#rwby fairy tales of remnant

[anthurak]

Something I’ve always thought was the most interesting takeaway from watching The Girl in the Tower was that it REALLY got me thinking about all the actual parallels that can be drawn between Salem and RUBY.

Because as far as RWBY villains go, Cinder acts as the diametric, ideological opposite and foil to Ruby: The girl who strives to see the best in people and the world and is practically the embodiment of optimism and positivity pitted against a girl who is the product of all the WORST parts of humanity, has known nothing BUT negativity and pain her entire life and embodies negativity and cynicism as much as Ruby embodies positivity.

But the more information we get, I’m thinking that Salem on the other hand might well be Ruby’s evil counterpart. Whereas Ruby and Cinder are practically opposites, Ruby and Salem are looking to be all too similar.

For one, just look at how The Girl in the Tower emphasizes Salem’s love of books and stories, just as Ruby does. It seems that both Ruby and Salem grew up enamored with stories of heroes and adventures and were inspired by those stories to go out and have adventures themselves.

And when we look at just what they have done, I think we see that Ruby and Salem actually have very similar abilities. For one, both have shown to be quite capable at rallying followers to a cause. Salem was able to rally all of humanity to take up arms against the Gods in her time, just as Ruby is working to rally all of humanity in her time against Salem. And just as Ruby has drawn a close nit group of trusted friends to her side, so too does Salem draw in a select group of loyal followers.

Not to mention both Ruby and Salem have shown themselves to be quite adept at not only inspiration, but manipulation as well. One of Salem’s greatest strengths has always been her ability to manipulate and exploit the flaws of her enemies, subtly undermining them and turning them against themselves and each other. A skill that Ruby has likewise displayed several times in recent volumes. From baiting Cordovin into revealing her mech’s weakpoint with a heroic speech, to breaking up the Ace Ops in their fight so she and her team could pick them off one-by-one, to basically playing Ironwood like a fiddle in the gambit to save Penny and evacuate Mantle and Atlas.

Heck, when we see Ruby and Salem finally meet in person, Ruby basically uses a number of Salem’s own tricks against her. Ruby even needles Salem’s insecurities by bringing up the Lamp and how ‘we’ve seen you fail’. When you actually put Salem’s ‘Just accept your ----- and this can all be over’ and Ruby’s ‘We don’t need to kill you to stop you. And we will stop you’ lines side-by-side, they feel VERY similar.

And lest we forget, Ruby actually did manage to get under Salem’s skin with her little speech. Just look at Salem’s reaction to it: No highbrow, self-assured declaration of how her enemies have no hope of beating her. Just a frustrated, petty jab at Ruby’s mother.

When we look at a scene like the one in Midnight where Salem manipulates Cinder with surgical precision, I can’t help but feel like we’re seeing a ‘what if Ruby used her powers for evil?’ situation. Where Ruby has had thousands of years to hone her keen insight into how people think and is using that insight to manipulate those around her with horrifying skill and finesse.

And when we look at the physical abilities that Ruby and Salem have exhibited, I think we can find even more parallels.

Going back to Salem’s time rallying humanity against the Gods, she did so using a power that came from the God of Light; her Immortality. Just as Ruby wields her silver eyes, a power that likewise came from the God of Light.

And speaking of Salem’s immortality, I can’t help but think that Ruby’s semblance might well function in an almost identical fashion. After all, we’ve seen Salem come back from being a literal charred smear on the ground or being basically vaporized. If Ruby’s semblance allows her to deconstruct and reconstruct herself at a molecular level, I get the feeling Ruby might actually be capable of the same regenerative feats that Salem has shown.

Finally, going back to The Girl in the Tower, I can actually see some parallels between Salem and Ruby in how they may have been ‘imprisoned’. Now on the one hand, there are some direct parallels that can be drawn between Ruby’s and Salem’s childhoods; Both lost their mothers at a very long age and were raised by a father who was wracked with grief over that loss. Though on the other hand, from what we’ve seen it doesn’t seem like Tai was in any way ‘overly protective’ of Ruby or Yang, at least not nearly as Salem’s father seems to have been. But then again, Tai hasn’t been all that big a presence in the story we’ve seen.

Consider the following: Just as Salem was physically imprisoned by her father, Ruby spends the first major chunk of the series figuratively and narratively imprisoned by a symbolic father-figure in the form of Ozpin, a man who might not be related by blood to Ruby, but who nonetheless serves as a prominent mentor and guide to Ruby in the early volumes of the show.

