#the glyphs are there for everyone who doesn't feel good enough

[welcometogrouchland]

Wait crying again bc I was rewatching The Intruder today (episode 4 of season 1) and I realized that like. The glyphs represent a few things in the narrative but one thing that's consistent is they're always there when Luz doesn't feel like she's good enough on her own. They appear to her as comfort in moments of self depreciation or self doubt, or she coincidentally learns them in episodes where she faces her fear of rejection or makes a mistake (at least this is true in terms of the first four base glyphs she discovers). It's the titans way of saying "you may have to do things differently, but you can do anything they can do" to Luz bc he cares about her

AND THEN. IN WATCHING AND DREAMING. WHEN THE TITAN PASSES ON AND THE GLYPHS DON'T WORK ANYMORE. IT'S BECAUSE NOW LUZ FINALLY FEELS LIKE SHE'S GOOD ENOUGH, ALL ON HER OWN. SHE'S LEARNED THAT SHE HAS INTRINSIC WORTH AS A PERSON AND SHE DOESN'T NEED TO MAKE UP FOR WHO SHE IS. SHE MIGHT DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY BUT SHE CAN DO EVERYTHING ANOTHER WITCH CAN DO- THIS TIME WITH HER OWN, MORE PERSONAL ACCESSIBILITY TOOL (HER PALISMEN) INSTEAD OF THE ONE THE TITAN GAVE HER. MAN!!!!!

[mayandjuly1811]

WHY HUNTLOW IS A FORCED AND UNREALISTIC  SHIP.

1. First impressions:

Raeda has the most amicable meeting. About Lumity, Amity shook Luz's collar and almost got Principal Bump dissect her. It stems from misunderstanding, because Amity doesn't know Luz is human but a strange non-Abomination that Willow used to cheat. About Huntlow, Willow seems to be violent for no reasons at all. Hunter disguises as a Hexside student so to Willow, he's just a student that she doesn't know. He's not a threat at all. Yet she summons the vines to wrap him tightly and drags him down the ground so hard that the asphalt gets damaged. Treating strangers like this is not fine and out of character for Willow.

Also, when Hunter is about to leave again, Willow drags him down the ground and takes him to the field without asking his permission. This crosses boundaries a lot. In comparison, even though Amity sees Hunter as an enemy in Eclipse Lake, she just simply uses Abomination magic to capture him, not dragging him down violently like Willow.

2. Understanding:

Raine and Eda have a genuine common interest in music, magic (Eda is interested in wild magic and Raine supports her). Luz and Amity are both interested in Azura, the idea of being not enough for anyone, the idea of being accepted and loved for who they really are. Amity is also interested in Luz's glyph magic and she learns to draw it many times. 

About Huntlow, I don't see any common between them besides flyer derby. The whole “Half a Witch” is forced. Half a witch means a witch who is not powerful enough. Willow is a powerful Plant witch, her fathers just didn't realize her real magic talent and put her into Abomination track, which isn't her forte. If you're only good at Maths, but not Chemistry, does it make you unintelligent overall? Of course not. 

About Hunter, first off, he is not even a witch. He's a Grimwalker with no bile sack, his pointed ears were adjusted to look like witches’. Also, he's skillful at using magic staffs so no one sees him as powerless. He's the elite Golden Guard, one of the most powerful figures under Belos. No one dares to call him half a witch, even if they do think he's weak. And how he quickly recognizes the illusion of Willow in S2ep18 is unrealistic. How come Gus, Willow's long-term friend can't figure out before Hunter? The fact that Willow seems to be scared of Hunter is understandable. Last time, he literally locked her and her friends up, then kidnapped them, he also worked for Belos. Who knows if he's gonna do the same?

