#or a ‘Oz/Ironwood are right’ post

[chaikachi]

The Little Prince, The Rose, & The Aviator

AKA We just got confirmation that Oscar's main allusion is in fact The Little Prince so I wanted to gather all evidence that supports it in show thus far.

cross-posted from twitter

A brief summary for those who aren't familiar:

The Little Prince is a story about a young boy that travels to many worlds & meets many people. It is told out of chronological order from the perspective of an airplane pilot that the prince meets close to the end of his journey.

It explores themes around childhood and growing up, love, loss, friendship, loneliness, and hope, among other things. All ideas very prevalent in RWBY.

Part 1: The Little Prince

The first theme I want to touch on is that struggle of trying not to lose yourself as you grow up.

"Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is exhausting for children to have to provide explanations over and over again."

Oscar is the youngest of the group, and yet he is one of the characters most often shown trying to reason with the adults in the room.

Yes, we've mainly seen it with Hazel, Ironwood, and Oz... but while the rest of RWBYJNR are also 'just kids', he spends so much energy trying to reason with them and mediate conflicts there as well. All while still being the youngest of the bunch.

Another way this shows itself is in Oscar's resistance to merging with Oz. The merge is a very clear metaphor for how the people you meet and the things you experience can often change you. And how, when you're a kid, it all feels like its completely out of your control.

Speaking of the hoverbike scene, I want to shift to a different part of The Little Prince. The infamous moment with the fox and what it is to be 'tamed'. To be tamed is to create ties with others. To become important to them and for them to be important to you.

When Oscar is having a talk with Oz in v8 about how he finally felt like himself, the person he wanted to be, and felt like he was finally "part of the team"... There is a fox plushie lying on the ground as he passes by.

But we see that Oscar was right to feel this way later on.

Because just as he was "only a little boy like a hundred thousand other little boys" when he first met everyone... he had since been tamed, and tamed his friends in turn. And they fought tooth and nail to bring him back when he was captured by Salem.

Part 2: The Aviator & the Rose

In RWBY, most characters have a main allusion that is central to their arc and then secondary allusions for what roles they fill in relation to other characters. (Ex. Yang's main allusion is Goldilocks, but when thrown into the plot, she also becomes the Beauty to Blake's Beast, just as Blake was once the Beauty to Adam's Beast).

If we apply that metric to other characters here, we know that Ozpin's main allusion is The Wizard of Oz and Ruby is Little Red Riding Hood... so when placed within Oscar's story structure of The Little Prince, they become The Aviator and The (Ruby) Rose, respectively.

The aviator is a man that struggles to hold onto his childlike wonder. He tries, but he lives in a world of grown-ups so it becomes difficult with time. The little prince - much like Oscar with Ozpin - helps him remember some of the things that he's forgotten.

When the little prince meets him, the aviator is grumbly after crash landing his plane in the desert & is trying to fix it before he runs out of water.

Funny then, that when Oscar is crash landing a plane it is Oz that instructs him on how to do it.

When the aviator explains his circumstances, the prince laughs and exclaims that he "fell from the sky too". Which is an interesting tie in to the canon RWBY fairytale mentioned in Before the Fall, The Boy Who Fell From The Sky...

...as well as another fairytale we've seen mentioned in the show proper: The Girl Who Fell Through The World. A tale that was first talked about by Oscar, later expanded upon by Ozpin, and finally lived by Ruby Rose herself. (Yes her team also experienced it but it's very strongly emphasized Ruby and Alyx were paralleling each other in ways the others were not).

One thing about the little prince and the aviator is that by the end of their journey when it's time to say farewell, it's quite clear they've tamed each other as well. So much time spent by the pilot wishing to fix his plane and get out of the desert, but when it's finally time to say farewell, he does not want to go. This is not something we've gotten in show yet, but I'm willing to guess is going to be the basis for when the war is won and Oz is finally set free. Leaving the two of them to finally have to say goodbye.

And I realized I couldn't bear the thought of never hearing that laugh again. For me it was like a spring of resh water in the desert. "Little fellow, I want to hear you laugh again..."

Moving onto the Rose.

In the story, the little prince is enamored by her as soon as he sees her for the first time. As he gets to know her, she is described as many things. Some that fit Ruby well (miraculous, naïve) and some that she subverts (vain, self-centered).

Ruby might not be caught up on physical appearance, but she is convinced that she's the only one in all the world that can do what she has to do. It's a childish way of looking at things, and to believe you can't accept help from others is - in its own way - selfish.

In the book, the rose asks the little prince to tend to her. She's very needy with her demands and while the prince loves her dearly, it is a strained relationship. In RWBY, Oscar sees Ruby wilting very early on and decides to tend to her without waiting for her to ask. Of which we have... SO MANY EXAMPLES AND I DON'T HAVE A HIGH ENOUGH IMAGE LIMIT TO POST THEM ALL SO YOU GET 2.

Not pictured here, but still worthy of note: Oscar mediating when Ruby is being undermined in v8, Oscar talking the responsibility of telling Ironwood the truth in V7, the "food always makes me feel better" / "I made you a casserole because you were sad" scenes. The List Goes On.

Part 3: Other Easter Eggs & Evidence

There are also other fun little pieces that drive home just how much these characters allude to the book as well as the inspiration it's had on the show in general.

The first thing the little prince asks the aviator for is a drawing of a sheep that he can take home with him so that it can eat up the sprouts of baobab trees before they overgrow his entire planet and destroy it (and his rose) in the process...

The tree in the Ever After has maple leaves, but the shape of its trunk is very clearly not a maple. When compared to these illustrations, it seems to have pulled inspiration from baobabs... and what does the tree in the Ever After do?

Its roots consume the rose.

One of the lessons that's brought up repeatedly in the book is that:

"One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.”

This is brought up in a few different ways:

The little prince left his rose back home, so when he looks to the night sky, separated from her, he says:

"The stars are beautiful because of a flower you don’t see . . ."

When Ruby is in the Ever After, with no one to tend to her, she is in a town filled with paper stars.

It is brought up again in reference to the desert, which we have a wonderful tie-in now thanks to the animatic shared at RTX recently:

“What makes the desert beautiful,” the little prince said, “is that it hides a well somewhere . . .”

And again by the aviator in reference to the little prince himself.

What makes the little prince special is his loyalty to a flower. Ruby Rose, who inspired Oscar to keep fighting, who reminded him he was brave, and who's mission he has worn on his literal shoulders.

Two other lines in that passage I've highlighted I also want to mention.

"As the little prince was falling asleep, I picked him up in my arms, and started walking again. I was moved. It was as if I was carrying a fragile treasure."

This line about the little prince being a treasure (treasure is an rg song truthers rise up 🙌)

And the emphasis on lamps being symbolic of the Little Prince himself which... we've seen for Oscar A LOT.

"What moves me so deeply about this sleeping little prince is his loyalty to a flower - the image of a rose shining within him like the flame within a lamp, even when he's asleep... (...) Lamps must be protected: A gust of wind can blow them out..."

Also Ruby has been referred to as a "spark" by Oz before and when Oscar is worrying over Ruby at Brunswick farms, Maria tells him to "keep that fire fed" which is exactly what lamp lighters do. Just very deliberate use of that imagery here.

It ALSO ties into earlier in the novel where, among the little prince's many travels meeting plenty of confusing adults he doesn't understand, he encounters a lamplighter. And of all those that confused him, he found he could at least relate to this one and see value in his work.

There is also a matter of how the prince's first appearance is at sunrise:

That he is cited to live on a planet "scarcely bigger than himself" and "being in need of a friend". How we see Oscar very alone on his farm back in Mistral, just like the prince, only tending to his daily chores by himself, we never even see his aunt.

And while there are a few other bits and pieces i'm surely forgetting, the last big one I want to talk about is how both the beginning and end of the book start with a venomous snake.

The aviator shows us a drawing of a boa constrictor eating a wild beast...

...versus Oscar's first appearance coming immediately after he wakes from a nightmare of Tyrian, a venomous scorpion faunus, being sent to capture his rose.

And the story ends with the little prince in a desert getting bit by a venomous snake that sends him back to his rose and away from the aviator... thank goodness RWBY loves to subvert its fairytale origins, amiright?

"(The little prince) fell gently the way a tree falls, there wasn't even a sound..."

tl;dr Oscar is for sure The Little Prince, Ruby has always been his rose, RG canon, Tryian vs. Oscar in the desert real and #GREENLIGHTVOLUME10 SO WE CAN SEE IT HAPPEN ALREADY >:OOOO

Thank you for reading 💕

[birder-of-remnant]

Discussing Why Ironwood's Plan Would Fail

For years, I have avoided Ironwood debates. Whether you agree with Ironwood or with Team RWBY, you cannot deny that he is a complex character with an intricate character arc. But in this post, I am not here to argue whether his actions were right or wrong in principle. I have a complicated opinion on this, which I am not going to share or discuss. Instead, I will focus on why Ironwood's plan to raise Atlas out of Salem's reach was most likely doomed to fail regardless of what he did. Some of these arguments are based on known facts about the RWBY universe. Others are based on speculation. I will do my best to keep this concise, but the flaws in his plan are many, and the details are complicated. In general, they fall into the following categories:

Raising Atlas - Could he even summon Ambrosius?

Could he truly escape Salem's reach? a. How high is high enough b. Grimm evolution c. Recreating the Amity Project d. The other Relics

Survival in the sky a. Oxygen b. Water c. Food supply, diversity, and resilience

Dust, energy (or lack of), and supplies

Civil order

It's always a bad sign when you see a friggin Table of Contents in what is supposed to be a Tumblr post (not an essay). But, if you are curious, then read on.

Raising Atlas - Could Ironwood actually summon Ambrosius?

Before we even discuss whether they could actually survive in high atmosphere as Ironwood claims, we first need to address whether they could even get there. Throughout Volume 8, it is clear that Salem is always one step ahead of Ironwood, and this is no exception. Salem knew that to use the relics, she not only needed a maiden capable of retrieving them but also the password that would summon them. But Ironwood's planning stopped at retrieving the relic. Even if Penny had opened the vault and given him the staff, it is doubtful that Ironwood would know how to use it. Is it possible that Ozpin told Ironwood the password some prior time? Maybe. Could some prior incarnation of Ozma have entrusted the password to the headmaster's station so they could unilaterally use the staff in a crisis? Maybe. But extremely unlikely. If there is one thing that is clear about Ozpin, it is his penchant for secrets. It is extremely unlikely that pre-volume 8 Ozpin would have entrusted anyone with the secrets of the relics. Ironwood would not have been able to summon Ambrosius, and I highly doubt the staff has a toggle button on the side for increasing power output. Simply moving the staff also doesn't seem to affect Atlas's height either. No, even if Ironwood had the staff, he would still have needed to torture or blackmail Ozpin into giving up the secret (keeping in mind that, as far as he knew, Oz was still locked away in Oscar's mind). Funny how this simple requirement is so often ignored by the Ironwood-was-right camp.

Could Ironwood truly escape Salem's reach?

How High is High Enough? The idea was to raise Atlas's height enough that the Grimm could not reach them but not so high that dust loses its effect (as a recap, dust does not work in the high atmosphere or in orbit, hence why satellite technology doesn't exist). There are two reasons why Grimm may only fly so high. First, they can only survive up to a certain height. Second, they physically cannot reach a certain altitude. Let's start with the former. There are only two reasons that I can think of why Grimm cannot survive at certain altitudes. First, like dust, they cannot sustain their essence beyond Remnant's atmosphere. But again, Atlas would have to be below this point for their technology to work, so we can throw out this possibility. Two, there is not enough oxygen. Do Grimm even need oxygen? We know from World of Remnant that they do not need to eat, they just like to (or at least, that is the prevailing theory). I will get into this in the next section. But regarding whether they can reach these altitudes, that is no problem. On Earth, the factor limiting how high birds can fly is not ability but oxygen. Bar-headed geese can fly over Mt Everest and are only limited by the amount of oxygen. If oxygen was not an issue for the Grimm, they could likely fly quite high into the atmosphere. How high? I don't know, it depends whether they are using gravity dust, pushing against the air, or using some type of reaction-based propulsion. The following arguments are more speculative than substantial, but they would need to be addressed regardless.