Both Salem’s father in the past and Ozpin in the present are old men who are fearful that the young girls under their care will come to harm and thus go to extreme and ultimately harmful lengths to ‘protect’ them. In the case of Salem’s father, he imprisoned his daughter in a tower to hide her away from the possible dangers of the world. In the case of Ozpin, he tried to hide his students, namely Ruby, away from the truth of the world and the dangers represented by that truth, ie; Salem.

This becomes all the more relevant when we consider that Oz seems to have designed Beacon Academy to look just like the castle Salem was imprisoned in. Without ever realizing it, I think it’s fair to say that Oz eventually became all too similar to the very man he once rescued Salem from all those eons ago.

And the parallels continue when we consider the final lines of ‘The Girl in the Tower’; Ozma tells Salem “You freed yourself,” stating that Salem took control of her destiny by reaching out for someone to help her. And just look at what Ruby does in Volume 6. The moment Ruby asked Jinn “What is Ozpin hiding from us?”, she is no longer following Ozpin’s lead and has effectively seized control of the story for herself.

For much of ‘The Girl in the Tower’, Salem’s father tries to control her destiny. And for the first five volumes of RWBY, Oz effectively tries to control the narrative of the story. Essentially, it is Ozpin who is effectively driving and maintaining the simple, straight-forward ‘fantasy high-school’ genre that defines the Beacon Arc. He keeps major secrets that would upend the entire status-quo of the current narrative, all because he believes it is for the heroine’s own good and safety. He is desperate to maintain a flawed and ultimately unsustainable status quo. Because despite Ozpin’s efforts, the reality of the dangers facing our heroines still came calling and destroyed that status quo.

And even after the Fall of Beacon, we can say that Ozpin was still desperate to maintain that control over the ‘narrative’ of the story for what he believes is the heroine’s own good. No matter how much it gets them hurt or even killed. Just as Salem’s father was so desperate to protect her, no matter how much he hurt her and others in the process.

Until both Salem and Ruby effectively take control of their stories, wresting control away from their literal and symbolic father-figures.

So what do all these parallels mean going forward? I think it means that Salem will ultimately be positioned as Ruby’s true rival and ‘evil counterpart’. And we will be shown that Ruby and Salem are ‘not so different’. I think it’s all too easy to imagine Ruby’s efforts to unite humanity against Salem being painted as all too similar to Salem’s efforts to unite humanity against the Gods.

Imagine when we get the inevitable showdown between Ruby and Salem, it is Ruby who does that ‘we are not so different…’ line that truly rattles Salem like nothing else in the show has?

Finally, these parallels massively reframe the narrative dynamic between Ruby, Salem and Ozma/Ozpin/Oscar, and how the latter could NEVER have been the ‘hero’ of this story.

Ozma wound up becoming little different from the man who imprisoned Salem all those years ago. Ruby on the other hand, is all too similar to Salem herself.

[maxiemumdamage]

Blake’s self loathing: What if you could just be human? Or a cat?

So remember how The Shallow Sea and The Judgement of Faunus featured a god that really looked like the Jabberwalker? Remember those theories that the water around the beach segment actually was the Shallow Sea and that we’d get Faunus!Ruby or something? Because I am remembering all of that and foaming at the mouth.

[hellowhoisthere]

Heeyy have you read Fairytales of Remmant? Are you also a huge Lit nerd?? Want to compare notes???

[strqyr]

i'm thinking that 'the girl who fell through the world' and 'the boy who fell from the sky' are the same story split in two, and that there might be some perspective stuff going on based on their titles.

what stands out to me is that team rwby, currently in the ever after, describe their presence there as "falling from the sky" despite following in the footsteps of alyx, who "fell through the world". considering that within the opening we have 1. alyx represented by the color blue, 2. two different shades of blue beams falling from the sky, and 3. mystery boy (who i hereby dub as axel for clarity's sake) behind alyx in the portrait, it's pretty evident that alyx wasn't the only one who fell from the sky to the ever after. perhaps alyx and axel were siblings, twins even, who ended up in the ever after together at the same time.

question is, did both of them make it back to remnant?