Hunter and Willow know little about each other. It's one sided. Hunter knows Willow is a strong and independent person, a caring and selfless girl. But Willow knows too little about Hunter compared with Luz, Gus and Amity. They never have a serious talk about Hunter's trauma caused by Belos, only a short scene of Willow cutting his hair. In Thanks to Them, Hunter has a deeper conversation with Luz and Gus than with Willow. With Willow, he just blushes even though nothing happens. Gus and Hunter's bond makes more sense than Huntlow to be honest. They both like Flyer Derby, they both like Cosmic Frontier, Gus knew about Hunter's being Grimwalker and his conflict with Belos, Hunter comforted Gus when he felt sad in Labyrinth Runner and when he missed his Dad. Hunter's screentime with Gus is even more than with Willow. Their platonic bond is stronger than Huntlow's forced romantic one.

Feeling development.

The way Willow and Hunter like each other is too rushed and unexpected. Starting with Hunter, he met Willow only one time in ASIAS and started to have a crush on her? He only met her once directly and already blushed? And Willow, she treats Hunter the same way she treats everyone. Only until Hunter has power and saves her does she fall for him. It's so rushed all of the sudden. Some people say they live together in Luz's house for months so they have feelings for each other. But there are no bonding moments between them besides the cutting hair scene. Even though the show is cut short, from Willow's scrapbook, she and Hunter don't have any bonding moments between the two of them.

Comforting.

It's one sided again. Hunter is understanding and sympathetic towards Willow. Meanwhile, how Willow tries to comfort him is questionable. He just lost Flapjack and Willow isn't understanding at all. She gives him the Flapjack picture, causing him to feel grieving again. He's been struggling to hold back his grief to focus on helping others. This backfires really back. She should have waited until Hunter brought things up about Flapjack first, just like Gus. He knows Hunter is a Grimwalker since the Day of Unity, but he doesn't bring anything up first and waits until Hunter says it first. He thinks about Hunter's emotions after being traumatized by Belos 

Also, when Hunter looks upset, Willow should have stayed to continue to comfort him?! Instead, she acts like she's the one who is hurting and leaves. Imagine you're feeling sad, someone tries to comfort you. You haven't felt better since you need time, they feel sad and leave you. Now you feel guilty because you can't be happy to make them happy. This is making things worse. Hunter can't even make himself feel calmer after Flapjack's death, yet now he'll feel guilty because his own sadness and grief makes Willow feel sad! Also, when Hunter calls out, she keeps walking and ignoring him. 

In conclusion, Willow and Hunter are better off as friends. They don't have any romantic chemistry or deep understanding. The ship is so forced and rushed.

[bonefall]

bonefall it's 2am but I'm having Thoughts about your shadowsight post.

"fully thunderclan-blooded since his father is bumblestripe . . . raised in shadowclan with his moms after dove realized bumble wouldn't leave her alone"

i don't know if you've mentioned this in a post already and i'm too new but i'm begging you to spill the Relationship Drama (tm) and the Trauma (tm)

I welcome all newbies, I am always willing to Spill the Dramatic Beans

So this time around, Dovewing is legitimately caught between these two options. Bumblestripe isn't obviously awful from the beginning-- for a while, she does very much love and appreciate him.

Bumblestripe has an emotional complex; he's always felt like he isn't very important to his family, so he tries to fill that emptiness with Dovewing. He wants to be attached to her hip, is always thinking of her, goes out of his way to give her attention...

But the problem with Bumblestripe is that if he doesn't feel like you're reciprocating, GOD he is miserable. He wants her to give more than she can possibly give and his plays for attention can get exhausting; it's a massive contrast to how self-assured and independent Tigerheart is.

So let's cut to the time just after the Great Battle.

Dovewing is losing her powers, and with it... goes her hearing. Suddenly she has the whole Clan's pity. The same people who shoved her at every problem, even though she cried and tried to tell them she had limits, are now the same people trying to tell her what her NEW limits are.

Yeah so what, she's hard-of-hearing now-- it's not like ANYONE ELSE listens in this goddamn Clan what's the big fucking deal

(maybe that's not fair to cats like Cinderheart, Briarlight, and Poppyfrost... but when you're mad that gets lost really easily.)

