#ruby volume two

[feelingvoguish]

Volume 6 was FEEDING me as a WhiteRose fan fr‼️🙏

[chaikachi]

How Oscar's Volume 8 & Ruby's Volume 9 Stories Mirror Each Other

They both "fall" in the previous season's finale.

Point of View Framing when they're both in moments of intense stress.

Hound created by Salem vs. Cat created by Brother Gods as antagonists.

Isolated from their friends and brought right to the enemy's lair (Oscar kidnapped and brought without choice vs. Ruby choosing to leave but finding her way there by chance).

Both having to go a large portion of their respective volumes without their weapons.

Physical torture vs. psychological torture.

Both at the hands of enemies from their past (Oscar V4-5 + Oz's history with Hazel and Salem vs. Ruby V1-3 with Torchwick and Neo).

Illusionist that helps vs. illusionist that harms.

Happy reunion, vs. horrifying reunion

Explosion of gold vs. silver magic when escaping.

"I was stupid to think the General would listen. Every choice I've made was the wrong one, and now-" vs. "I just wanted to do the right thing but every step of the way it's like there is no right thing. I tried so hard... and I may have just done more harm than good."

"I started to feel like me. Not the same me I was before all of this, but... the me I always wanted to be." vs. "I don't understand who I need to be. Because who I am right now... she's not cutting it."

"Our souls are still on the inevitable path to becoming one." / "But I don't want that." (alternatively: "I'm just going to be another one of his lives, aren't I?" circa v5) vs. "What if you could be anyone?"

"She wasn't the same girl anymore." vs. "I don't want to be me anymore."

[rubyreadd]

Switching into past tense for a flashback when I am a devout active present tense believer is a deeply upsetting experience

[kradsile]

I finished Volume 9 of RWBY today, and man oh fucking BOY... It was great. Isn't it wonderful what you can achieve when you focus on the character(s) the show was meant to be about in the first place?

So many wonderful moments fresh in my mind still. First off, I loved the decision (and this is a small thing, I know) to not just start off from Ruby's POV, but for her to not speak in the first few minutes. Cause CRWBY's real good at characters who don't talk at all. Speaking of, Neo's here too! Hurray! She brought my favorite (and objectively the best) antagonist back! Yippie!

And did y'all see the setting this time around?? RWBY trapped in a fairy tale world?? "Peak Fiction?!" I screamed aloud at the beautiful vista they showed at the end of episode 1. There's a looootttttaaaa potential here. And they delivered.

Time skip! Herbalist. Gods. Herbalist. I love you. The contrast between R and WBY is another fantastic moment that I'll remember. Just hearing Shadow Ruby (that's her name now you can't change my mind) asking "So? You wanna be a huntress?" with that uncanny, exaggerated cheerful disposition. As if it was mocking the Ruby Rose of today.

Which... leads me to my next point. So. We all know that RWBY Vol. 1-3 is simply the pinnacle of everything. We all read the rules in the Grimmoire when joining the Church of Remnant, and it clearly states that RWBY's first three seasons simply cannot be outmatched. Right? Right.

Anyhooo... I am always reminded by that one scene where Ruby and Jaune talk about being team leaders. Basically, Ruby firmly tells Jaune to man up, and to act like a leader should. And I think about that scene a lot. Every time I see Ruby act in the exact opposite way from Vol. 4 and onwards, I have that scene in the back of my head. As I watched, season after season it felt less and less like RWBY. What I mean by that is, of course, no fight scenes that made me shit my pants or whip my nanaes (Yang vs. Neo, Vytal Festival, the classics) but what was the worst part of it was that I felt less and less like I knew Ruby. The... "Supposed". Main character.

So imagine my joy when we got a character arc FOR RUBY. FUCKING. ROSE.

....And imagine my shock when it turned out not to be an arc. But a full circle.

Last thoughts: I may rewrite this or post another one of these a few years from now where I fully debunk my thoughts in a cohesive, coherent manner and show contextually appropriate images and whatnot but right now I MUST get my thoughts out into the aether. I SIMPLY MUST. Anyyyhooo...

Here's a thought. Isn't it a funny coincidence that RWBY goes downhill the moment Torchwick dies? Then 4-5 seasons of constant Salem (more like Soylem, gotem) and Ozpin and Relics bullshit?

And whaddya know, they do a shorter season again. With only 10 episodes. Focusing mainly on Team. RWBY. The new characters are just enough in quantity, and they've been cooked just right. The climax is approaching, and Neo finds Ruby all alone. And then he appears. The antagonist to have started it all. Suddenly, it makes sense why RWBY's good again.

They brought Roman Torchwick back.

Hail to the king, baby.

[magentacat]

I honestly don't know what's my deal with bad series, but I'm down to two heavy video essays about how many problems RWBY had. Both as a series, riddled with terrible writing, and the abuse the artists behind it were put through under Rooster Teeth's abysmal management.

And yet, all both videos have accomplished was to spark all of my curiosity to retake vol 4 (where I left it some years ago) and see where it was going.

Smarter people than I: "This series sucks."

Me: "Well, now I have to watch it."