Grimm evolution Regardless of whatever limitations the Grimm may currently have, it is dangerous to assume that they will always be constrained by these limits. As the saying goes, generals always prepare for the last war. The continent of Solitas was settled for a reason: the Grimm couldn't survive there. Hunger and cold were the greatest threats to the early settlers of Mantle. But over time, the Grimm evolved the ability to withstand the harsh cold of Solitas so that they could continue to hunt down humanity, no matter which desolate corner they sought to hide in. And this is not the only case of Grimm evolution that we have seen. We have seen Salem modify Grimm on-screen. In the World of Remnant, they even mention how new kinds of Grimm are discovered almost daily. That may be an exaggeration, but who is to say that the Grimm could not evolve to chase their query into the sky? After all, the Grimm may never have been documented flying that high, but there also hasn't been a selective pressure for them to do so.

Recreating the Amity Project If Grimm evolution was impossible, there is another option Salem could pursue. In short, enslaving humanity and forcing them to recreate the technology used for the Amity Project. The project was designed to lift Amity Arena to heights equivalent to what Ironwood envisioned for Atlas, indicating that it is possible even without the staff. With enough time (and remember, time is always on Salem's side), Salem would inevitably acquire the means to do so herself.

The Other Relics Could Salem use the other relics (presuming that she has tortured their passwords out of Ozma, which given enough time, would inevitably happen) to pull Atlas from the sky? Maybe. But out of all of my arguments, this is perhaps the most tenuous. I will keep this brief. The Relic of Knowledge could provide her with a method for doing so (if it is possible). The Sword of Destruction is the opposite of the Staff. Could it neutralize the effects of the Staff, canceling each other out, much to Atlas's demise? Maybe, but it is uncertain. It is also uncertain whether the staff and sword used by the King of Vale in the final battle of The Great War were these relics and, if so, how they are used. Finally, it is uncertain whether the Relic of Choice could be used to force the people of Atlas to descend against their wills. Some people suggest that the relic appears in the RWBY fairytale, 'The Indecisive King'. But while potent, the power described in the fairytale would not warrant the extra caution that Ozma placed in hiding that particular relic, which he considered the most dangerous in the hands of Salem. Regardless, this is all speculative and not worth further discussion.

In summary, there is considerable uncertainty in Ironwood's claim that he could forever escape Salem's reach. The discussion points above may be speculative, but they provide important considerations that could have threatened Ironwood's plan. However, it also assumes that they could even survive at these altitudes. Ironwood seems to believe so with the usual certainty carried by those who believe that technology can solve any problem. But can his technocentric belief in Atlas's climate system really hold up to scrutiny?

3. Survival in the Sky (Note: I realized after writing all this that there was a Reddit post rehashing these same arguments, I'll link it in the comments).

Oxygen Let's start by reviewing what we know about Atlas's life support and agricultural systems. It is unknown how exactly Atlas can create a climate-controlled area capable of growing crops and allowing people to lounge outside in short-sleeves in an otherwise frozen landscape. But regardless, it is unlikely that it can actually control the chemical composition of the air they breathe. Again, we assume that Grimm can fly at least as high as bar-headed geese, who are only limited by oxygen availability. Whatever height Atlas would need to reach would have to be hypoxic. While Atlas can clearly control its climate to some degree, its system would have been designed to regulate temperature, not oxygen availability. Could they install CO2 scrubbers to purify the air? Not within that massive space. Even if that technology existed, it would be restricted to fringe applications such as deep sea exploration, not sustaining human life in high atmosphere. Nor could it be built instantly. Could they use natural processes? While they have plant life, it would not be enough to create a livable biosphere. Especially if it is dark for half of the year, as we may expect for such a northern kingdom (depending on how Remnant actually rotates its sun).

Water To get high enough to escape the Grimm, they would need to rise beyond the clouds into a zone with very little water vapor. They would be unable to collect water vapor from the atmosphere without sending drones down to the surface, which is infeasible, as I'll explain later under 'Dust.' This means that they would need to recycle every last drop of water that they bring with them. They did not have time to prepare for this, nor would they have the setup or means to do it. Regardless of how good their climate control system is, I doubt it is water-proof. Water would inevitably evaporate out of Atlas. They wouldn't have enough water to support human life, much less grow crops.

Food Supply, Diversity, and Resilience I had prepared a long essay about this subject, but let me be straight to the point: Atlas's agricultural system is not up to snuff for supporting human life for even a short period, much less in perpetuity. It is difficult to calculate the amount of land they would need to support Atlas without knowing their population, but it would be much more than the small tracks of farmland shown in the diagrams. Atlas is a kingdom reliant on trade with other kingdoms for its survival. They trade technology and dust in return for food and other supplies lacking in the tundra. While their impressive agricultural system could supplement their food availability, it must be bigger to provide for the entire city. Especially if it is dark for part of the year (although they could have Ambrosius move the city around the globe, placing it wherever the light shone). And from what we could see on screen, most of the farmland consisted of grain monocultures. Here are the problems with this system in a nutshell: A. Not enough nutritional diversity - malnutrition would be a significant threat. B. Feast-or-famine dynamics - monocultures only provide food at specific times of the year, requiring storage capacity for the lean times beyond what Atlas is big enough to support. C. Low resilience - relying entirely on a single crop raises significant threats, as the Irish can tell you. A polyculture would be required to remain viable in the long term. D. Soil conservation - like with water, they would also need to conserve every particle of soil since they aren't getting any more. Monocultures are terrible at retaining topsoil; they would need very aggressive soil conservation measures (including an elaborate polyculture system) to minimize soil loss.

Energy

Even if Ironwood could lift Atlas beyond Salem's reach forever AND even if they could support a sustainable biosphere capable of sustaining life, there is one significant problem: energy. Not only would they need dust to maintain their technology and way of life, but even to support such elaborate life support systems. A few people out harvesting wheat using scythes isn't going to work. Isolated in the sky, Atlas would have no way to acquire or process dust. Nuclear fusion could potentially give them enough power, but considering how reliant they are on dust, it is doubtful they have that technology. The only semi-viable solution would be to use Ambrosius to move Atlas around in such a way that collects energy from the environment (for example, powering wind turbines or even converting potential energy from gravity into usable energy that would not disappear as soon as Ambrosius created something different, like they did with Penny). But this is still highly dubious. And regardless, they would be restricted to whatever materials they had lying around Atlas. They could not exactly go down to Remnant to mine for rare earth minerals. Overall, they would be in serious trouble without dust.

Civil Order

Again, I will keep this briefer than I had intended. But even if they defied the odds and created a self-sustaining system, society could only do so if it was organized, cooperative, and peaceful. However, small systems are prone to failure. This is a recurring theme in the Theory of Island Biogeography and within human history. Remember, Atlas is a system built upon inequality. The people of Atlas could enjoy such luxuries because their wealth was directly or indirectly built upon the labor of lower-class citizens (Mantle) or lucrative trade with other kingdoms. After launching into the atmosphere, everything would change. The capitalistic system they had built would crumble and be replaced with a military autocracy. It is not certain whether Ironwood would have voluntarily ended martial law and restored any type of civil government. But based on his unstable paranoia and belief that only he could make the hard choices necessary, it is very unlikely. Especially if they were slowly dying of dehydration. The social structure of Atlas would collapse. One of the myriad problems with an autocracy is that they are inherently unstable. Order may be harshly imposed for a while, squashing any dissent; but there would inevitably be a power vacuum. It might be immediately or in the distant future. But it would happen eventually. Many people idolize Ironwood because he is a strong man who seems to bring order and control. Just as we saw in Ren's deference to him (and as we see in parts of the fandom). But a society built upon such a violent principle cannot stand indefinitely. Given enough time, Atlas would either need to descend back to Remnant or they would kill themselves.

I could go on about this, but I have rambled enough. Most likely, I have forgotten other poignant problems with Ironwood's plan. But feel free to add your own input. Thanks for reading!

[green-like-pine-trees]

Oscar and the Sun

Right out the gate, characters are not either sun or moon. I have seen this in so many circles. I understand that typically this is a shorthand for a character having a collection of qualities. "Oh, this character is so sun because she is firey, yellow, upbeat, and persistant". Like okay, this is fine, you have observed traits about a character.

But saying character = sun, character = moon doesn't inherently give it meaning. These symbols need to be grounded in something and contextual to the work.

I think this post is actually one of my favorites because it tries to provide meaning as to why Ruby is constantly associated with the moon. Ruby is the light in the darkness, she is looked up to as a beacon of hope. Just like the shattered moon, she still persists even after all of her hardship. It's very insightful, mentions things I never even noticed before – please give it a read.

I prop this up to say, that when she also proposed Oscar was associated with the Sun and/or artificial light, it gave me pause. I think it's an astute observation, however it also feels incomplete. Why is it important, what does it mean?

Well, I have a few guesses that I was hoping to share :)

V4C1 – The sunrise is a useful way to indicate a hopeful new era for the show and Oscar, just as dawn indicates a new day. Lots of transitions in this scene: sleeping to waking, closed to open, inside to outside, darkness to light. Oscar doesn't know it yet, but he's got adventure that's about to come knocking.

V4C7 – The scene where Ozpin tries to convince Oscar to leave. The colors in his room are warm (browns, reds), comfortable– contrasted by the cold blue of the world outside his window. It may be cozy but inside it's dark; the lantern only provides some small, temporary light. If Oscar wants true fulfillment, he'll have to venture outside and into the sunlight.

V4C10 – Oscar leaves the barn for the first time since Oz has made himself known. The scene is filled with cool colors and it starts to storm as Oscar approaches the train station (love some pathetic fallacy). The main light source comes from the blue terminal– all of these elements and technology are a heavy contrast to the comfort and warm colors Oscar experienced before. This is his crossing of the threshold, his first brush with danger and the unknown– the beginning of a long road ahead.

V6C6 – The episode opens with Ruby looking out the window at the moon and snow outside. Meanwhile, WBY are gathered around the fire, while Oscar is far away from it, pacing in the darkness. Ruby looking out the window could be a sign of her focus on the bigger picture, moving forward.

WBY's focus on the fire is a sign of their focus on the present, temporary comforts. They're not completely checked out like Qrow, but it's short term. Oscar keeping away from the fire could be a sign of his greater uncertainty. WBY are all huntresses (with Maria, a former), they're doing all they can do right now. What can Oscar even do in a situation like this?

I love V6 but also wish they capitalized on Oscar also being a farmer who would've stayed stagnant if he hadn't left his former life.

V6C9 – in this episode, everyone's sad and worried, running around in the the streets of Argos. When Oscar is found, he's light in the darkness: a celebration, an unambiguous joy. With his return, the gang are brought out of the darkness of night, past that gateway, into the warm light inside a home. Not only does Oscar want to be a part of the team, but the team wants him around, too. The rut is over, and they're a united front, again.

V7 – Oscar spends a lot of time indoors, this volume. The interiors of Atlas are shades of white and grey, lit by cool blue artificial lights. Earth color farm boy Oscar isn't in Kansas anymore, that's for sure. He's trying to get through to Ironwood, but there's always a sense of unease, that Oscar can't fully get Ironwood to see eye to eye.

I love how Oscar descends with the blue light harshly lit behind him, then he ends up being forced to walk along it as Ironwood corners him. All of the shadows contrast strongly, pitch black. All of these elements stress how dangerous Ironwood is.

Oscar is then shot off the edge into the dark mechanical underbelly. He breaks through and we get our first glimpse at the sunrise. In contrast, it's open, warm, and colorful. He's free.

Again, Oscar carries us forward into a new era with another signature sunrise. However, the sunrise is definitely bittersweet. On the one hand, Penny is the winter maiden, Ozpin is back, and Oscar is safe. On the other hand, Qrow is going into custody, Ozpin is back, and Salem's forces are on the horizon.

However, I do want to return to the notion of Oscar being not necessarily associated with the sun, but in lieu of. Dawn but not the sunrise, light but artificial. We don't even see the sun itself while Oscar is falling, that honor is given to Qrow. As if it's sort of taunting him, considering what he just lost.

Why is this the case? Well, we've established that Ruby is often associated with the moon– light in the darkness, hope in uncertainty. If we're going to tie Oscar in here, making him the sun doesn't really work. Ruby is the mentor, the one Oscar looks up to and is inspired by. The moon reflects the light of the sun, not the other way around.

So, we have the next best thing. Oscar is an artificial light in the darkness, not a celestial one. When the moon goes down, the sun rises.

Another reason why I'm cautious of saying anything definitive, is I think it's more of trend than a symbol. Take this V8C1 scene, when they're figuring out their plans. Once Oscar starts trying to help mediate and temper expectations, he's constantly positioned beside this light fixture.

When Yang calms down and agrees with Oscar about Penny, BOOM, light fixture be upon ye. She might've been harsh to Ruby, but her heart's in the right place.