She's a-little-more-than-friends with Bumblestripe, but not officially dating. He makes her feel valuable and important, but at the same time, he's often just as suffocating as everyone else in ThunderClan. He's there for her to help her lipread, happily throws himself into learning Clan Glyphs, and uses battle-tail signs in regular conversation... but god forbid she just wants to go for a walk. Or go help Aunt Poppyfrost in the garden. Or start moving on with her life!

No one ever seems to ask Dovewing what SHE wants. What SHE feels comfortable doing. And it doesn't help that Bumblestripe is not patient when she goes against something he's planned, or she just wants alone time.

And meanwhile she is, of course, still seeing Tigerheart frequently. She is refreshingly uninterested in what Dovewing can't do. With the limited time they have together, it's all about what they DO have. The sights, the smells, their old inside jokes (Dovewing is ranting one day and Tigerheart puts her paw on her mouth, steps back, and does a backflip. Dovewing makes a joke about how she can't just backflip every time she wants to say 'don't worry'. Tigerheart grins and backflips again.)

It feels good. It feels right. Dovewing wants a fresh start to her life, and she wants to stop being ThunderClan's 'pity project'. She's getting a reputation in ThunderClan of being snappy and sensitive, making people trust her even less to do her own thing, she can barely look at her dad and uncle without being reminded of the Dark Forest Battle and the Prophecy...

The events of AVoS are no help to her feelings of discontent. ShadowClan falls apart as the Kin swallows it whole, Tigerheart needs her more than ever, she's caught between her family and clanmates or leaping headlong into a new life. But what of the danger? Does she know Tigerheart well enough to make that leap? What if her new life is the same as this one, but without anyone she knows and loves?

Meanwhile, Bumblestripe was there with her in this emotional time.

Aaaaand she ended up pregnant, and somehow, THAT was what made her snap. Bumblestripe would NEVER just let her raise her kits alone in ThunderClan, he would demand to be their father, she had no idea how her Clanmates would react, if they would try to infringe on her parenting the way they do with everything else, and at the same time, they weren't Tigerheart's! How could she know if she would take her in, especially into SkyClan, a Clan she's ALSO an outsider in???

So she SKEDADDLED. Got OUT of there. Packed her little kitty bags and beat it. If it sucks hit da bricks. Tigerheart followed... and the rest is history. The two moms came home with new friends, ready to hit the reset button on ShadowClan.

Minor setback where Tigerheart died and her dad plunged into the sacred Moonpool and drowned himself several times so his daughter could resurrect as Heartstar, of course. Small bump in the road. It's fine. She's ok now

[crimeronan]

i'm slowly reading thru the princess luz au tag + series and i'm so sorry if this has already been asked or is in one of the fics, but... in one post you mentioned that after belos dies luz is keeping up the illusion that the titan "chose" her while not knowing he really did and now my brain has just. latched onto that so hard and will not let go...

how would luz react if she learned the titan did, in fact, choose her, even if it was for her and not for belos? would she be relieved, because at least one thing wasn't a total lie, even if he didn't know it? or, more likely, would she be devastated that he was right, and that she's been spending all this time (presumably, after a while) trying to dispel the image that she's some "chosen one", only to find out that she's been the one lying all along? that the holy way everyone has seen her was right after all, that she is inherently better than them?

can you tell i've been thinking about this too hard -

god i think it would depend a lot on the circumstances. if she could actually Talk to the titan like she did in watching and dreaming, i think it would bring her Enormous comfort and peace to be told that she's doing the right thing. and that the titan isn't angry with her for coming to the isles. both canon luz and luz in this AU are so scared that they're doing everything wrong, just one more destructive human inheriting a colonizer's legacy... luz really could benefit from having god herself say "hey. relax. You're Doing Fine"

on the other hand, if she CAN'T have a long conversation with papa titan, and all she knows is that she was given her glyphs and the language of wild magic bc he trusted her individually with it.... i think That would make her feel a little sick with guilt and grief.

because why HER. why does SHE get to be god's specialest princess when she's never been good enough or kind enough or smart enough or worthy of anything... there are so many other people who deserve all the "luxuries" she's been raised with so much more and she's just a stupid human with no common sense and she can't do anything right and she doesn't Deserve...