this is where the perspective stuff comes to play full force: those who have ended up in the ever after describe their predicament as "falling from the sky". before, i had thought that alyx had returned to remnant and told her own story, but her story is about "the girl who fell through the world"; a perspective that, say, those who made it to vacuo would have about team rwby and jaune.

with that in mind, it's possible that 'the girl who fell through the world' is not fully alyx's story, but one that has been told by someone else... perhaps by someone who has, by his own admission, lived through his share of fairy tales.

personally, i don't find it impossible that axel could have been one of ozma's reincarnations; blake was reading a book about a man with two souls in 1.3, and in after the fall she's also the one reading 'the boy who fell from the sky', so like. the connection is there, even if it's faint.

but if that's the case, that axel was ozma, it also opens up a much more tragic ending to the siblings' story; neither of them really made it out. according to the story, alyx accidentally started a war amongst the townsfolk, the jabberwalker is around and hunting for something... point is, for two young kids who likely would not have had any training, the ever after is a dangerous place. this opens a possibility that axel died in the ever after, leaving ozma's soul to find another host on remnant and able to tell alyx and axel's story, split in two different books for whatever reasons he has to hide the connection.

what about alyx, then? it's plausible that she actually did make it out of the ever after through the tree, but it also plausible that she never did—while it does look like team rwby is following in alyx's footsteps (as she is presented as a shadow) and that's her only presence currently in the ever after, she also appears near the very end as fully herself, walking away from the beach next to another set of footsteps, crescent rose revealed by the waves after she's gone—, and the ending to her book is one ozma made up to make it a happier one.

hence why it's 'the boy who fell from the sky' and 'the girl who fell through the world'; one is from the perspective of someone who lived through it—be it that axel was the only one who actually made it out, or that he was ozma's reincarnation—and the other is about the one who perhaps didn't, from the perspective of the one who saw her fall through the world first, before following after.

and who knows.. maybe alyx is the one the jabberwalker is still searching for.

[readtilyoudie]

No matter what life deals you, no matter how hard the decisions you must face, keep living.

Fairy Tales of Remnant: An AFK Book (RWBY) by E.C. Myers

[bobauthorman]

I have this weird theory about the Ever After.

In the RWBY Fairy Tale “The Shallow Sea”, the God of Animals brought humans to an island where the ocean changed whoever crossed it to reach the shore into Faunus (AKA, the Little Bit Beastly crowd). This is what one of those people said in the tale:

“The water hasn’t changed us. It has washed away the lies to reveal what we’ve always been, just underneath the surface.”

Now, In the Ever After, we’ve got talking animals who act like people.

And there is also this mysterious entity who offers Ruby, “What if you could leave Ruby Rose behind, shed like an old coat?”

After all, lots of fairy tales are based on real events...

[masquerade-of-time]

GIGGLES

I got money from my grandma and bought more books

I have

Issues (I have too many books help me)

[maswartz]

It really does say something that the RWBY fairy tales show came out over two years ago and has practically been forgotten about.

[sytokun]

What's your opinion on characters in RWBY casually speaking real world languages like for example, Ruby and Yang speaking Chinese in certain situations? I'm sure they could just call it a Mistral language since Mistral is so heavily based on real world Asian countries, but I'm not entirely sure.

I think given the kind of world Remnant is, that's the "correct" thing to do.

Most of its named characters are based in part on historical, mythological or fictional figures from our world, and that includes their naming conventions, so to include languages in that basket makes sense.

I would headcanon that Remnant's origin is partly born from some sort of collective unconscious from Earth, a parallel dimension to it or its distant future, where only whispers of its true origins survived and wove its way inseparably into Remnant's DNA. The very first words spoken in Episode 1 supports such a flagrant notion.

"Legends. Stories scattered through time. Mankind has grown quite fond of recounting the exploits of heroes and villains, forgetting so easily that we are remnants, byproducts, of a forgotten past."

This is just my internal giant comparative mythology nerd speaking, btw - the idea that the world's mythologies share common elements and point to a unified origin in humanity's distant past, written in our blood and our subconscious memories as a species.

So in this case, I can somewhat justify having Mistral be an amalgamation of Asian cultures, because that's actually what it is - a gestalt of ancestral memories that we can tell apart, but no one in Remnant is old enough to distinguish - unless maybe, you're Ozpin. Or Salem. The only people in the world who actually know what the Wizard of Oz is, or Little Red Riding Hood, or the true name of the world before Remnant.