(Previously she was positioned in front of it, blocking the source of light).

I see this less as "Oscar's thing is light fixtures" and more so, Oscar is constantly, unambiguously a good boy™ who always tries his best. Very often, the plot and framing positions him as a bringer of sunrises, a warm welcome on a cold night. Light has historically been an indicator of truth, knowledge and goodness– things Oscar tends to embody.

We could get into lamps, gold, and the little prince but this post is long enough.

So yeah. I'd like to thank gatherkeepsakes for the inspiration, I thought you made some really good observations.

[bestworstcase]

I have a question about some of your Salem thoughts

If Salem is 110% certain that she can take down the Gods (assuming that's her goal since we don't actually know), why wouldn't she communicate her plan to Oz? Especially if she truly doesn't want anyone to die like you say. Oz would jump at the bit if Salem said "Hey I want to stop fighting" since that would mean their shadow war would stop. I really don't think Oz likes the Gods either, and even if he's afraid of them, if *Salem* is that confident she can stop them (she's far from an idiot), I'm sure he'd at least hear her out (which would tell Salem a LOT).

If she's that confident and truly doesn't want to fight, why wouldn't she tell Oz her new plan? And why would she kickstart her plan by attacking the kingdoms/Academies? Surely she could find a way to steal the Relics without flat out attacking them (like sending in double agents to take the Maiden powers)? Like... she would've known she'd get people killed, including children and innocent people. Even if she did damage control (which I think is just strategic, why bother going after people if she's focusing on the Relics? She's not gonna waste precious time and resources), she surely knew people would get caught in the crossfire.

Don't get me wrong, I like what you bring to the table!! Your posts are thought provoking and unique. But I can't see Salem being somehow secretly good. I don't think the show is setting her up that way, and I think she's a fantastic villain, so from my own perspective, doing that kind of twist would be a disservice to her character. I don't think she's inhuman or a complete and total monster who should go, but she's definitely not a good person especially if she can't communicate that she supposedly doesn't want people dead. She seems to be an "the ends justify the means" kind of person, and the show I think has stated that that isn't a good mindset i.e. Ironwood.

Sorry, I rambled and completely strayed from my point 😅 I don't mean to be mean if I come across that way. I hope my ask is interesting or thought provoking though :P

my position is that salem is right, not that she’s secretly good—that is an important distinction. i think she sees the gods clearly for what they are, thinks the divine ultimatum repulsive and unjust, wants remnant to be free, and believes that humanity is transcendent over their creators; she also, quite plainly, does not have any compunction about doing whatever it takes to achieve her ends and while i do think she is still fully capable of and driven by love, she is so TERRIFIED of being hurt again and so CERTAIN that no one could ever care for her that when she does care for someone else it comes out in very, very twisted and often cruel ways. she’s not good, she’s not nice, she’s just right.

equally the heroes are good but not right, because they have yet to really grapple with the premise of the divine mandate (that humanity as it exists right now does not deserve to exist) or their own role in upholding it (their immediate goal is survival, but when they envision the ending of this war they imagine salem driven back and the relics squirreled away again in hope of at best everlasting stalemate). the point of structuring the narrative this way is that neither side can get to the proverbial good ending alone; they need to work together, salem’s ends with the heroes’ means.

like. she’s evil. lol. that’s not in question and i think it goes without saying that she is doing evil things so i don’t feel the need to make a “but she’s still evil though” disclaimer every time i try to tease out what’s going on in her head. notice how my reaction to salem razing vale was OH GLINDA LAYS SIEGE TO THE EMERALD CITY, WE’RE REALLY IN IT NOW and not, like, shock or dismay that salem would do such a terrible thing. brgdfjs

(i DO think she has mostly been trying to avoid ozma and not reciprocating the shadow crusade against her prior to about fourteen years ago and that she isn’t about wanton destruction or killing for the sake of it; and in that sense i think she’s not as bad as the general fanon reading. but that comes with the territory of thinking she has actual reasons for doing what she does as opposed to being, like, a genocidal lunatic.)

anyway. to your questions. the short answer is she’s just as scared of oz as he is of her.

“but he’s the good one!”—think about this from her perspective for a minute. set aside your opinion of her and oz, presuppose for the moment that i’m correct on her motivations, and consider what everything ozma’s done in the last few thousand years looks like to her.

she knows that the gods were monsters. she witnessed them slaughtering the whole world and she saw how little it mattered to them after. she was alone for millions of years, and then hated and feared for thousands of years because she didn’t look human. all that suffering because the gods are punishing her for praying to them. yes?

then ozma returns to her, somehow. he doesn’t explain how or why—maybe he tells her he just doesn’t know—but that’s alright. what matters is that he’s here. he asks what happened to her, and she tells him the truth: the gods ended the world. cursed her. killed everyone. she was alone for so long. (maybe not the whole truth: there are things she’s afraid to say, because the gods did it all to punish her, and it’s her fault, and she’s so scared that he’d despise her if he knew everything. the only reason for her to fear ozma would reject her is if she blamed herself. you don’t hide things out of shame if you don’t feel ashamed of them.)

they learn each other again. fall in love all over again. things are finally okay. they fix up her house. they’re happy together. one day ozma tells her that he’s worried about how divided people are. she wants so badly to make him happy; she would move mountains for him. salem herself has no interest in ruling over people as a god—if she did, she wouldn’t have been living alone in a rotting shack in the middle of nowhere—all that enthusiasm is for him. to support what he wants.

they build a following, found a prosperous kingdom, start a family. four children! how long do you think they were married—ten years? twenty? and the whole time, the whole time, ozma was keeping these secrets from her. that the god of light, who’d condemned her to eternal suffering for praying to his brother, who’d shown utter indifference to the deaths of millions, had sent him back to redeem humanity FROM HER SINS, from what SALEM did. that the point of all this is cleansing humankind of her defiance and inviting THAT MONSTER to remnant to judge whether this world deserved to be subjugated under the brothers’ tyranny again or else be put to death.

imagine how she must have felt when ozma finally told her the truth, knowing that the first thing she told him was that the gods ended the last one. imagine the sickening realization that their whole marriage is built on a lie, because she would never, ever, ever have agreed to help him unite the world if she had known what he sought to unite them for, and ozma knew she never would. that he deceived her! manipulated her into serving the will of a god she knows to be a monster!

and even then—even to the very end—she loved him enough to try. she was willing to forgive all of that and figure out a way to move past it together, and the only thing she asked was that he walk away from his task of submitting this world to the judgment of THAT MONSTER. and he wouldn’t do it.

there’s a gap we don’t get to see, in between ozma backing away from her and salem catching him leaving with the girls, but we can infer that ozma walked out of that room and salem didn’t. imagine how she felt. ten years, twenty years, however long it was, and he was lying to her through it all, and he left her with hardly a moment’s hesitation when she refused to help him enact THAT MONSTER’S retribution against herself. because that is, ultimately, what this is all about; humanity is found guilty by association with her.

imagine how she felt. used. worthless. duped. like a fool for ever trusting him. did he ever love her at all, or was that a lie, too?

when she caught him in the hallway later that night, they both attack each other in the same instant. ozma remembers her attacking him first, but their volleys meet in perfect symmetry and right before salem throws her first bolt of magic, her eyes flicker down in surprise as she tracks the motion of his staff (which we see in the previous shot)—salem remembers him attacking her first.

because they were both so tense and scared and angry at each other that they snapped in exactly the same moment.

their battle is so intense they blow up the castle, and when the smoke clears, salem is a pile of ash. ash! he incinerated her! imagine how enraged you have to be to burn someone to ash. that level of fury, of absolute hatred of her, is literally burnt into her memory as the last thing he did to her before she managed to kill him, inextricably twisted around the guilt and unbearable grief she feels for her children.

he’s dedicated all but a handful of his lives since then to getting rid of her. finding a way to destroy her. (how far is he willing to go? what would happen if salem tried to move on, find community and solace somewhere far away from him? would he come after her? would he follow his god’s example and go after the people she cared about to punish her? is she willing to risk that he might?)

do you think salem understands why ozma did any of this? she doesn’t. she doesn’t get the luxury we do of jinn narrating his side of the story and showing us the anguish he felt, wanting so desperately to be with salem but eaten alive by terror of dooming the world for his happiness. she doesn’t know.

all she knows is how he treated her: the secrets, the deception, the manipulation, the immediate and absolute rejection when she told him no, the explosively violent anger at the end, then centuries upon centuries systematically erasing her from history and enforcing her exile whilst searching for the relics he needs to summon his god for the final judgment. which she knows will inevitably end in the annihilation of the whole world and yet more torture for her with no hope of reprieve, because if all of this was not enough to satisfy the god of light’s grudge against her for, again, just praying to his brother, nothing ever will.

salem feels about ozma now the way blake felt about adam. why did he lie to her, why did he use her, why does he keep coming back, why won’t he just LEAVE HER ALONE, hasn’t she suffered enough, hasn’t she been punished enough, when will it be enough—and intertwined with that, she is being EATEN ALIVE by the conviction that no one could ever truly care about her or feel for her or want to help her or think that she deserves help or even just see her as a person, because if ozma—ozma, the one who saved her from her father’s tower, who knew her and loved her before all of this happened—if ozma thought her so worthless that he would rather serve a god who ended the last world and promises to condemn this one too than suffer her to exist at all in this world, why the fuck would anyone else be any different?

thousands of years later, she still flies off the handle when anyone lies to her. (except cinder. but cinder is always the exception, to every rule.) there’s a reason she recruits the kind of people she does—desperate, broken, angry people starving for something she can promise to give them if they make themselves useful to her—and it’s because she does not believe that she can get anything better than strictly transactional relationships with people who have literally nothing and nowhere else to turn. and when she actually cares about someone? she fights herself tooth and claw over it because she desperately doesn’t want to open herself up to more heartbreak. look at how erratic and cruel she is with cinder.

it’s not rational. salem is smart and very, very tactically shrewd but she is making all of her plans and all of her choices from the assumption that she is and will always be alone in this, because she is unlovable, because she is worthless, because she is the reason this world is damned. and she’s terrified of ozma because to her everything he does suggests that his conviction and dedication to the god of light has never wavered. she cannot see his doubt. she cannot see his misery. she cannot see how much he misses her and desperately wants to make amends. all she can see is that he’s zealously guarding the relics and spreading his god’s word and training children to fight and die in the name of keeping her exiled.

why doesn’t ozma just go to her and tell her he wants to make amends? because he’s terrified she’ll never forgive him and terrified that he’ll damn the world to annihilation if he follows his heart. they’re the same. they’re exactly the same.

but this is also what makes it so possible—even easy—for salem to undergo a villain-to-hero arc, because the only thing that needs to happen is a spark of real hope. that someone, anyone, could really care about her. like. the things she says in her soliloquies about the transformative power of hope? “even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change,” and “it’s true that a simple spark can ignite hope, breathe fire into the hearts of the weary…”—that’s her. one small reason to hope. that is all she needs to change.

she doesn’t want to be razing kingdoms to the ground or cutting a bloody path through children to get those relics. she is willing to do it because she truly, genuinely, from the depths of her soul believes that it’s the only way to free herself from the torture she’s been subjected to for millions of years. she’s driven to this by desperation. she won’t keep doing it if she’s given a reason to feel less desperate.

but she does need to be given a reason, first. she’s hemorrhaging. this is why the winnowing of her inner circle and the split between everyone else in vacuo versus salem + cinder + summer in vale is important; Those Two are the ones she cares about—technically we don’t know for sure regarding summer yet, but the level of trust she has for the lieutenant holding beacon is suggestive—and that being reciprocated is what ignites her hope.

[chatterkat]

Okay saw the posts about Oscar’s fairy tale inspiration being The Little Prince and I not being familiar with that fairy tail read the Wikipedia plot. It honestly seems like an interesting story. I can see how it inspired his character, questioning the logic of the adults in their world.

I get why people are excited about it shipwise, but it also seems to end potentially badly for the prince. He lets a snake bite him so he could be with his rose. Like people joke about the Oscar protection squad already, but what if he actually did die? Would be a huge bummer after his life got stolen by Oz. That doesn’t feel like they would do that that, but look what they did with Penny. Brought her back and killed her again. The wiki says “He then met a yellow snake that claimed to have the power to return him to his home, if he ever wished to return.” The yellow snake reminds me of the God of Light’s gold dragon form. Perhaps it’s instead going to be that the God of Light returns Oscar, because he frees him from the curse of Ozma, and that is what allows him to go home?