:(

she's really good at spiraling. baby girl.

[only-by-the-stars]

so. I have. some thoughts about TotK.

they're not happy ones.

(behind a cut for spoilers and negativity)

to be clear, the gameplay is mostly fun. that's what's kept me going this far. but... I'm not sure anymore if it can keep carrying me. because this is, honest to god, one of the biggest stinkers of a story I've ever seen in a video game. and I DO NOT say that lightly!!! I have seen some SHIT, okay??? time travel and alternate dimension shenanigans that left me unsure of what the fuck the situation was after the ending, a reveal that the universe was one big MMO... those have stuck in my mind for well over a decade for being just that fucking bad.

and this story isn't just as stupid, no. it's as stupid as those, AND it's INCREDIBLY poorly told. like I cannot stress that enough!!! as of this writing, I have found every single glyph on the world map + the bonus tear that you get for seeing all those + the little bonus scene from getting the Master Sword. they're all numbered in more or less chronological order in the menu, 1-18.

so.

why in god's name am I still missing 11, 14, and 16????????

LIKE

AM I JUST GONNA GET THEM AFTER DOING PLOT-MANDATED EVENTS?

this is deeply fucking terrible!!! at least in those other bad stories I got to watch all the nonsense unfold in linear order, AND! AND AND AND!!! I WAS INVOLVED IN IT, IT WASN'T SOMEONE ELSE'S MEMORIES

and also the writing for Zelda herself is just atrocious and embarrassing, like I'm genuinely cringing here. in the flashbacks she does little aside from stand around and talk, her love for history/science only comes up in the intro, and functions as long-winded exposition, and she unfortunately was handed the Idiot Ball on top of it (not figuring out that Ganondorf was the the Basement Mummy till after he transformed? girl... Urbosa even SAID that CALAMITY GANON was said to have been born as a Gerudo man... why are Nintendo's writers determined to make her look stupid like this???). and in the present time, she's apparently good at everything and everyone loves her (even the unhinged flower lady), and she gets a super special gold horse, and it's just... she's barely a character. she's more like the overpowered OC everyone loves that kids just starting to write come up with.

which is fine at that stage! necessary, even! we all start somewhere, and I am NOT shaming anyone for doing that when they're just starting out. goodness knows I produced my share of embarrassing crap as a baby writer.

but this is a main installment of a major franchise by one of the biggest video game companies, made by paid adult professionals. that is. embarrassing.

and... as far as I've seen/heard from others who have seen more cutscenes than I have (again, this is bullshit, why are these apparently key scenes being withheld from me?), there's never an explanation for the Calamity/Calamity Ganon and he doesn't seem to be the same entity as Ganondorf. Zelda also never once considers trying to prevent the Calamity, either, and save all those lives, because Reasons, I guess. and the time travel magically doesn't affect anything but the current crisis???? calling BS on this too. plus, it doesn't help that there's so little flow/build-up/connective tissue between the cutscenes. next to nothing, in fact. it feels like I watched the isolated anime cutscenes of an older RPG whose story was told mainly through scenes in the game engine, and tried to understand the plot from there.

except that for this game, that's all I get.

also they managed to make the Silent Princess metaphor even more ham-fisted than in BOTW, which is quite the achievement. good lord. the way my eyes rolled seeing that, the incredulous laughter I burst into... sheesh.

at this point I just. don't know if I should try and power through and rush to the ending, take a break, or just drop it entirely. either way, it would never get a replay the way BOTW did. it's just. bleh.

and don't even get me started on how they fucked up the Poes and Gibdos, way to even disappoint my desire for the return of favorite creepy enemies, I didn't even get my ReDeads. I DIDN'T EVEN GET MY REDEADS

in closing, everyone who complained about the story/time travel in AOC owes me the cost of TotK. that game may have been silly, but at least it respected the Champions and I got to see more characters interacting and everything playing out as it happened and I didn't feel so distant/isolated from it all. ugh. I need to replay THAT game!