And perhaps Ozpin, being his usual Ozpin-y self, influenced Remnant's culture and got everyone to name their descendants after childhood tales and legendary figures as a way to preserve the memory of a world he once knew and lost. How cool would that be?

Or, you know, it's just flavour and an easy worldbuilding method that we shouldn't look deeply into at all. And the world before Remnant is just a generic magical fantasy world that also just has vague copies of real-world cultures for no reason. Silly, silly me~

[aspoonofsugar]

RWBY Volume 9 Epilogue: The Five Stages of Grief Again

As @greenteaandtattoos's friend noticed, volume 9 epilogue has its five narrators embody the five stages of grief:

Negation - refusal to aknowledge the truth, while clinging to a preferable reality.

Anger - lashing out on others in an attempt to channel one's pain and frustration.

Bargaining - being ready to negotiate, to give something in order to avoid loss. When death already happened, it is about exploring what ifs scenarios.

Depression - sadness, desperation and refusal to engage with others. It often comes with low energy.

Acceptance - coming to terms with one's loss and finding a new stability.

This isn't surprising, as volume 9 as a whole uses this motif. In particular, Ruby herself goes through the 5 stages twice. First to grieve over Penny and then to face her emotions towards Summer. Finally, RWBYJN reach acceptance (the main theme). Acceptance of death, loss, pain, change and of themselves. All in all, RWBYJ's journey in the Ever after is a metaphor for the process of grieving. Well, the epilogue shows us how the other characters have been dealing with this emotion.

So, here comes NORWQ as the 5 stages of grief:

Nora = anger: tbf she is the most difficult to pintpoint, as she fits the pattern less than others. Still, her section focuses on how Vacuans and Atlesians are both reacting with anger at the new status quo. Vacuans are frustrated that Atlas brought its own problems into their Kingdom. Atlesians are furious nobody came to help them. Nora herself enters into a short confrontation with two angry Vacuans and clearly projects her own past into the conflict. What's wrong with orphans? What's wrong with her?

Oscar = negation: our Little Prince is the only one that believes Ruby and the others might be alive. He even looks for an answers into books (mirroring how RWBYJ is grieving through a fairy tale). On a personal level, he and Ozpin are both fighting the merge, so they are negating a transformation, which is bound to happen.

Ren = bargaining: Lotus boy is trying to replace Jaune as the glue who keeps the team together. He is conscious of everyone's feelings and problems, but is not sure on how to handle them. Moreover, his section deals with how Salem's faction goes through a bargain. Sure, it lost some people in Atlas, but Tyrian and Mercury free the Crown, so that new forces are ready to fight for the Evil Witch of the West.

Winter = depression: our Winter Maiden is dealing very very badly with Penny and Weiss's lost. She blames herself for everything and is far away from accepting Penny's final teaching: "I won't be gone, I will be a part of you". Winter is struggling to honor both Penny and Weiss's legacy. If anything, she feels she isn't the right person to do so. Her section is also the most somber on a macrochosm level. As a matter of fact through her we discover Vale was destroyed by Salem and we see how the refugees are not handling their new situation well.

Qrow = acceptance: Qrow is Winter's opposite, as he is the closest to find acceptance. On a personal level, he shows he has integrated with Clover. He has embraced his friend's optimism and has learnt to love himself through him. This is why his semblance evolved and he is now able to bring both good and bad luck. This new found balance lets him find hope even in the bad situation the world is in. He sees how people are showing kindness and realizes Ruby's message is the first step into uniting Remnant.

Of course, our five narrators all foil each other in different ways. I have discussed Qrow and Winter here, so let's see what to say about Nora, Ren and Oscar.

RENORA = LONELY TOGETHER

Nora and Ren are going through an inversion of their dynamic. Nora is now repressing her feelings and avoiding Ren's attentions and offers of support. Ren instead is grieving openly and is trying to be open with his feelings.

Nora isn't even able to speak directly with the person she lost, but narrates talking to no-one in particular. She mostly speaks about the macrochosm and uses plural forms. "We buried our friends", "I think everyone lost someone that day", "For us it was a relief, but for the Vacuans", ""What if we can't go on, what if we are too scarred?". She is in a sense the embodyment of everyone's grief. At the same time, she is so disconnected from her own trauma, that she can only read it while projecting it on the world:

Ren: Nora, she is putting the world on her shoulders.