Speaking of home, if another of Ruby’s allusions is of the ruby slippers in the Wizard of Oz, there is yet another link to Ruby Rose and Oscar going “home” as the slippers are what give Dorothy the power to go home. I always felt Oscar also had allusions to Dorothy so it might be a secondary one for him. Ruby may give Oscar the power to go home by telling off the gods when they inevitably get summoned. As well as being a reason he wants to go back.

Anyway from the summary it kinda almost seems somewhat reversed the relationship the prince has with the rose. The prince nourishes it, but seems more like it was Ruby who did that in the show. Her showing him the ropes, watching his back in battle. At least for the most part so far. I know he sometimes helped her too in smaller ways. Like when they had that heart to heart about being afraid. Things might be different after the time skip. Also the rose was vain, but maybe it’s more like a hubris thing? Oscar does question Ruby’s choice after all with Ironwood. Ruby ended up repeating the mistakes of Oz. Obviously the story won’t always be 1-1.

Anyway as for time skip, this line like made me think a little. “The prince laments that he did not understand how to love his rose while he was with her”. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? So wonder if he will act differently towards her when we see them again. I still wonder if they really will go for it storywise, but it feels like it makes narrative/character sense.

[lemon-whiskey]

‘The Tarnished Knight, Part Two.’ — Ironwood’s Redemption Concept (Vol 9 spoilers)

My theoretical of if James Ironwood was the extra person to fall with team RWBY, instead of Jaune, into the ever after and how I think that would work. Biggggg post beyond the cut. My posts tag for this idea: [ #The Tarnished Knight RWBY au ]

You can reblog if you want to!

We left off with The Blacksmith.

James accepts The Blacksmith’s offer to be given the start to be who he wanted to be. She re-carves him for his second chance.

He wakes up on the beach again, covered in multicolored maple leaves. James takes a deep breath as he slowly sits up, blinking widely. He felt as different as he felt the same, one notable change is that he didn’t feel the pain. He still had an ache but he felt,,, better. More alive. His pants- once dark blue- now a charcoal grey. A dark blue tunic almost like a gambeson replaced his greatcoat and uniform. Worn Silver Paldrons and rerbraces that stopped at his elbows, tassets at his hips and thighs, his arms now matching and in a gently used silver, no gloves in sight.

He’s ticking softly, only noticeable because he can feel it. He holds a hand up to his right breast and unbuttons his tunic to look down and see the face of a small clock flanked by filigree in the metal side of his chest, ticking along with the rhythm of his heart. Yes he still has that for human reasons because he is indeed still human.

His gun is no longer a gun, it’s an axe that matches the silver and black of his old gun(s) with the filigree along the handle as well. A small blue stone set in the bottom of the pommel. He’d see himself in the weapon’s reflection, years younger. A smooth face he didn’t remember he ever had, alone in what he believed to be purgatory. He gets a helmet too, dramatic reveals and all that.

From here, he would now take the place of the rusted knight in Lewis’s story. He would realize he’s not in purgatory, but a different universe entirely.

James would not have ended up with the paper people though, this I will stray further off the script for as I’m echoing the tin man from The Wizard of Oz a little more here. He’s a forest dweller who makes a home and protects the flora and fauna while frequenting markets. We’re keeping juniper here because I love her so much except in his case she is either Ace or something else. Maybe the rabbit in the beginning fell in with him instead of running off idk. She gets silver antlers as a treat if you wanna play on the lucky rabbit vibes add a horseshoe symbol to her chest.

We’ve now approached the point where he’d be back at his original vol 8 age, beard and maybe a pony tail for vibes. And now he’s gonna re-meet team RWBY and oh boy! It’ll be ugly but also hilarious. Get ready for ‘Just James.’

Yeah Weiss still gets her mature comment except it’s replaced with a shocked but appreciative, ‘Striking.’

James is trying to get RWBY to trust him, the cat plays on the fact that they don’t.

Things go a similar way as the original story but with a lootttt more tension and we get James backstory possibilities!

In the mirror domain we get him seeing some options: maybe himself but in his old atlas uniform, or possibly Qrow in the mirror, maybe Clover. Hell both maybe, I’m just a gremlin here.

I might draw this in the future, I’m pretty content with the idea!

Part One: [HERE]

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

is there any information proving that Ozpin doesn’t know about Penny? Does it really matter if he does or not? In the grand scheme of things Penny being a robot with the ability to form her own aura after being given some by her father is largely irrelevant to the task at hand, keeping the Maiden powers from Cinder and Salem’s forces. All Ironwood needs to do is give him a synopsis, they have no reason to assume Penny is any trouble or is in any trouble at all, especially considering she’s not even being seen as a possible maiden choice.

I don’t exactly understand why we’re so fixated on this Aura Transfer machine. Yeah so much of RWBY development is left to be assumed off screen, but is Ironwood & Ozpin having a dull conversation about Penny & Pietro’s Aura and the Aura Transfer machine that important? Especially when we’ve managed to figure out most of the pieces by ourselves long before Pietro was even introduced?? A lot of things in RWBY need rewriting(or actual writing in the show instead of assuming it happened off screen) but this is not one of those things. Show don’t tell is an important rule, sometimes you do need to let audiences read between the lines instead of spelling it out.

Yes. Literally volume 3, after Penny dies, we see James frantically saying "Oz, about the girl, I-" in a tone that clearly says he feels guilty for not telling Ozpin about her sooner is worried Ozpin thinks Cinder's message is telling the truth. It's not about me thinking Ozpin thinks Penny is in trouble or is trouble, I don't, its about what a realistic person would do and feel in a situation. Why wouldn't Ozpin ask about this weirdly specific technology that James somehow has? This isn't about Penny, its about the writers just yadda yaddaing past critical writing points that should be expanded upon. Again this only came up because I was trying to figure out logistics for a large fanfic I am working on. My analyzing it made me notice the weird detail and I was trying to figure out and was trying to figure out why people thought the timeline was.

Why are you so fixated on what I'm posting on my personal blog? I'm talking about something I noticed and I have a problem with. You decided to write an ask getting annoyed with me that is longer then my initial post about it. And having to "figure it out on our own" is a problem. Yes, show don't tell is important but the point of a story is to tell. and cutting out things like this hurts the story in the long run. RW/BY so often rely on fans figuring out their plot holes they rarely actually put any lines for us to read between like with this damn aura transfer machine. At first Penny made her own aura, then the machine got made and then Pietro gave her some of his semblance. The writing is messy and if someone is trying to put together a timeline (as the writers should have) for any reason stuff like this becomes obvious and are difficult to figure out. As I said, I am working on a massive fanfic project right now that is almost finished with the pre Beacon arc so more stuff like this is probably going to be noticed by me and posted about because that's a large part of what this blog has become. If you don't like that fine but don't send me asks complaining about it.

[tumblezwei]

Not a RG person (or any kind of shipper really), but I don’t entirely gel with your earlier post on Ruby and Oscar, more specifically the latter. Because the way I read the story’s themes, it seems to me that much of their shared theme is being drowned out by the legacy of those who came before them.

Ruby, through the constant comparisons to her mother, her lineage as a Silver Eyed Warrior, and effectively being Ozpin’s successor as the leader of those against him despite not really wanting the role (even though she stepped up as admirably as she could).

Oscar however is literally at risk of being drowned out, just being subsumed by the Ozma collective and becoming nothing more than another face with Ozma’s traumas and failure to change. He’s not proving himself his own man; he’s struggling to preserve what little of himself is left in the face of an unwilling mental parasite, all while constantly battling the fears of both himself and Ozma.

To me, it seems more likely that what might happen at the end is that Ruby and Oscar end up leaving on a journey together once they’ve been freed of their respective obligations; Ruby can finally be a normal huntress saving people without bearing the weight of the world, while Oscar can finally find his own identity and have an adventure without the risk of losing his personality. Their goals would align pretty decently on that regard.

I get the gist of your point, but I think we disagree on a few key things.

The most pressing one is Oscar's situation. While he is definitely at risk of being consumed by Oz in universe, I don't think that that's where the story is pointing to at all. Nothing we've seen from Oscar's character development so far leads me to believe he's sinking into his fear at being consumed. Every time he's been given the choice to be like Oz, he's gone against it.

In volume 6, when he knows about information that Oz is keeping hidden, he fights against Oz's possession and tells the group. In volume 7 after Ironwood goes off the deep end, he chooses to trust that Ironwood can be reasoned with when Oz would have just given up. After being tortured by Hazel he chooses to trust him and Emerald, something Ozpin was incapable of doing. He's the one teaching Oz that Oz can change. With every volume his convictions grow stronger and his sense of right and wrong solidifies.

It's true that he's struggled with the idea of where he ends and Ozpin begins, but I don't believe for a second that what we're seeing play out is Oscar losing his identity. And like I said in my previous post, it's because he knows all of Ozpin's fuck ups that he's able to see Oz for who he is and grow to be better. If he were truly at risk of becoming just another Ozma, then I would think him completely redundant as a character.

He is absolutely not drowning in Ozpin's legacy.

I also don't really like the phrasing of Ruby being Ozpin's successor. He was her mentor, sure, a shitty one at that, but I don't think he's been much of a leader of anything for a long, long time. Now, he certainly used her mother's leadership abilities to his advantage, and when he saw the same potential in Ruby he used her too. But I can't accept the idea of him passing down a mantle to her. Not to hate on the guy, I do like his character an awful lot, but that man did nothing to help her grow into leadership except one speech that only helped to catalyze her depressive spiral lmao.

But that's more of a personal gripe that an argument against your point. I think the main problem we have is that you've read the themes differently from me. Despite how depressing the show can get, it's a lot more hopeful than people give it credit for sometimes. And specifically for this post, than what Oscar stans give it credit for.

They often read his fate as something a lot more cynical and tragic than it actually is imo, and try to find a lot of similarities to Ruby in order to ramp up the angst. And there's nothing really wrong with that, I'm no stranger to making my faves suffer more than they realistically would, but I just don't think Oscar is in that much danger. I think the narrative is pointing a very clear and direct line towards Ozpin disappearing from his mind and the cycle of reincarnation ending. Oscar's arc has been about finding out who he is, but that isn't just an endpoint goal, it's something that's already happening.

But if you don't believe that, if you think that he's still actively being corrupted by Oz, then I think you'd come to the conclusions that you have in this ask, and you'd see more parallels to Ruby's spiral. And that's just not what I see.

[good-rwbyaus]

Currently stopped at March 24, 2021. Will continue going through them. These are organized by mod and put in reverse chronological order (most recent). Once I see writings of a mod, I'll add the mod name there such as Mod Red, Mod Violet, Mod Pink etc.

Posts I've reviewed will have the mod name tagged in if it wasn't already added.

Warning that I don't know a lot of the crossovers.

I may start putting like a tag for post length cause some are like less than 30 words while some are huge. Any ideas for a good cutoff for small, medium, large?

Posts under the cut. - mod lilac

Mod Green:

Ozcury AU - Mercury mentoring Ruby in a kick-based style

Berta Beef - (LetterKenny reference)

Ozcury AU - Watching Penny and Ruby interact has Mercury convinced they're dating

Ozcury AU - Mercury whacking Cinder while pulling off SAO Abridged Kirito's "humans are a write-off as a species" lines

Mercury and Emerald with a kid AU - Mercury's bad choice of movie material for his daughter

Kobayashi Dragon Maid AU starring Saphron and Terra Cotta-Arc

Vampire Mercury Black AU - Emercury

Crack Ship One-Shot Neo x Penny

Dog Faunus Jaune AU One-Shot

Mercury Meets Deadpool instead of Cinder after killing Marcus AU

KonosubaAU! character's comments on Darkness!Pyrrha's masochism

Yang embarassing Ruby at her wedding.

Crack!Alternate ending of the Fall of Beacon for Pyrrha discovering she's a Salem clone.

Star Trek Fan AU

Vampire Mercury Black AU - Mercury's casual convo with Emerald about hunting

Vampire Mercury Black AU - Mercury on Witches and Necromancers

Vampire Mercury Black AU - Meeting Tyrian

Ozcury AU - Sass-off while fighting back to back with Ironwood

Salem finds it awkward and disconcerting to talk to Oscar

Ozcury AU - Not quite fully in control.

SAOAbridged!Kirito Mercury doing the Bridge speech.