[honey-minded-hivemind]

My favorite character from the Owl House is Hunter because his character arc is so good and his relationship with Willow is adorable. (He literally fell for her at first sight)

And my favorite character from X Men is Kitty (I hate her relationship with Cyclops because she was a CHILD AND HE WAS A GROWN ASS MAN WHEN THEY MEET IN THE COMICS. Also can I just say that I hate that they make Bobby (the guy who does the ice thing) gay because that came out of nowhere and it only happened because an alternative version Jean Gray and her version of Bobby is gay so she decides that all versions of Bobby is gay and she needs to help them be their true self and Bobby who keep in mind has shown sexual and romantic interest in women up to this point 'realizes' he's gay and the rest of the comic is just him coming out to everyone one by one and hardly anything else happens. I wouldn't have minded so much if it wasn't for the fact that most media still treats sexuality like there's only two options gay or straight which completely erases Bisexual, Pansexual, Demisexual, Asexual, to name a few. It just grinds my gears you know anyway sorry for the rant. Kitty deserves a good love interest hopefully she gets one)

I feel like if reader had magic I feel like it would be similar to ether to Luz's or Eda's.

Hunter was so awesome, and he felt relatable, too. He and Willow are cute together, let them have plant and palisman babies!

I like Kitty, and I haven't read the comics (except a handful) so I didn't even know that relationship was thing. (Who the f*ck wrote that?!) I use my favorite X-Men medias as canon, along with head and heart canons, because let's face it: There are so many separate comics with different writers, different movies and timelines, even three (now going to be four) separate X-Men cartoons, whatever books and games they have for the various media, and even the anime and other Marvel shows where the characters show up from time to time. It is SO confusing. So, I just pick my favorite out of the bunch and roll with those (and usually it makes enough sense. Except the timeline changes in the movies. That STILL confuses me. Who is alive? Who is dead? Hopefully Deadpool fixes things).

And yeah, for Bobby, only one version of him was gay. It would have made more senses if they built that into a story arc, took it slowly, instead of being so abrupt. Let the guy be gay or bisexual, but at least make it make sense and not just be considered a quirk or passing fancy. Give it some development. Some thought. Make it mean something. Let it happen like how The Owl House portrays romance and self-discovery. (I myself am part of the asexual community, and that took awhile to figure out, and to this day I'm still finding out more about how I view relationships, platonic or romantic or otherwise. I'm not sure if I truly am interested in romance or not, but in the past I had a crush on a guy and girl, and later found out I just thought they were really great friends). This stuff can take time, it can get messy and feel gut-wrenching, but it doesn't make a person less for being bisexual or gay or lesbian or asexual or straight or trans. None are better than the others, and none are less than the others. It does help to realize all of this isn't back and white. It's a big, mixed canvas of grays in every shade of cloud and ash and silver and stone and eggshell and storm and smoke. (Point is, LGBTQA+ isn't back and white, neither is being straight, but these things are not just quirks. They shouldn't be treated that way, as those are valid beliefs and emotions that don't go away). (I hope I said this right, I'm not always great explaining my thoughts on this kind of thing).

Reader having a power similar to Luz or Eda would be so wild! Surprise, they have glyphs! Surprise, they're part owl beast! They have wild magic, they're blessed by the last Titans, they kicked an evil old emperor/hypocrite into dust! The series finale might have been a little rushed (thanks a LOT, Disney. You should have given them extra time! Extra episodes! A whole lot more episodes than just three for the third season!) but I thought it was still good for the constraints put on Dana and her team. They did good.

[stuckinamok]

huntlow fake dating AU

willow's everyone's first friend, including the golden guard's!