Ren instead is the one more focused on the feelings of the people around him. Through his point of view, we discover how the other main characters are doing. We realize Nora is too focused on the macrochosm, while Oscar has trouble with the microchosm (he just isn't himself). Ren is trying to balance out the two dimensions. He is grieving for Jaune and is inheriting his legacy. At the same time, he understands that just like his friends are fighting to overcome anger and pain, so is the world. By doing this, he once again draws a parallel between Nora and the World:

I think the epilogue of volume 9 (or the prologue of volume 10?) sets up Nora as a strong symbolic character in Vacuo. She is Vacuo itself, struggling with pain, grief and anger. She is Atlesian orphans, nameless children too scarred to go on. Ren's role will probably be to step in and remind her how beautiful she is.

OSCAR = STAGNATION

Oscar's conflict permeates both the microchom and the macrochosm. It is synthesized by this phrase:

Oscar: "You always believed in the best. You saw people for who they really were. Some of us don't know anymore."

Here, Oscar is speaking both:

Of himself, who is slowly and painfully merging with Ozpin

Of the world, which finds itself in "uncharted territory"

Oscar is uncertain. Of who he is. Of what to do. So, he looks up to Ruby, who was always certain and could "see the world through better eyes".

At the same time, Oscar's situation strongly suggests he is stagnating. He refuses to accept RWBYJ's death (he is right, but it isn't a healthy reaction). He fights the merge unsuccessfully. He can neither go back to the person he was before nor can he progress towards a better version of himself. Basically, just as Ruby is finding the path back to herself in the Ever After, Oscar is losing himself in Vacuo. This is (just like in Renora's case) an inversion to their previous dynamic. Back in Atlas, Oscar was the one progressing, whereas Ruby was stagnating. Right now, they start their stories in Vacuo in an inversed situation.

OTHER POSSIBLE FOILINGS

Of course, the epilogue/prologue offers several possible foilings that could be explored in volume 10. Here are some (but they aren't all).

Ren and Winter are both talking to the "sibling" they entered a conflict with in volume 8. Both grew distant from Jaune and Weiss, only to reconcile later on. Now, they realize how much Jaune and Weiss did to keep their respective families together. They celebrate their legacies and wonder if they might be able to live up to it. This might also foreshadow some foiling of Jaune and Weiss themselves, once they come back.

Qrow and Oscar are both talking to Ruby (to be fair, Qrow speaks to everyone, but thematically Ruby is her interlocutor). However, Qrow has managed to integrate (with Clover), while Oscar fights integration (with Ozpin (understandably so)). At the same time, Qrow focuses on how Ruby has changed the world, whereas Oscar focuses on how Ruby has changed him.

Nora and Qrow open and end the epilogue. Nora is the one who struggles to grieve the most (she is the only one who never visits the memorial, after the cerimony). She insists she must move on, but also wonders if she will ever be able to. Qrow instead is the one who deals the best with the situation. He finds serenity while at the memorial and grieves in a hopeful way thanks to the murales realized by the community. Both are very involved with helping people and the refugees. Nora is shown helping children and states she wants to help Velvet before eating herself. Qrow keeps going into meetings with Theodore, he spends time with Robyn and the kids and helps the Schnees giving out free food. Still, Nora is clearly wearing herself out, whereas Qrow genuinelly finds hope and energy. Nora is symbolically one of the orphans trying to carry the world. Qrow is instead a mentor, who has learnt he doesn't have to face the world alone.

OTHER THOUGHTS

Happy to see the Crown. I think Jill and Jax have the potential to foil Emercury to an extent, so I am happy to see them (it's them, right?) with Merc. It is also something I had always thought that Tyrian and Mercury's mission to Vacuo might have been to find some new allies there. The Crown were the obvious choice.

I feel neutral about team CFVY appearing so much in the epilogue. My guess is that they are set up to be minor foils to RWBY, kind of like the Happy Huntresses and the Ace Ops were in Atlas. I think the books give them enough set-up to solve their arc in a quick way, while commenting on those of the main characters.

I was surprised about the revelation of Salem attacking Vale. I wonder if she found the crown. I doubt it, so far and I think Glynda missing is clearly set-up as a future plot-point. In any case, we'll see. I am open to everything.