Ozcury AU - seeing Penny in Atlas

Mama Black, the Winter Maiden

Singer Mercury

Ozcury AU - nsft - Not quite asking the right questions with Jinn

Ozcury AU - awkward meeting with Ironwood

Weiss chasing Jaune AU

Conspiracy Theorist Raven AU

Mod Yellow:

BatFamAU - Emerald after meeting the Joker the first time and the BatFam's reaction

BatFamAU - Fanart of Em from thatfreak03

BatFamAU - Batgirl Emerald facing the Joker for the first time

BatFamAU - Batgirl Emerald taught Bruce's bad tastes in companionship

BatFamAU - semblance descriptions for the BatFam

BatFamAU - Battle of Haven (I think this is Mod Yellow's but I'm not sure since it was untagged.)

BatFamAU - Emerald Wayne's first gala

BatFamAU - ModAsk: Waynes' Thoughts on the Schnees?

BatFamAU - ModAsk: Is Season 1! Ruby a fan of the Batfam?

BatFamAU - ModAsk: Lazarus Pit?

BatFamAU - ModAsk: Emerald's Thoughts on Other Batman Characters

LazyTownAU (Crack AU)! Pyrrha alternate ending to Fall of Beacon

Accidental Pun Master Raven (it puns in the family au)

Remnant saved by Salem getting a cold (Sick Salem AU)

BatFamAU - ModAsk: Did Batfam intervene at the Grimm invasion?

Bleiss AU nsft: "This isn't a nude beach!"

Redemption AU - Ruby and company unwittingly getting Emerald and Mercury to defect

CampCamp AU - Harrison is Ozpin's son.

BatFamAU - on the Fall of Beacon

BatFamAU - Emerald and thoughts on the other Batgirls

BatFamAU - ModAsk: Who is Azazel?

BatFamAU - Emerald and thoughts on the other Robins. Also, the Tim Test

BatFamAU - ModAsk: Ironwood's thoughts on Bruce Wayne

BatFamAU - ModAsk: Is Bruce part of the Ozpin's inner circle?

BatFamAU - Training and Bruce Wayne

BatFamAU - Which Kingdom is Bruce Wayne in?

Crack!The Real Reason why Salem hates Oz

Ozpin picks Nora as the Fall Maiden instead.

BatFamAU - Bad habits die hard.

Everything is the same but ruby speaks in owo and uwu UVU ovo

BatFamAU - Emerald meets the Batman

Mod Lilac:

Untitled Piece - The end of a dream and Ruby's attempt to make it right.

Accidental Cult AU - 6. Blaspheme (and maid!Ruby's reaction)

Actors and Actresses AU - The Schnees Play Monopoly

Accidental Cult AU - 5. Worship

Accidental Cult AU - 4. First Recruit

Fleeting AU - Ozma returns to the Beginning with nothing but a whisper to come. Everything changes.

Accidental Cult AU - 3. Ruby meets Weiss again

Accidental Cult AU - 2. Chance Encounter

Accidental Cult AU - the Church of Weiss Schnee / Maid Ruby AU

WinterMaiden/ Untitled Goose Game AU - picture

Dabbing is the real reason why the worlds ends Crack AU!

Persona AU picture - Ozpin as Igor

Unnamed Crack Time Travel AU Part 3 - Featuring Chronic!Backstabber!Syndrome!Cinder

Evil Ozpin AU - except Ozpin is more "this is hella inconvenient evil"

Prankster Summer Rose

Crack!Blake writes very terrible smut. Jaune likes to use it to interrogate his enemies. Poor Tyrian.

Uncle Crow AU - Intermezzo

Unnamed Crack Time Travel AU - part 2

Ozma lets Salem play out her megalomania fetish. She gets tired of it very quickly.

Unnamed Crack Time Travel AU - part 1, features ChronicBackstabber!Cinder and DonewithEverything!Ruby

Misc (Submissions, Reblogs or I don't know who wrote them aha):

Crack!Headmistress Ruby AU - unknown

Adopted Mercury Arc - submission by plaidgamer64

CosmoKyrin's collection of nuts n dolts - them as animals.

Young Headmaster Ozpin AU - "now unlock it"

No one believed that Jaune has a girlfriend, not even his family - moistmailman

[citadelofmythoughts]

Thinking of a RWBY villain who’s basically a remnant of the dark brother’s power manifested. Their only goal is to get the brothers to return by completely wiping out those who drove them away in the first place (Salem and the rest of humanity).

“The Being” is going to be busy battling Salem for control of the Grimm and Evernight for a majority of the fic. So I need a way for them to deal with the rest of Remnant in the meantime since, while they do have half of the Grimm under their control that’s not really enough to wipe out humanity.

My two ideas are that they are able to use the dark brother’s power to resurrect “incomplete” (meaning they retain their semblances, skills and “kind of” personalities, but lose their free will and will only exist while “The Being” channels it) versions of certain deceased characters (Pyrrha, Hazel, Clover, Ironwood, Adam, Sienna, and even Nicholas, etc)

Or “corrupt” and control some of the main cast (Weiss, Yang, Jaune, Nora, Coco or Velvet, Theodore, etc.) In this case, characters with remnants of the gods powers (Ruby’s silver eyes, Oz, Salem, and the Maiden’s powers) make them too difficult to control.

For context, this is a unique post-canon where humanity defeated and repelled Salem at Vacuo. So they have time to recoup, rebuild, and prepare with most working on their lives and trying to enjoy it while Ruby, Ozcar, a “revived” Penny, Qrow, and Raven hunt for how to permanently defeat Salem.

Sorry for the long message, but this one swept through my mind today! Anyways, thoughts on the two ways that “The Being” deals with Remnant? Or any other thoughts you have?

Oooh, I'm not sure if I have any useful input because both of your options have a lot of potential.

If I were going for a more "horror" aspect I think I might pick the first one though.

Seeing JNR reacting to a not-quite-right version of Pyrrha or Blake and Yang encountering Adam again could be so amazingly angsty.

The corruption aspect is also good though because the heroes that resist can't just kill their corrupted friends and loved ones so it really ramps up the stakes.

I love a post-canon fic because you get this big playground without having to step on CRWBY's toes lol.

BTW sorry it took a bit for me to reply.

[kitkatopinions]

I just stumbled across your blog and I love the Ironwood content here though I have a question. You mentioned in some posts that Ironwood shooting Oscar was what rocketed his villiany arc, can you elaborate on that? Don't get me wrong, I firmly believe shooting Oscar is bad/villianous thing but I always assumed Ironwoods mindset was "If I kill this child we might get Oz, the person who has most experience fighting Salem, back" and with him being sorrowful at shooting Oscar it never seemed too much of a leap for me instead it could have been the start of a great"Sacrifice people to save as many as I can/have the best chance at stopping Salem" arc that made him an anyogonist and not a villian who threatened to bomb a city and shot down evacuation ship

I would love to explain.

In my opinion, the difference between an antagonist versus a villain is that an antagonist gets in the way, but villains commit actually evil acts. So when Ironwood went from getting in the way via arresting Team RWBY when they said that they would stop him from saving the people of Atlas and the already evacuated citizens of Mantle, and instead went to shooting children from incredibly high heights, I'd say that moved him into the villain category despite his motivations likely still centering around beating Salem back. Villains can do bad things with good intentions, and it's still a villainous act.

I do agree that he could have come back from it, in fact even though I have a preference that some villains should stay villains I tend to think that there's very little a character can't 'come back' from if the redemption arc is done well (and they're actually treated as wrong and try to make amends somehow.) But I do think that it made Ironwood a villain when he shot Oscar.

One big reason why I think that it rocketed his (rushed, badly done) villain arc though, is because before that moment, Ironwood was not a 'murder in cold blood' character, especially if the person he was murdering was a literal child just disagreeing with him. He didn't send Clover, Qrow, and Robyn to kill Tyrian, just to apprehend him. He didn't kill Watts, he only apprehended him. He didn't kill Jacques when Jaques was in the way. He didn't kill Team RWBY for disagreeing with his solution to the trolley problem they'd found themselves in. He didn't kill Robyn when she was stealing supplies. Ironwood has in the past hesitated to even fight his allies when he thought they were gunning for his head (turning his gun around when facing Qrow.) The motivation of 'kill the kid, get Oz back' is... Believable, but I don't think it makes the act itself fit in with the rest of Ironwood's character. And this quickly escalated into shooting the councilman who disagreed with him (when he'd only jailed Watts,) talking about torturing people, bombing people, etc. I think that from a writer standpoint, the rw//by writers used that moment to 'clue the audience in' that despite the fact that they intended for the 'fight and risk everything or take who we can and run' question to be one with no clear right or wrong... They wanted us to still see Team RWBY as the good guys and anyone who opposed them as evil. It's a little like Cordovin, they didn't actually have Team RWBY written to be right - the steal a plane plot was wholly unnecessary and their need to get over the border immediately was never grounded in anything - so they had to make the obstacle in their way an annoying irrational screaming person violently attacking them despite their uwu sad eyed pleas to just let them break the law without a fight and then also made said annoying person make jabs at Blake being a faunus. Now nobody in their right mind would want to root for her, so nobody has to think that deeply about whether or not Team RWBY's actions and stances actually make sense.

"In a trolley problem, do you save the many or the few? Johnny says save the many and David says 'have we tried hitting the trolley with baseball bats in the hopes it won't hurt anyone?' Well, Johnny is a secretly evil piece of shit who's trying to torture people and murder children, so batter up, let's go with David's plan - Oh, David and his friends put up a billboard that says 'a trolley is running amuck' and now they're drinking tea on the trolley tracks and you say that's a bad move? Well David isn't murdering children so tbh I gotta go with his plan still." That's the vibe I get from Ironwood's villainy arc.

That's my thoughts on it anyway.

[abysskeeper]

Summary: While the spark of one simple soul is reborn and reignited in the Ever After, the other remains steadfast on Remnant, holding onto a hope they both created. One he refuses to allow to burn out.

Chapter 2/2: A most sudden and glorious return

(I wrote that RG snippet and promised I would turn it into a fic…so I did. Added below and cross-posted on ff.net, but formatting is more interesting on Ao3)

Hope was a rather fickle undertaking.

After all that had happened in Atlas, after all that had happened in their ongoing journey in Vacuo, after all that had happened as time dragged them closer and closer to an ensuing war that would likely be the determining factor of all of Remnant’s fate…most days now, it felt as though he could not afford the luxury of hope.

Of course, after all that had happened, most days it also felt as though it was the only thing he could offer to those around him. Hope was the only light any of them truly had to look towards as this newly unburied war roared to life and raged on. After everything they did…after everything she did to get that message of hope out to the rest of Remnant, it was the one thing he would not—could not—let die. It was an obligation he held towards everyone else—one he chose to take on himself—and it was a task he felt was the only way to appropriately honor the missing. It was the one thing he would not give up, even on the worst days when it was as though he was running completely dry.

Well…no, that wasn’t quite right. He was not running dry, as it were. If anything, he was overflowing and slowly drowning under a steady and ever-present hope they would return. They could return, Oz confirmed that much the first night they spent in Vacuo, and knowing Team RWBY and Jaune, they would return. It was just a matter of when, a matter of if he would witness in this lifetime or the ensuing ones. But it was the only thing he desperately wished to see happen now, and knowing it was a possibility—no matter how small—was perhaps more torturous than accepting their demises in the end. While he considered himself to be a patient person, he could feel that desire steadily growing by the day, only to torment him more and more as time marched forward and no news ever came.

It was not something he could dwell on, he knew that, but still that flickering hope remained, burning brightly in the back of his mind at all times.

Oscar sighed, sinking back into his chair and staring up at the map projected before them. Ren and Headmaster Theodore were discussing all that still needed to be done to accommodate their current situation; it was a conversation that never truly ended. The current discussion had been ongoing for two days as they argued about what constituted top priority after the critical situations (city infrastructure and increased patrolling for Grimm attacks along the border) were handled. They needed to come to a decision today if they wanted to have any hope of getting ahead of the current crises at hand. The problem was that the problems were always ongoing. New issues arose every day, as they had been ever since they walked through that portal with the majority of the Atlas and Mantle populations in tow.

To his credit, Theodore had been more gracious than he needed to be given the situation they dropped on his doorstep. After sharing some words with Oz regarding his…less than enthused response in telling the world about Salem, Shade’s Headmaster was on board to help however he could. It was a relief and…nice, in a way, to be working with an official and one of Oz’s inner circle who actually listened to them and was willing to help. It was a far cry different than what happened with Lionheart and Ironwood in any case, though Oscar could admit he was really striving not to commit the same, detrimental mistakes as last time.

