Scrolls: Aela the Huntress, Mjoll the Lioness, Serana Volkihar.

Fantasy/D&D: Pike Trickfoot, Vex'ahlia, Keyleth, Delilah Briarwood, Nott the Brave, Yasha, Beau, Jester Lavorre, Imogen, Laudna, Werewolves, Mind Flayers, Orcs, The Devils of Emon, Nadûr, Korrin.

Kuroneiu: Olga Discordia, Cloe Discordia.

Action Taimanin: Ingrid, Oboro, Asagi Igawa, Sakura Igawa, Yatsu Murasaki.

Kingdom Hearts: Aqua, Anti-Aqua, Kairi, Xion, Namine, Larxene, Arlux.

This list is subject to change, as there may be muses I've forgotten, or decide I don't want to write for anymore.

[maskyartist]

I may not know much about splatoon but take this ask as an opportunity to tell me all about your rwby x splatoon crossover👀👀

you always give me such good excuses to ramble bestie ;3c

so listen theres no real BIG plot here, again its still very slice-of-life, very "mostly here for the interactions and happy life stuff", so think of it a bit like a sports anime or smth!

Full Spectrum (FS) is Ozpin's League Team, with James, Glynda, and Leo as his teammates.

Stark Damage (SD) is Summer's League Team and is made of herself, Tai, Qrow, and Raven

Stark Damage are very new to the Anarchy Battle scene. this is Summer's first official team and shes unfortunately paired with two ex-teen soldiers (Octarian military stuff if you know you know) and Tai :) who is VERY new to all this Turf War stuff. hes just here to be stupid and cute and we respect it but its not very helpful on the field

Ozpin and Summer have a bit of a rivalry goin, tho its mostly one-sided in Summer taking a bit too seriously while Ozpin just thinks its very friendly and casual. just a bit of bickering between leaders :)

Ozpin comes from a LONG line of League Battlers, starting with great great grandpa Ozma and participating in the first official Turf War over who'd get the land all those years ago, so hes got a bit of an expectation to live up to. hes the highest rank on his team and gets very into his role during battle, be it Turf or Ranked. he takes it a lil seriously when hes got his scope ;>.>

Meanwhile, Qrow and Raven were members of the Octarian Army before hearing that ✨ heavenly melody ✨so all this normal living and "fun" battling is still very new to them. they both sorta make up for Tai's terrible kill rate, but Raven's usually playing hunter while Qrow's picking off whatever she leaves behind

however it does explain why Qrow knows how to repair so many weapons, so he and Summer get along well after learning the shared interest in weaponry :) (this doesnt get him out of a scolding for repairing Ozpin's e-liter for free tho)

and because it got really long imma put weapons and kits under the cut :D

Full Spectrum Team Lineup!

Ozpin Pine

Weapon - E-Liter 4k Scope/Bamboozler Mk.1

Role - Backline + Anchor

Anarchy Rank - S+ 12 (tends to skirt the line of X rank)

===

Glynda Goodwitch

Weapon - Neo Splash-o-Matic

Role - Frontline Assault

Anarchy Rank - S

===

James Ironwood

Weapon - Dark Tetra Duelies

Role - Tank + Backline Assault

Anarchy Rank - S+ 10

===

Leonardo (Leo) Lionheart

Weapon - Splat Brella

Role - Turf Cleanup (unfortunately gets splatted a LOT)

Anarchy Rank - A

(Leo is eventually replaced by Theodore, who plays more aggressively with a Ballpoint Splatling)

===

Stark Damage Full Lineup!

Summer Rose

Weapon - Inkbrush Nouveau

Role - Frontline Assault

Anarchy Rank - A+

===

Taiyang Xiao-Long

Weapon - Sloshing Machine

Role - Backline Defense + Anchor

Anarchy Rank - B+

===

Raven Branwen

Weapon - Splatana Stamper

Role - Aggressive Switch (frontline and backline options, can be flexible)

Anarchy Rank - A

===

Qrow Branwen

Weapon - Painbrush

Role - Support Switch (often picks off almost-dead players, also works cleanup crew)

Anarchy Rank - A-

theres side teams too but they're not too important, i still might design em for funsies tho :) (team popi exist and that makes me happy)

[bestworstcase]

gretchen rainart died during a training mission. she would have been no younger than 17, no older than 21. hazel appears to be somewhat younger than team STRQ, but not significantly so. mid-thirties or so. so gretchen—his twin—died during a training mission a little more than a decade ago.

the spring maiden went missing over a decade ago. “the weight of responsibility proved to be too much for the child. she… ran, abandoned her training.” she was young. a child. probably about the age to enroll as a student in the academies—an age the adults consistently refer to as “children” when they’re not calling the students “warriors.” raven found her, tried to train her, and—under circumstances she does not want to talk about but clearly feels guilty for—mercy-killed her.

summer, raven, and an unknown third person took it upon themselves to leave in deepest secrecy, presumably to confront salem, on the belief that summer could end it once and for all.

ozpin kept a lot of secrets, even from his inner circle. he had qrow tailing amber, who seems to have been quite young—still training. (what does training look like, in the context of ozpin’s organization? an awful lot of throwing child-warriors to the wolves with minimal supervision.) he cultivates individuals, not teams. it’s implied he intended to separate pyrrha from her team, if not officially then by asking her to keep her status as the fall maiden and her knowledge of the conspiracy secret from them. he is so desperately afraid of letting the maidens slip his control that the aura transfer machines were developed under his auspices; and the branwen twins were his spies. would he have simply let spring disappear? …or would he send one of his spies after her to covertly keep her within his sphere of influence. (when raven left, was her reason for leaving a raven secret—or an oz one?)

there’s just. a suspicious number of very important, mysterious things that happened a little more than a decade ago. isn’t there.