[anthurak]

Hey remember in Fairy Tales of Remnant when Tai was reading The Warrior in the Woods to Ruby and Yang and it was the story of a blonde boy who looks a LOT like Tai falling in love with a Silver Eyed Warrior who looks like a cross between Summer AND Raven that ends tragically when the Warrior vanishes into the night?

And then it turns out that’s exactly what fucking happened to Summer and Raven?!

Gotta say, it feels nice to be vindicated XD

[maxiemumdamage]

Wait what if Lewis wrote both tales and The Boy Who Fell From the Sky was about him while The Girl Who Fell Through the World was about Alyx.

[howlingday]

Hello Hollowing, my prompt is this: After team RWBY finds themselves in the Ever After, they are met by a small child happily waving and guiding them towards the Tree instead of a certain Cheshire cat. Soon they were guided to the tree, with a mansion carved within. With children that looked like recoloured versions of their guide happily waving toward RWBY. They meet Neo, and Jaune, the small older woman clealry pregnant, along with Mint, and Trivia, and a woman similar to neo called CC... basically I want Jaune to explain why he has a harem of Neos with constant flashbacks of each neo having babymaking sex with him. With CC requires everyone else to overcome her instability. Blame Fatally Obsessed. I do not know why I make statements instead of questions.

Ah, okay.

This is way less terrible than I thought it would be.

---------------------------------------------------

This world is weird. Like, super weird. No, but like, SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPER weird! Like, think of the weirdest thing you could think of, and it wouldn't be half as weird as what this was.

Okay, maybe not THAT weird, but it was weirder than Remnant, at least. Game pieces moved around, walking and talking like all the faunus and humans did back home. Not only that, but there were also talking animals, too! So yeah, this fairy tale world was weird.

But not as weird as what happened next.

"Hey! Over here!"

Team RWBY looked behind them and found a little girl waving at them. She had short, blonde hair, pale skin, and, as they got closer, blue eyes. Her dress was pink with a black sash wrapped around her belly.

"Um, hi?" Ruby awkwardly waved.

"Are you a Huntress?"

The question shocked the group. This was the first person they met in the Ever After, and she KNEW what a huntress is! Who was she?

"Um, ye-"

"Nilly!" A girl with long, brown hair ran up to the other girl and grabbed her wrist. Her dress was white with a pink sash wrapped around her belly, similar to the other girl. "We're not supposed to talk to strangers!"

"It's okay, Gats!" Nilly replied. "They don't look bad!"

"Don't you remember what Dad said?" Gats wagged her finger. "Looks can be decieving!"

"Um," Ruby stuttered, "we're not bad. Uh, y'know, if you wanted our opinion."

"She's right." Weiss added. "We're just trying to get to the tree."

"Oh! That's easy!" Nilly yanked her hand away. "Daddy can take you!"

"Daddy?" Yang asked.

"Mhm!" Nilly nodded. "Daddy is, like the best person to take you to the tree! He was up there before, y'know?"

"Nilly!" Gats chided. "They're bad guys!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yuh-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yuh-huh!"

As the girls bickered, Team RWBY gave each other glances. This was very uncomfortable.

"Were we..." Ruby looked to her sister. "This bad?"

"Eh...." Yang shrugged. "Kinda?"

"Well, none of my siblings were like this." Weiss said with an unamused look.

"Pretty sure you're not as close with your siblings as Ruby and Yang were." Blake added. "It kind of makes me wonder what it's like."

"It's not great."

Suddenly, in the center of Team RWBY, stood a small girl with pink hair done in a ponytail, wearing a black dress with a white sash. She was so quiet, none of them heard her! As she walked to the other girls, they noticed she had a pink tail sway from under her dress.

"Nilla. Gats." She addressed the girls. "Mother's waiting for us." At this, the two girls stopped bickering. The leader looked at Team RWBY. "You come, too."

The little girl in the pink dress then walked forward, followed closely by the other two. Following the trio was Team RWBY. From a distance, a pair of eyes watched the seven girls curiously.

---------------------------------------------------

Neo sipped her tea, enjoying the quiet of the house. Her girls were out playing while her husband had left to run errands. They would all return before supper, as they always did. She looked down, admiring the one change to her otherwise routine life she'd made in the Ever After.

Every morning, she woke up, had breakfast, woke up her daughters, and then spent the rest of the day planning dinner. Tonight's dinner would be stewed vegetables.