It helped some too that Salem had gone eerily silent after the fall of Atlas. Granted, it did little for Oscar’s nerves (and even less for Oz’s) to know she was out there and likely plotting her next moves with two Relics and a Maiden, but it was invaluable time to have and use to their advantage. And they were doing their best with it, but in the face of the looming shadow hovering over them all, it still didn’t feel like enough. There just weren’t enough hands, even with the forces from other kingdoms joining them, and there wasn’t enough time.

There never would be.

“Oscar, what do you think?”

Ren’s voice pulled him from his thoughts, and he looked between the older boy and Nora, who stood beside Ren, Emerald, who was sitting across from him, and Theo, who had pulled out his scroll and was vested in reading whatever message he just received. Admittedly, Oscar wasn’t paying much attention to the debate occurring next to him, but he didn’t really need to be either. They had been going in the same circles for two days, he already had all the arguments committed to memory. Actually, one of the few reasons they were still going at all was because no one else could come to a unified answer on where to focus next and everyone was waiting for him to issue a decision he had yet to make.

Why him specifically, he couldn’t figure out. Well…no, that wasn’t true. He knew exactly why it was falling onto his shoulders, he had willingly undertaken the role, but it was still somewhat darkly humorous to him. Months ago, it was a nearly unimaginable surprise he was able to successfully crash-land an Atlesian airship. Now, he was being asked about governing kingdoms and advanced war tactics without anyone batting an eye at the fact he was still that same, simple farm boy who grew up in Mistrali fields.

But then, he supposed he wasn’t quite that same boy anymore…and this really was an inevitability. It was the only logical conclusion to the night he woke up with Oz in his head. Still, when he dreamed of intrigue and adventure whisking him away from his boring life on the farm, this was never where he imagined ending up. He never pictured himself as a leader or someone people looked to for guidance, he wasn’t sure he wanted that as a boy. He still wasn’t sure he wanted it.

Yet, when responsibility called, he discovered Oscar Pine was not the type of person to look away.

“I don’t believe you give yourself enough credit, Oscar,” Oz spoke up, startling him slightly. Oscar had felt his presence lingering at the edges of his mind throughout the whole meeting, watching and listening silently as they debated again. Oz usually didn’t speak up during those meetings though, instead choosing to have this discussion many times over only after leaving the makeshift war room in Shade Academy.

“Leadership suits you.”

Oscar bit back the wry smile he felt twitching on his lips. Instead, he stood up and stared at the map before sliding his gaze to the details of the listed projects that still needed completing. “I don’t know if that’s a compliment.”

He would have taken it as such at one point in time. Of course, he always had an idea of the immense burden that came with leadership, but he only understood it completely in Atlas. He wouldn’t deny that witnessing Ironwood crumple under its weight shook some of his own faith in himself when it came time to make the decision to step up. He did not want to end up like the General. He didn’t want to end up like Leo, either. Hell, he didn’t even want to be like Ozpin…and maybe that was why it was ultimately so easy to step in and do what was necessary in the end.

If Oscar didn’t want to be like them, then his only choice was to do something different. And the only others who would have done something different---the ones he did look up to as examples—were…gone. They had laid the groundwork, but they were gone, and that only further solidified the fact he had no other choice. It was only right to uphold all their promises to do better and do right by Remnant, to carry that torch for them even if he might not want to.

“It is. That you say otherwise only further cements my statement,” Oz argued. He fell silent for a few moments, but Oscar could feel a nagging desire from him to say more. Finally, Oz added, “They would be proud of you, you know. Just as I am.”

He did know. Oscar heaved a sigh and gave the subtlest of nods. “Yeah. I just…miss them.”

That was the easiest way to put it, even though it was so much more than that. Oscar knew Jaune struggled with his leadership role over his team. The older boy spoke on it some, and the truth of it only became more obvious the longer Oscar spent traveling together with him and getting to know him. Yet, he also got to witness Jaune’s resolve grow and harden him into the great tactician and leader his teammates and friends knew he could be. Jaune could admit to his faults and mistakes, and he readily and eagerly learned from them so as not to repeat them. Those were all admirable traits, and desirable in the person you wanted to follow into battle.

And Ruby…well…Ruby was Ruby. She always knew just what to say and was never afraid to make the tough decisions when she needed to. She was strong, and smart, and caring, and she and Oscar were almost always on the exact same page with their next plan of action. He trusted her more than anyone else in the world. She was amazing…but Oscar could see how she struggled just as Jaune did, though perhaps with slightly different issues.

He couldn’t do much for either of them at the time, though he sought to alleviate the struggles for her…for them…whenever he could. Now though, standing in their shoes and feeling inferior, feeling as though he could never do enough and never be enough to stand against the war they were facing…feeling constantly out of time and out of options, Oscar couldn’t help but wonder how little showed through the cracks in either of them. He couldn’t help but wonder if he really did much for them at all.

“It’d be nice not to feel…quite so alone. And perhaps…apologize,” Oscar admitted. His eyes flickered down briefly in consideration. “I hope they never felt like this.” That was incredibly unlikely. “I hope I helped…at least in some small way.”

That…was probably unlikely as well, and Oz didn’t say anything else in response. All Oscar felt was a sad sort of sympathy and a few waves of guilt over being the one to place them in this situation. Over being the one to place Oscar himself in this situation, over being forced into asking children to take up the mantle in his own, personal war.

And of course, that wasn’t all of his own thoughts either, but it was the one regret Oscar allowed himself to consider. The rest he couldn’t dwell on—he didn’t allow himself to dwell on, there was too much else left to do. He didn’t…couldn’t mourn his friends, they weren’t dead. They would return, and he had to make sure there was a world left for them to return to. He promised them that.

Oscar promised himself that.

“Right. Right.”

He drew a breath and released it slowly, his hands unclenching with it after being balled into fists on the desk before him. He would ensure there was a Remnant left for them to return to, whenever that would be, which meant doing the best he possibly could now to preserve what remained. And that meant focusing on everything at hand and finally delivering a decision on how to proceed.

He gave another look through the task list in front of him and quickly narrowed it down to the three he had been internally debating over since yesterday: water well refinement, excavation of a new network of Dust caves, and accelerating the setup of weather terminals created with the help of Atlesian technicians. Disregarding military organization, which was always the utmost importance at the moment, all three would provide vast benefits to the people currently residing—or harboring, as it were for many—in Vacuo City and the surrounding settlements. It was just a matter of which was more important, providing a surplus of resources or warning against the detrimental sandstorms the Vacuo deserts saw. One of the three, he figured, had to be their next priority, and everyone else in the room seemed to agree in some form or another since these were the tasks most argued over.

Nora and Robyn believed the water systems should come first, as that would be the quickest, direct benefit to the citizens in Vacuo. Emerald argued the Dust mines should be top priority, since a larger supply of their greatest resource would provide for quicker resolutions to basically every other problem they had. Though Qrow had not voiced his thoughts, the fact he volunteered to scout the mines himself led Oscar to believe he agreed with Emerald’s take. Ren was the only one arguing for the weather terminals, as he believed a better alert system for Vacuo’s unforgiving weather should be first priority to prevent further, unnecessary tragedy. That the Atlesians claimed they could update the terminals to provide better tracking of Grimm hordes was an added bonus.

Oscar hadn’t made a decision yet, but he was leaning towards agreeing with Ren. The only thing that gave him pause was the timeframe for the terminals. If it was going to be a lengthy process, they could make do with the current system and complete the other two projects first to ensure a cushion for the citizens. And therein was the crux of the issue, there was no wrong answer, just…perhaps…a less correct one. Everything would need to be completed at some point, and everything would be completed if they did their jobs properly, but a decision had to be made as to where to start, and they were all looking to him to make it.

He agreed to be the one to make it.

With another, low breath, Oscar pointed up at the three options, highlighting them, and then turned to look at everyone else in the room. “Remind me of the timelines for these three again?” he asked.

“The Atlesian techs believe with the proper manpower behind it, systems would take two weeks at most to be online and fully operational,” Ren reported.

That was significantly quicker than Oscar was expecting, and practically solidified his position then and there. Still, something small twisted in his gut over the certainty he held for his own decision. Could he really be so sure that was the correct option? Had he earned the right yet to even be so confident in himself?

It was a reoccurring feeling that had been happening ever since they arrived in Vacuo. Ever since he agreed to step into this leadership role he now resided in. He finally parsed it out to being a combination of uncertainty and caution; uncertainty in himself and whether he had the right—the ability to call himself a leader, and a caution that persisted because of all those who came before him. Men far greater than he had made mistakes…men far greater than he had fallen completely.

But…he had made his choice, and in choosing to step up, he had made his choice over and over again. With time, the insecurity gnawing at the corners of his mind had receded some, but it had still yet to fully leave him completely.

“It likely never will,” Oz reminded him softly, “The best learn not to give it any credence, and you are quickly developing into the best, Oscar.”

Oscar bit back a snort. This hardly felt as though it was the best: kingdoms in shambles, an all-out war looming, and half their friends missing in another dimension. He was just doing what he thought he needed to in order to survive. In order for everyone to survive. In the grand scheme of things, this decision wasn’t even that pressing, and he could barely make a call.

“In a situation like this, everything feels greater than it may be. You must go one step at a time.”

Right. That was all anyone could ask for.

His eyes moved back up to the board of jobs needing completed. His mind was all but made up, but as he scanned the list again, he acknowledged he still wanted the rest of the information before he set a plan in stone. “And the other two?” Oscar asked.

After a moment of silence passed through the room, he cast another glance around at the people who were there. Of course, the other two individuals who could provide a timeline were missing. “Qrow was supposed to scout the mines, wasn’t he? And Robyn was taking the Happy Huntresses to view the wells and talk to the engineers? Where are they?”

“Robyn wanted Qrow for something,” Nora answered with a shrug. “She said it wouldn’t take that long, buuuuuuuuut…” she trailed off with another rise and fall of her shoulders.

Oscar sighed and ran a hand over his face. It would figure the moment he was finally set to make a decision, half of the information he needed wasn’t even in the room. Qrow’s findings in the mines and his estimations of how long it would take to get an excavation operation up and running would definitely shape his decision on the bottom half of the order, as would anything Robyn could provide regarding the wells and what the engineers had told her.

At least the first and foremost part of his decision was made. “Okay…well, regardless, I believe the terminals should be top priority,” Oscar said, nodding to Ren. With a flick of his finger, that objective rose to the top of the list, and he disregarded the queasiness in his stomach at finally setting up plans. A decision had to be made, and he was the kind of person to step up and take responsibility when needed.

“Knowing when the sandstorms are coming will only help the other teams plan and keep them—as well as the citizens—safe in case of a natural disaster,” he explained, “If the Atlesians can implement a better Grimm tracking system too, then even better.”

Oscar pushed himself away from the center table and stood back, pacing a little as he stared up at the other two highlighted objectives. “It’d be nice if, while the terminals are being set up, we could send a small ground team to the mines or wells to confirm either Qrow or Robyn’s findings. Planning for setup is crucial, that way we can move the moment we have spare hands…but…” he stopped his pacing and shrugged, “That depends on their findings. Whichever one will take less time should be prioritized next. I don’t want to neglect the water systems if the mines are going to be too difficult to get into safely, but having more Dust would make the repairs go quicker if we can afford it.”

Silence settled over the room yet again, and Oscar’s eyes flicked nervously from the task list to everyone else. The logic made sense, didn’t it? Safety should come first, and with the terminals up and running that would mean any other objective would be less impeded by surprise weather conditions. After that, it was just a matter of managing time, which they would never have enough of, but they had to do what they could with what they were afforded.

After another beat, it was Ren who nodded at him with a smile. “Should we go find Qrow and Robyn then?” he suggested.

“As I said, leadership suits you.”

Oscar huffed and barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes. Relief flooded into him that they all agreed though, and he spared a glance at Theo, who was already busy on his scroll, likely figuring out which teams and Hunters to allocate to the weather terminals.

“I think so, yes,” Oscar said finally, his gaze sliding back to Ren, “We need their reports.”

“Then let’s go find them!” Nora announced. She jumped to her feet and was already half-way out the door when she added, “We’ve already been here for hours…days! The sooner we can finalize this the sooner we can start actually doing something!”

He could understand the sentiment, actually doing something was what they wanted to be doing. It meant they were no longer sitting idle and instead were actually helping those around them. Those whom they swore to help and protect. Ren and Emerald seemed to agree as well, as they both immediately got up and followed after Nora out the door.