They meet for the first time at a grudgy match maybe? He just happens to stop by Hexside. Maybe this is even before he becomes the Golden Guard. He talks to Willow about her impressive moves and tries to convince her how amazing a fit she'd be in the Emperor's Coven and she's not totally convinced so he dedicates time out of his week to spend time with her to convince her. I imagine she meets him before even meeting Luz!

He notices how she is bullied at school (she does have Gus but she's still not doing well in her abomination classes).

To avoid extra bullying at school, Hunter comes up with the idea that Willow should have a boyfriend, an intimidating one. Like maybe someone who was already in the Emperor's Coven because to him that would really show her bullies who's boss.

Willow asks him if he would be willing to pretend to be her boyfriend since he made such a suggestion as a joke but Hunter was like, "uh that's not what I had in mind but sure, why not!" because he still has it in his head that he can't give up trying to convince her how amazing it would be to be a part of the Emperor's Coven.

In this AU I imagine Luz ends up meeting Gus before Willow and when Gus introduces Luz to Willow, Hunter is Very Suspicious of her. Gus isn't the biggest fan of Hunter to start with but for the time being he accepts him because he is helping Willow fend off her bullies (like Boscha and Amity).

When Hunter meets Luz, Willow starts to introduce him as her friend (fake boyfriend) but he steps up and introduces himself as her Real Boyfriend (because he really doesn't trust the human).

Later on though Luz shows him glyph magic and stuff and they end up spending time at the library together to learn more (Hunter gets to react a lot to Luz's crush on Amity and starts to realize his True Feelings for Willow).

In the middle of all of this, eventually Hunter gets "promoted" to Golden Guard but he doesn't tell any of his Hexside friends, not even Willow because the reason he received this "promotion" is because Lilith was kicked out of the Emperor's Coven.

Hunter is spending less and less time with the Hexside squad and Willow starts to realize she really doesn't need Hunter to pretend to be her boyfriend anymore. She has to tell the truth about their situation with Luz and then she decides she needs to "break up" with him. Hunter sort of catches on and starts deliberately avoiding Willow so the conversation won't happen but eventually she faces him and he has to accept he can no longer pretend to be her boyfriend. What's worse is she asks him to stop trying to get her to join the Emperor's Coven because of Obvious Reasons. Then he tries one last tactic - he reveals himself as the Golden Guard and of course, that makes everything worse.

Willow ends up being more hurt/betrayed than she thought she would be (she didn't think this would end their friendship and to be honest, she was going to ask if they might start over the whole 'fake dating' thing as Actual Dating... but now? no way). "I made a bad call."

Eventually she has the muster to try and start the Flyer Derby team at Hexside and she recruits enough team members except for one. They need just one more! Willow didn't tell anyone that Hunter is in fact the Golden Guard so when Gus suggested she should try asking him since he's such a great flyer she really doesn't want to... but what else was she going to do?

She finds him and he has his typical sassy grumpy attitude "why are you even here i thought you said you never wanted to see my face again" and she explains "look I don't like it anymore than you do but I'm desperate. this is the one good thing I can start at Hexside and I can find someone else to join the team later but I need you right now because I have no one else." and he's like "oh you need me? I thought that's exactly what you didn't need. not anymore." and she replies with "you know what? fine. you're right. I don't need you. I'll find someone else. I'll figure it out and you can stay here sulking like the jerk you are. fuck off."

All of the regret fills him inside and Willow fails to find anyone else so she has her head hanging low in defeat as the professor H's team approaches. But Hunter shows up just in time and he mouths "I'm sorry" and Willow is relieved but she's still mad at him.

They leave the match as friends starting over and right after he leaves Gus teases Willow a little bit because he notices how Hunter is looking at her. "oh shit he's in love with you" and willow's like "shut up no he's not he's the fucking golden guard" and then the whole team is like "the fuck ???" Willow facepalms, disappointed she let that slip. Oops! Now everyone's opinion, especially Gus', is totally turned around.