"Ugh... Couldn't we have something with more meat?"

Neo cast a glare at the whining voice. The voice belonged to another Neo, though the voice was not quite her own. Instead, an annoying creature had taken residence in her body, wearing it like a coat, doing with it as they pleased.

"Oh, don't give me that look." The being replied with a roll of their neon-blue eyes. "Even Trivia is sick and tired of it!"

The woman in question, hanging clothes to dry outside, flinched. She shivered as Neo quirked a brow at her former self. She hid herself behind a wet sheet.

"Ow!" Mint, a disguise of herself used to infiltrate Beacon during the Vytal Festival with Cinder, flicked the being in Neo's ear. "Oh, I was not being mean to her!"

Neo hefted herself to her feet, hands to her back for support. Soon, it would be her turn to bring life into this world. She couldn't help but wonder what her child would look like. What mother didn't?

"Oh, and before you set the table," the being said, "we're going to have guests tonight. Four of them."

Neo eyed the being, unsure of what they meant. For all their schemes and plots, the creature wasn't a liar and often made use of their ability to see and hear things outside their home. If there were guests coming to visit, then there would be guests coming to visit. Neo would need more vegetables, and hands to pick said vegetables.

"Speak of the Grimm, as you say."

Neo looked to the door, and a tiny knock came from the other side. She opened the door, finding eight familiar faces.

"Mother." Greeted Berry with stoicism.

"Mommy!" Squealed Vanilla joyfully.

"Mom?" Called Gateau in concern.

Neo glared past her daughters to the four huntresses behind them. They swiftly reached for their weapons.

"Neopolitan?!" Litte Red exclaimed in her surprise.

"Of course she'd be here!" The Ice Queen growled.

"Is she pregnant?" The Kitty Cat asked.

"Guess she found someone dumb enough to knock her up." The Blonde Bimbo rudely remarked.

"Now that's just rude." All eyes focused on the timbre voice in the distance. A figure in rusted armor dismounted a large jackalope, named Juniper, and removed his helmet. Beneath was a ruggedly handsome bearded face with tired, blue eyes. He gave a chuckle. "Rude girls don't get dessert."

[ryuto12]

Just Yang™

One thing RWBY Beyond hit me with again is that Yang really is Just Yang™

Weiss, the heiress to now nothing but formerly basically everything, almost a princess, rich and influential and known, granddaughter of a hero child of a villain.

Blake, daughter of the old high leader, daughter of the chief, leader of the forces at haven, a rights activist

Ruby, the girl from the broadcast, the girl who’s rallying cry brought the world together, magically gifted, possibly the chosen one, daughter of hero’s

But when Team RWBY’s story gets told, it’ll be about her teammates destinies, how they were born for this; and how Yang fought for her destiny. How Yang, whose only accomplishment from birth was being the daughter of a spy and likely a guardian in cargo shorts, she carved her story out. In that original quest for an adventure, Yang simply by being in the right place at the right time once or twice will be one of four who save the world.

When Remnant remembers Team RWBY the fairy tales will likely brush over the hardships that RWB went through but it’ll be almost impossible to try and move over Yang’s struggles

Yang being Just Yang™ is the best thing about her

[strqyr]

why does 'the shallow sea' make such a big deal about grimm not figuring into this story so don't think about them. it does it three times and it certainly feels incredibly deliberate:

(And Grimm. There have always been Grimm. There will always be Grimm. But those creatures don't figure in this story, so just put them out of your mind, if you can.)

(No, not Grimm. Grimm are not alive in the usual sense, nor does anyone want them. Please do put them out of your mind, if you can.)

(Were you wondering whether there were any Grimm on the island in those days? As I've told you, Grimm do not figure into this story, and I wish you would clear them from your mind.)

like, there are plenty of others stories in the book that don't feature grimm, but only 'the shallow sea' keeps mentioning over and over again. it's the constant "i bet you were thinking about grimm when the story never actually mentions them besides these parentheses parts which causes you to actually think about them but really, you shouldn't, so why are you after i put them into your mind?" that's mind boggling to me.

[readtilyoudie]

Good intentions do not always have good results. We are all fallible. We all make mistakes. And forgiveness of those failures goes hand in hand with trust.

Fairy Tales of Remnant: An AFK Book (RWBY) by E.C. Myers