Oscar made it halfway around the table himself before sparing one more glance towards the Headmaster in the room. Theo had been particularly quiet this whole meeting and he wasn’t sure what that meant. He found he often still had trouble reading the older man, and he wanted to make sure this was alright with him before proceeding further.

“Does this work for you?” Oscar asked, unable to contain some of his wariness, “You’ve been…rather quiet with your input.”

“It works fine,” Theo answered. He cast his eyes upwards from his scroll, piercing Oscar with his gaze for one, long moment before returning to whatever it was that he was doing. “Now that we have a focus, I intend on doing just that.”

“Right,” Oscar nodded, unsure what to make of that or how else to reply. “So…we’ll be back within the hour to finish everything up?” he asked, somewhat sheepish.

“Go,” Theo responded, dismissing him with a wave of his hand, “I’ll have the Hunter assignments ready when you return.”

That he did know how to respond to. “Thanks,” Oscar nodded with a smile.

When Theo made it apparent he wasn’t going to add anything else, Oscar turned and hurried after the others. It didn’t take long to catch up to them, as they had stopped to wait for him not too far from the doorway.

“We all good in there?” Emerald asked, pointing her chin towards the war room.

“Yeah, I think so,” Oscar nodded. He came to a stop and glanced over his shoulder before adding, “He’ll have the assignments done by the time we get back, which probably means we have some time…I guess?” He turned back to the other three with a shrug, “So…we have no idea where Qrow or Robyn went?”

“Nope,” Nora answered.

“We figured we would check the upper balcony first,” Ren supplemented her answer, “Qrow usually flies back through there when he knows he’s running late. And if we have the time, we could all probably use some air.”

It was a subtle shift since Atlas, but since they had arrived in Vacuo, Ren had become increasingly…nurturing, in a way, towards the rest of the group. He was the one to insist and ensure everyone took breaks and remembered the outside world…well…existed. He reminded them they were only human, and could only do so much in a single day.

For the longest time, it felt as though that was Oscar’s primary duty to his friends, and he had enjoyed it immensely. He wasn’t particularly fond of how that had been slipping away from him in Vacuo, but he wasn’t necessarily surprised by it. The longer they were there, the longer he spent performing this new role, the easier it was becoming to forget about the simpler necessities. He found time passed him by much quicker now, and his days often stretched well beyond his usual bedtime and were filled with nothing but strategies for wars and governments. It had become a new routine for him to plan, train, and eat during his waking hours with not much else happening in between.

It was only the first time when he inevitably forgot to eat that Ren finally stepped in.

So, while most of him longed to take the quickest route possible in tracking down Qrow and Robyn, and a part of him was clawing to get back to finalizing and implementing their next course of action, Oscar acknowledged it was for the best to also take a break. As Nora had already pointed out, they had been going at it for days now. It would only help them to take a moment to breathe and enjoy the mid-morning sun before it got too unbearably hot outside.

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” Oscar agreed, and they started making their way to the other end of the hall. “Maybe if we wait a while and he still doesn’t show up we can give him a call,” he added as they reached the door to go outside, “Better signal out there…so long as there isn’t a sandstorm.”

Emerald snorted, “I know you want to update the terminals, but you’d know by now if there was a sandstorm at least.”

“If there was a sandstorm, I don’t think any of us would be intent on opening that door,” Ren pointed out as Oscar’s hand hovered over the handle.

“None of us want to relive our first greeting to Vacuo’s desert,” Oscar agreed, choosing not to dwell on the fact there were many, far greater reasons as to why none of them wanted to relive that day. The sandstorm on the other side of the portal barely reached the top ten reasons.

Instead, he pushed open the door and was greeted by the heat of Vacuo’s mid-morning air immediately rushing around him. It wasn’t gritty with sand particles at least, and it the heat wasn’t too unbearable yet, but given the time of morning and the temperature already, it promised to be another scorching day in just a few more hours. Oscar couldn’t help the small groan of complaint that escaped him. Mistral summers most definitely got hot, but he wasn’t sure if he would ever be used to this.

“Oh come on, it isn’t that bad,” Emerald teased. Out of all of them, she was naturally the most accustomed to Vacuo’s climate.

“I’m gonna be melting by noon!” Nora whined as they stepped outside, “Qrow better be nearby, or I swear I’ll…oh!” she cut herself off as they all immediately caught sight of the figure leaning against the balcony. “Never mind. Hey, Qrow!” she called out to the man, “Are you coming to this meeting or—” Her question was abruptly cut off with a gasp, and out of the corner of his eye, Oscar saw her bring her hands to her mouth.

The atmosphere around the balcony seemed to still, and while the heat still hung oppressively over them all, the charge that surged through the air had nothing to do with Vacuo’s dry heat or its propensity for the occasional storm. He followed Nora’s wide-eyed gaze past Qrow’s back and watched as a blinding flash of light sliced its way through the space on the far end of the balcony, like it was cutting through time and distance itself. A resounding, sturdy boom echoed slightly around them as the air shimmered and ripped apart, and then closed just as easily. And standing in place of that blinding light stood five individuals, a young woman in a red hood and with beautiful silver eyes standing front and center of them all.

Oscar’s heart hammered in his chest three times and then forgot to beat altogether. No way…

A moment of silence passed around them. And then another, and then another. Every last bit of breath had evacuated Oscar’s lungs, and he almost forgot how to replace it. He was certain Ren, Nora, and Emerald were all staring exactly as he was, slack-jawed and unable to believe their eyes, while the group of their missing friends stared back at them, smiling.

He couldn’t help it, the longer he stared at the group, the more his eyes roved over each of their missing friends, cataloguing their appearance, checking for injuries, checking for…he didn’t even know. After he finished with each of them the first time, he made a second pass, and then a third. And then a fourth, and a fifth. Perhaps he had grown too accustomed to catastrophes and problems in need of fixing, but the more he stared, the more he was prepared for anything else but the easiest answer that was standing before him. The answer he had been hoping for for months.

He was trying to find something that pointed to this all being an illusion, a simple trick of the light or some cruel joke. Or, even worse, an ambush by Salem using their own loved ones against them. It was way too normal of a day, way too sudden to have the people he had been longing for—the friends they all missed so, so terribly—magically appearing before them again as if nothing ever happened in the first place. As if months hadn’t passed by, and the hole created in their absence hadn’t grown bigger with each passing day.

This couldn’t be real. There had to be a catch, there was always a catch.

“Perhaps it is alright to trust your own eyes and instincts,” Oz whispered in his mind, surprisingly chipper compared to his usual self, “They’ve served you well enough thus far.”

Maybe…just maybe this time, Oz was right. Maybe it was alright. Maybe there was no catch and maybe, just this once, they were lucky enough to have half their problems solved by magic.

Logically, he conceded it only made sense. How else would they have returned from the Ever After?

Oscar swallowed back a swell of emotions and shot a wide-eyed glance at Nora, who was teary eyed and grinning and bouncing on the balls of her feet in badly contained glee. “They’re really back?” he asked quietly, needing at least one confirmation that those around him were also experiencing this. He needed to know he hadn’t finally cracked under the pressure.

Her blue eyes flicked between him and Ren for a second, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the other boy nod. “They’re really back,” Ren agreed just as softly.

“They’re really back!” Nora exclaimed. Without another warning, she launched herself at top speed at the group and threw herself at Jaune, excited giggles escaping her the entire way.

It was enough to shake Ren out of his stupor, at least. “Nora…Nora! You have no idea how they’re faring!” he chided, rushing after her. Though, Oscar did not miss the way his feet seemed lighter in the way the older boy was almost floating as he carried himself to their friends. Nor did he miss the grin that lit up Ren’s face.

It was…real, then. Their missing teammates…their missing friends were really, truly back on Remnant. Oscar stood there, momentarily rooted to the spot by an overwhelming sense of relief that washed over every inch of his body. It was a feeling quickly burned away by an intense jubilation. They’d really made it back. The hope he’d held for the last several months had finally, finally paid off.

“Your faith in them has never been misplaced before.”

No, no it had never been misplaced. Time and again they proved it was never misplaced.

But this was a miracle to pull off, even for them. Returning to Remnant was always a possibility, Oz assured that, but even with all of his hope, even with all of his faith and trust in RWBY and Jaune, Oscar knew it was not an easy task that laid before them. It was not an easy task before either group, really, but returning from another place? Another dimension altogether? Alyx fell through the world and returned, but the journey was long and arduous. He didn’t doubt it was any different for them, but they were back now. They were back now, and of course there was no warning, of course it was sudden and magical coming from the place they were, and of course it felt like something reignited the moment he saw—

A nudge against his shoulder pulled Oscar from his thoughts. He blinked and tilted his head to find Emerald’s amused red eyes staring back at him. “You gonna just stand there staring all day?” she asked and nudged him forward, “Or are you actually gonna go say hi to the friends you’ve been waiting on for months?”

Right, right.

He chuckled at himself and nodded in confirmation that she was correct, he was going to go reunite with his friends. “Thanks,” he muttered softly to Emerald and turned back to the rest of their newly returned group.

It was at that moment Ruby turned towards him after surviving a bear hug from Nora, and his gaze locked with those silver eyes that spent a good portion of the last few months haunting his memories.

A feeling unlike anything else welled up in his stomach and started blooming in his chest, causing it to constrict as the emotion took over. This was something altogether new and exciting and…yes, he had been long for this moment for months, but this emotion ran so much deeper than his simple joy at finally being reunited with his friends. This was deeply…deeply personal, and admittedly had probably taken root from thoughts he refused to linger on, or even acknowledge, during the months of their absence.

And perhaps he should have given them some consideration, because now he felt like he was practically boiling over with those feelings coming back with a vengeance while he finally shared a smile with the girl he had been waiting for until the ill-contained giddiness consumed him in full.

“Ruby!”

His feet moved before his mind caught up, before her name was even fully out of his mouth. Oscar was glad everyone was back—overjoyed beyond words—but he wouldn’t deny that seeing her specifically standing on the balcony of Shade Academy, alive and whole and looking even better than the visage of her he seared into his memory, caused his heart to soar to new heights. And he should temper himself, he should, but in that singular moment everything was right again.

For just one moment, nothing else in the world mattered but the fact Ruby Rose and her team had returned.

She started at the sound of her name, but barely had the chance to respond before Oscar was in front of her and enveloping her in his embrace. She was here, she was real, he could feel her warmth and the softness of her skin and the tautness of developed muscle as he pulled her close.

“Ruby,” he sighed, nearly unable to think of anything else to say but the chant of her name repeating over and over in his mind, “You’re here. You’re back.”

For a long moment, she didn’t respond to him. She just stood somewhat stiff in his arms, as if she were surprised by his outburst. And perhaps in his excitement he overstepped—he should have tempered himself—but before he could pull away and ask if everything was alright, Ruby’s arms circled around his back and gripped at his shirt, tugging him just as close.

“Oscar,” she breathed softly. He could feel her smile into his shirt. “I’m glad to see you too.”

If he were more cognizant of his surrounding, he perhaps would have paid more mind to the few pairs of eyes turning to them. But as it were, all he cared about was the fact the young Huntress Ruby Rose returned. The only thing he was aware of was her presence being near once more. And the longer they stood there in Vacuo’s morning sun, holding onto each other like their lives depended on it, the more he became aware of her stature as it started to fall apart. There was a small tremble here, a shake there, and then suddenly a dampness on his tunic.

Was she…? Well, if he were being honest, as he turned his gaze to the ceiling, a few tears pricked the edges of his eyes too. It was an overwhelming wave of joy and heartbreak, immense relief and finally an acknowledgement of all the stress and fear he had been holding at bay for them. For her.

“I’m so, so glad you’re back,” Oscar murmured to her. On instinct, before he could even think better of it, one of his hands moved to cup the back of her head, and he shifted just enough to place a kiss on her temple.

Ruby stilled. “O-Oscar…?” she asked quietly and pulled away from him, just enough to stare up at him with wide, teary eyes. She didn’t utter another word, but the way she said his name was more than enough to imply what she was asking.

“Oh! I…uh—"

Heat flared in his cheeks, and he pulled his hand away from her to awkwardly rub at his neck. Why had he done that? No…no he knew exactly why he’d done that, but why had he done it to Ruby? A faint laugh echoed in his head, and he rolled his eyes as he glanced away from her.

“Shut up,” he groused. That only encouraged a louder laugh.