Hollow Mind happens and then Labyrinth Runners, almost the exact same way as the actual episodes happen, except after Hollow Mind Luz deliberately calls Willow to tell her about what happened to Hunter.

In Labyrinth Runners, Gus finds Hunter (he doesn't know about the Hollow Mind situation yet) and the chaos from the original episode ensues. But when Hunter is knocked out and the Flyer Derby team find him (aka Willow finds him) she knows exactly what's going on, it's obvious to her he ran away and ended up at Hexside. She is incredibly relieved to see that he's safe and then he saves Gus and they all hug and it's beautiful <3

Gus offers for Hunter to stay with him until they figure out what the whole "take down emperor belos" plan goes down and he accepts. After Hunter explains the situation with Belos after being in his mind, Willow notices he's definitely leaving some information out. Something else is bothering him (she knows he was traumatized and everything but Luz did not tell her about the grimwalker situation). After everyone goes home for the night, Willow calls Hunter while he is at Gus' house to see how he is doing.

there will be more but I have an appointment to get to lol

[itsclydebitches]

It FEELS weird that R freaked out at a talking mouse when her dog can take down a mech, and I think that's mostly because RWBY has failed to do the appropriate world-building to let us know what is and is not normal in the setting. We don't have a good feel of Remnant, so Maidens, magic birds, and talking mice don't feel out of place compared to the other weird stuff in Remnant. If the show spent more time establishing the world, these out of place elements would actually feel out of of place.

This exactly. I mean, we certainly can give the writing the benefit of the doubt here. It reminds me of a scene in Jupiter Ascending where Jupiter freaks out about Caine's gravity boots and is shocked when he can't really explain how they work... until he points out that she probably can't really explain how her phone works either. It's a way of highlighting that this New Thing isn't actually any weirder than the Normal Things you're used to, it's just the fact that you already are used to them that blinds you to how weird/complicated/incredible it actually is. Little having the intelligence and ability to speak isn't really that far removed from Zwei having the intelligence and ability to obey Oobleck's command to take out the White Fang, but because Ruby has only experienced one of those things before, the other feels shocking at the start.

But it doesn't feel shocking for the viewer. Because as you say, Remnant has so much weird shit in it that there's no baseline for us. We have no sense of when something is Normal Remnant Weird vs. Abnormal Remnant Weird until a character reacts to it... and then we're left with those questions like, "Why is your uncle transforming into a bird horrifying but your sister transforming into rose petals isn't? Why is Oscar shooting a beam magic but Weiss shooting glyphs isn't? Why is a talking mouse worth screaming over but you live in a world with human-like pets and peers with various animal traits?" I'm of the opinion that a fantasy world should either have hard and consistent rules, in which case both characters and audience know precisely when something is #off, or loosey-goosey rules where anything goes and, crucially, no one really questions it. The Umbrella Academy is pretty good about that, actually. (It's on the brain since I just posted about it a few minutes ago.) Everything in that show is so weird, but the characters know everything is weird, so when they encounter a sibling who's a floating cube, or a black hole in the basement, they might side-eye it for a hot second, but they don't actively try to claim that this is fundamentally different than all the other weird shit they live with. Weird is normal.

RWBY doesn't do that. Because yeah, we don't know the world and its (barely established) rules well enough to have a sense of everyone's expectations and bias. One moment the characters are acting like Remnant Fantasy People (haha Zwei arrived in the mail) and the next they're acting like Real People In The Real World (holy shit talking mouse!). It flip-flops too often for the audience to get a handle on that baseline... because it doesn't really exist. In classic RWBY fashion, things change to serve the latest Volume/episode/scene. I also don't think it helps that Ruby has not reacted to everything else weird that's going on. It's probably just the scene being isolated, but we haven't yet watched her freak out about waking up on an impossible island. She doesn't react to the time loop-y forest except with very normal sounding frustration. Doesn't look at the clearly abnormal bird screaming beside her. Stares considerately, but not surprisingly, up at the giant-ass tree. Barely even gives the cheese plant a second glance. And (though this is definitely pushing the fourth wall a bit) doesn't react to Little's very intelligent, person-like gestures to hand the cheese over. Ruby in this scene is totally apathetic towards the entire weirdness of the island, so by giving her a strong reaction to Little speaking, it sends the message that this is by far the WEIRDEST THING AMONG ALL THESE WEIRD THINGS

...when, you know, it's really not. Especially when we factor in Ruby's experience with her dog, the faunus, literal magic, and soul-bearing androids.