[kkglinka]

If the huntsmen academies are summer schools, with active classes between spring and fall, which is what we see on screen vs off the cuff convention panel answers; and three of the characters are 17 and one 15, with established birthdates; yang is the oldest member of team rwby, and turned 18 during the semester break, hence her comment to her father about being an adult.

Likewise, ruby turned 16 in early fall. If legal ages of consent are similar to the usa and europe, she would have enough autonomy to travel on her own. Blake turns 18 during middle winter in samus/anima but high summer in menagerie. Meanwhile, weiss was still 17 in late winter/early spring, which is why jacques was able to legally control her.

[squipedmew]

Ruby stares back at her, eyes upturned in concern. “Hey,” She starts. “Whatever’s on your mind, you can say it. I promise, I’m not gonna get mad.” She can’t promise that. “...Are you sure?” Penny mumbles. “Of course!” Ruby replies, a bit of her old spark returning to her face. “We’re friends. Whatever it is, I’ll listen.” Penny looks down, eyes flitting over the point of contact between her and Ruby. There’s a lump in her throat, despite that being impossible. She just needs to ask the question. She just needs to- “...Do you promise?” Ruby tilts her head in confusion. “Promise what?” She asks. “...Promise that you will not get upset.” Penny replies.

IT'S DONNNNEEEEEE

[bobauthorman]

As a result of their experiences, Team Remnant have become Discworld-Atheists; They know gods exist, but refuse to pray to them.

[lemonswrite-sing]

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love White Rose. Their dynamic of rivals to partners is just so cute and all.

But I really love the chemistry between Ruby and Penny! They are just always so comfortable with each other and just plain old adorable! I first started out with it being a minor ship in my brain, but when Volume 9 showed Ruby’s reaction to Penny’s I couldn’t help it; they just took over my heart. I’m so sad that we won’t be able to see any more of their dynamic, but at the same time it was so refreshing to watch Ruby morn Penny. It just shows us how much Penny really means to Ruby, and it made me cry when I realized that Ruby never got to say goodbye. She went through so much just to have Penny stay by her side, only for all that effort gone when Penny died not much later.

I can’t imagine the pain that Ruby had when she heard the news. Imagine being able to save your friend that you lost once, hoping not to lose them again, only for you to lose them immediately. Permanently. And right after the news, everyone around her acts like nothing has happened. They just started to make jokes and act all happy, ignoring how the news affected Ruby. I mean she literally passed out when she got the news, and team RWBY didn’t think that it was a clear sign of emotional distress!

I don’t blame Ruby one bit for going off on everyone when she did, in fact I’m surprised that she didn’t say anything earlier with all the crap that she was going through!

Now I absolutely love team RWBY with all my heart, they are all dorks and deserve all the happiness in the world. But I just can’t help but feel bitter about how they went about Ruby’s mental health.

Anywho somehow my rant about how much I love Ruby and Penny turned into a bitter rant about team RWBY….

Just wanted to say that I love those two!!!

They are just so cute!!!

[maripr]

From my Twitter. I want to see this trio in action.

[tecnestheim962]

I got my phone out to look up chemistry stuff for an exam I have tomorrow and I got distracted for 30 minutes by Rosegarden smh

[rwby-is-the-best]

ruby rose is a Vtuber now. straight up. here's one of her promo videos and a link to her twitch account

[xxspellbloxedxx]

Tawny dance redo

[yangscowlick]

I still have an underlying gripe with the throughline of Vol 9 in so much of it in hinging on this idea that WBY weren’t noticing what Ruby was going through and that they didn’t have reason to because she’s always been the one to pick the team up and power through.

Because like…Ruby feeling crushed by leadership or experiencing self doubt is something a lot of characters have noticed the previous two volumes AND have acted on?

Qrow sees her sitting by herself when they get licensed and give her a pep talk.

Blake sees Ruby doubting their choices and the situation and gives her a pep talk.

Ruby has an outburst and throws her hands up and Yang runs after her and gives her a pep talk.

Weiss doesn’t get a chance to talk to Ruby, but she’s consistently one of the most emotionally perceptive characters in the show.

And I’m sure you could argue that some elements of each pep talk were inadvertently harmful (feeding into Summer hero worship, making her someone they all look up to, etc), but they aren’t mind readers and that’s not my point.

My point is that Vol 9 had to turn WBY oblivious or constantly introduce narrative contrivances to get Ruby to where she was in Ep 7. And it’s nothing new — you’re going to see the marionette strings in most puppet shows. But it’s just a bit…clumsy, and I think was a bit unfair to WBY.

[nekoprankster218]

slowly catching up with Vol 9 and current headcanon is that the tea party scene was Neo projecting onto Ruby, based purely on the fact that every time she used her clones to throw an accusation, I was thinking, "but that's because you and your buddies caused that in the first place!!" idk she's giving me the vibes of someone who's been unloved & mistreated and has chosen to cope by being purposefully destructive and projecting the guilt of those actions onto others so she doesn't have to think about it herself. but now she's gotten rid of her main scapegoat...

note that I haven't read the book about roman and her because. I literally didn't know it existed before.