“—Sorry,” Oscar said with a sheepish grin, returning his gaze to Ruby, “That was always how my aunt greeted me when she returned home from a long trip to Mistral or some such. Guess I just got a little carried away…”

It was what he was used to, a common gesture he was comfortable sharing amongst loved ones. Admittedly, he had no intention of doing it with anyone else outside his family—it was weird to do with friends, wasn’t it?—but it came so easily to him in that moment he didn’t even question it until she did. It was instinctive, second nature…like so many things were when it came to Ruby. Like it was proper, correct in a way he couldn’t quite describe and that…well.

That was the truth he had been ignoring for months. It was a truth he would address at a later date.

Ruby continued examining him, and he did not miss the storm that crossed her face as her pretty silver eyes drifted downwards, over his neck and chest, and then back up. He had half a mind to ask what was wrong, but before he could open his mouth she flashed him a soft smile, and for the second time in the past twenty minutes, all the air escaped from his lungs. She moved closer again, wrapping her arms around him once more and resuming their hug.

“It’s okay,” Ruby whispered, “I’m glad to be back too.”

Oscar breathed a sigh of relief. “Ok…thank goodness,” he chuckled and eased back into her embrace.

The last thing he wanted to do was make her uncomfortable, or make things awkward the moment she returned home, but the feelings welling up and springing forth inside his heart were almost too much to keep completely contained. And as he wrapped his arms around her again, the desire to lean down and kiss her flared up again. In part, to prove to himself that she was, truly there in his arms, and in part to prove to her that he was there too. That no matter what happened to her and no matter what came next, he was there and ready and able to stand by her side and help.

“Ruby?” Oscar asked and swallowed back a new lump of emotions growing in his throat. “Can I…would you mind if I did it again?”

She chuckled, he felt the small shake in her shoulders, and the sound did more to soothe his nerves than anything had since Oz first popped into his head. “Yeah, you can,” Ruby agreed and turned her head up to peek one silver eye up at him. A faint dusting of red covered her cheeks. “I…think I’d like that.”

“Thank you,” he whispered, unable to contain his grin. He moved again, brushed a few strands of hair out of her face, and pressed another soft kiss to her temple. This time, instead of pulling away, her grip around him tightened. “Welcome home, Ruby Rose.”    

[lore-of-the-silvereyes-rwby]

Hi! Hope you're doing okay. What is your opinion on Ozpin and his relationships, especially with Qrow? Do you think there's a chance of reconciliation between the two of them in the next Volume? Of so, how would that happen? Can you do an analysis on Ozpin like you did on Ironwood, or is that focus only reserved for your fave? Do you think Qrow was right that meeting Ozpin was the worst luck he ever had, and if so or not, why? How do you think those two would progress onward? How come you haven't done the other analyses list on Ironwood you noted to yourself? Sleep on time!

I’m doing well,all things considered. 

As for Ozpin’s relationship with Qrow and others well this may require meta and fourth dimensional thinking that I believe people should consider and factor into understanding Ozpin and by extension the Ozma soul and all of Ozpin’s predecessors. Even though the body and soul is a new host, the Ozma soul(s) that merged with them are not and carry over past memories and feelings of their past life. Because of that its a safe bet to say that everyone that the man with two souls has ever befriended and encountered they will eventually outlive and never see again. Causing great grief and heartache.

Even though reincarnation is different it is in a way a form of immortality and because of that the Ozma soul has outlived and is still going to outlive everyone he has ever met and befriended. Which will one day include (assuming the Salem conflict is resolved) the main characters of RWBY and their children and so on and so forth. So if I were to honestly say anything about the dynamic of any of Ozpin’s relationships, at best their just professional work relationships that are unified by a common cause to which he gives proper credit and respect to but nothing more and nothing less.

As for reconciliation between Qrow and Ozpin in the next volume it depends on whether or not Team RWBY specifically Yang and Ruby make it back to remnant before Qrow gets to Vacuo because last time we saw Qrow he was panicking about whether or not they made it out of Atlas before it crashed. So if Qrow gets to Vacuo before RWBY return, Qrow’s going to be under the impression that they are dead and most likely is going to hold Oz accountable but this time it may be a bit worse than the fall out of V6

I’ve been planning an Ozpin analysis for a long time but at the moment the next big analysis series that I’ve worked on was on Ruby but i’ll get there. Side note I wouldn’t say Ironwood was my favorite and the only reason why he was my first analysis was because of the discord and hatred this character brought to the fandom and I felt that I should try my best to attempt to provide a fair and honest argument and analysis of his character to at least minimize all the ignorant and misplaced blame that most of the toxic people in the fandom favor if it means that Ironwood was justified and should have been the main character based on meaningless facts ad opinions.

No if anything Oz was the best thing that could have ever happened to a person like him and even though I like Qrow it should be said that this guy seeks validation and acknowledgement more than anything and just by saying that he himself just admitted that wouldn’t have done anything good if it meant that it was all for nothing. To put it in perspective, imagine if Qrow found this out around the time of Summer’s disappearance and before he saves Yang and Ruby from Beowolves? If that were the case theres a very good chance that Qrow wouldn’t have save Yang and Ruby and would have likely let them die seeing it as pointless.

Again depending on whether or not RWBY return from Tatoonie their relationship going forward would just be professional Ozpin’s not his friend he’s a guide and right now his priority is Salem, not helping Qrow with his self esteem issues

As for why I haven’t done any other analysis or theory posts like I did for Ironwood or the ones that I said I would do, It’s just simply that life got in the way as when I wrote the Ironwood analysis series the pandemic more or less gave me time to focus and write it out and since then I got into med school had a death in the family enduring through family grief and lost that followed finding out that several of my neighbors are bad people helping my parents and siblings with the house and school failing the original course I went to med school for and then switching to another program. The house that my grandmother, my aunt, and cousins were living in caught fire and I had to help with that, and got covid soon after, enduring fires and flooding on the highway that I take to school, helping an old friend and her baby get away from her abusive family and currently right now as I write this I have about two weeks of school left before finals for the last term for this program so my priorities are more or less focused on this as I’m this close to graduating. Also I’m studying to be a Polysomnographic Technician so my sleep schedule is more or less warped and I’m mostly supposed to be awake all night for the clinical internships for this career.

Sorry for the delay but here is my response to your questions.

[that-geek-bliss]

Who I think could be the summer maiden.

Now I know this subject isn’t really relevant right now but I was rewatching clips for the show and the subject came to mind.

Now we know that Oz and qrow knew who all the maidens are (minus spring at the time but obviously we know that now).

I’m going to go ahead and say who I think it is before I go any further: I think the summer maiden is Glynda. Oz kept her as his side I don’t think as just a secretary or assistant but I believe she took on that role because of her personality or to cover up her identity. If we compare the two of them to another set in another kingdom: ironwood and winter, we can see that it makes sense for the people in charge of the vaults and schools to keep the “keys” close. Now I know we know very little bout Glinda at this point but I think that’s because the plot isn’t reliant on going back to beacon just yet. But I have a hunch that our good witch Glynda might be the last of the maidens to be introduced.

I mean…we’ve noticed her symbol looks suspiciously like one of the relics. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the one she’s connected to.

Also I posted this on Reddit and immediately had someone say “Oz would’ve mentioned that”

He wouldnt. It’s been established that the man has trust issues. He’s been betrayed A LOT. To date and to our knowledge, he’s the only one who knows where the beacon relic is. The characters had to ask an otherworldly being created by GODS to get the man to open up about ANYTHING going on.

Long story short: I think Glynda is the summer maiden.

[bestworstcase]

Ancillary to the posts about wet paper bag oz: I would love to see a RWBY prequel special or something set during the great war? I would bet REAL LIFE DOLLARS whatever he did with the sword was also when he finally had to admit that Salem was right all those years ago, and it fucked him up so bad we got the weak attempt at unification via the huntsman system and his next incarnation disassociating on the regular.

I am rattling him like a cookie jar. What horrors have you seen old man.

i think about this SO much. like

The King of Vale personally led his army into battle alongside the soldiers of Vacuo and decimated the enemy forces. Crown atop his head and armed only with a sword and his scepter, he laid waste to countless men. As the sand was soaked red with blood, the Grimm came in droves. It was the single deadliest battle of the war, and legends of the greatness and terror of the Warrior King were born that day. Historians will tell you that most of these stories are nothing but grandiose hyperbole. Unusually violent weather conditions, combined with Mantle's unfamiliarity with desert combat, are likely what led to such a high death count. But whatever the reasoning, everyone bowed to the King of Vale by the time it was over. The Great War had ended. The world was ready to live under the rule of Vale. But the King refused.

laughs weakly. this is a war that began with oz rolling out a welcome mat for mistrali colonists in his own kingdom, ignoring the protestations of his own people, so desperate was he to avoid an armed conflict. (with… the imperial power busily conquering his kingdom wshgfk OZMA. PLEASE.)

ten years later he ends it doing… that. the great war broke something in him sure as sure. i think that final battle was his:

“you said we had to bring humanity together; in order to do that, we have to spread our word, and destroy those who would deny it”

decimated the enemy forces. the sand was soaked red with blood and the grimm came in droves. the single deadliest battle in a war that lasted ten years. unusually violent weather conditions. the greatness and terror of the warrior king… who laid waste to countless men and routed every army on that battlefield. even his ally surrendered.

it’s also. well. the great war. extremely pointed thing to call your fictional global war that happened 80-90 years ago, following a century marked by increasing global tensions and smaller scale conflicts between imperial powers, and is now remembered for precipitating a devastating military arms race, the complete destruction of innumerable settlements, and ending with a treaty that "redistributed territories" ie gave independence to vacuo and menagerie as new sovereign states. oh, and an indeterminate amount of time later there was a second huge war that is now remembered for [checks notes] …the genocide.

glances at modern history. ok.

glances at

this nonsense also, courtesy of general "never fought a war but rules the country that made cosplaying the great war its whole national identity" ironwood.

it was trench warfare. that broke him. king oz sat in the trenches under never-ending artillery bombardment watching soldiers die by the thousands in a miserably futile grinding war of attrition for ten years until he shattered and personally slaughtered more people than had died in any single battle in ten years of TRENCH WARFARE with the divine relic of destruction. the war to end all wars, right?

and then—if it didn’t happen within that lifetime—he reincarnated to humankind being "quite, quite adamant about centralizing the faunus population in menagerie" (😶) and consequently another major war lasting at least three years.

what horrors has he seen, indeed.

tiny tdt draft snippet because when i say i think about this a LOT… ->

“I…” Wetting his lips, Osiander rasps, “want to put an end to war.” “You’ll need to consult my sisters,” the spirit says without inflection. “Abstractions are not in my purview.” Of course. There’s a poisoned laugh caught between his ribs, a bubble of reckless despair; he shuts his eyes, and grits his teeth, and grinds out, “This war, then.” “Narrower.” “I want,” Salem, indifferent, advising him to crush those who would not see reason. Salem asking him to try. Paradise. He chokes back a sob. “To rout every army on this battlefield,” he says. “I want a victory so absolute that it cannot be answered by anything less than unconditional surrender to myself, personally. I would end this, here and now.”

he’s fine. he’s fine

[lunatriense]

1, 2, 10, 11

1 and 2 answered here.

10. Most disliked arc? Why?

Wow, this is a tough one. I kinda want to just say 'the Shadow War arc' because tbh I haven't liked where the show has gone since v3, which was introduced in the middle of v3, but that's a pretty big cop out. There are certainly parts that are worse than others, even if I don't like the whole lot of it post-Beacon. Sooooo I'm gonna go with Atlas. The Atlas arc wasn't just bad, it was egregiously awful. It completely threw aside Weiss' character plot. It assassinated Ironwood's character so thoroughly that fucking Cassius must've been in the writing room with MKEK. It sidelined the main villain when she finally made her debut on the stage.

It relied on multiple dei ex machina to get out of writing jams, and still took the girls to goddamned wonderland.

With Jaune!!

After it glorified assisted suicide!!!!

Uwe Boll could write better than this. Tommy Wiseau could write better than this. They could write better on meth, having not slept for a week straight, when they were in middle school!!!

11. Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

Yeah, a few of them, or at least a few that I think are unpopular. Sienna, cause she's right about everything and also has a killer design and should've been much better utilised. Ironwood, cause he's right about everything (up until the v8 cartoon villain light switch flip), had an real plan, and sends actual soldiers to fight instead of first year students as his personal disposable minions mission team. Hazel, cause he beat the shit out of Oz; yes, I'm petty and want him to suffer regardless of who he's bodyjacked. The Malachite twins, I just like their style.

Send me a number!