If I were tweaking things (working under the assumption that we can't re-write RWBY to establish this long-term worldbuilding) I'd have her actually freaking out over everything she saw, this totally new and alien world causing her brain to misfire for a bit, with a talking mouse just being the last straw in a very large, understandable pile.

[definesanity]

Going down in Flames as Two Worlds collide.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Squinting at the light, Luz Noceda closed her eyes, waiting for them to adjust.

Chrips of birds and the sound of the sea greeted her ears.

The sea.

Eyes now open, she gazed around her. It was the forest near the Owl House, as it was months ago when she first came to the Boiling Isles.

...But wouldn't it be different? The Collector did rearrange everything, but...

...No, there's no point thinking on that stuff yet. Everyone probably got scattered, and made their way to the Owl House. With that in mind, Luz got herself up, dusted herself off and began walking.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luz Noceda gave a shuddering breath, rubbing her eyes in the bathroom.

She thought 'The Owl Lady' was just a nod to Owlbert, not that she could literally turn into a giant Owl Beast.

It was cool, she won't lie! ...Just, you know, when it isn't trying to hunt her down.

After the events of yesterday, she was still feeling jittery, which led her to breathing in and out slowly.

'Okay Luz, I know you had a near death experience yesterday, but you need to calm down.' she thought to herself. 'Sides, it can't get weirder, right?'

Turning back to her mirror, her eyes widened.

She looked at herself, but... her reflection looked tired. Like, hasn't-slept-in-days tired.

Tilting her head to the side, her reflection followed, with Luz noticing a few more details; the reflection wore a jacket with a star on the right and a large 'E' on the left, baby green pants and a red beanie with a eye and... a Bi pin?

She means. It isn't a secret, like, but still, she'd never have the confidence to wear it in front of Mamì.

She wouldn't be mad! ...It's just that, Luz doesn't know how to approach it.

She blinked. Then the mirror blinked a second later. She paused. The two stared at each other.

"...Hi?" she greeted awkwardly.

"Hey." her doppelgänger replied, and Luz yelped.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

...The kid was weird. The other kid just as.

Eda sat down, a massive headache going off like fireworks when she visited the Human Realm on November 5th (a celebration of some kind?), and even more confused at the sight in front of her.

On the left: Luz Noceda, the happy-go-lucky girl with an ambitious will to become a Witch despite being human.

On the right: Also Luz Noceda, but looking like she just watched the most disappointing Grudgby match ever.

Trust her, she's made that expression enough as is already.

And, most glaringly of all, wearing her Grudgby jacket.

"...So, am I drunk? Just want to ask that."

"Nope; I mean, maybe a bit... you know, from yesterday, but definitely not drunk!" Happy Luz replied.

Eda turned to face Tired Luz. "Well, getting to the point: who are you?"

"Luz Noceda." she replied, then added, "From like, a few months into the future."

"...What on Titan happened?" Tired Luz didn't answer that. Happy Luz, however, turned to Eda.

"Wait; time travel is real?!"

...Yeah, Eda admits: that's equally as important.

"Time Pools." Tired Luz answered first. "Although, I didn't use one to get here. I don't even know how I managed to get here..."

"...So, you're Luz from the future." a nod. "Who traveled through time to get to the past." another nod.

"How can you prove it...?" Happy Luz suspicious looked at her, then snapped her fingers. "Alright; what happened earlier this night?"

"Eda's Curse acted up, and you--I--learnt how to use the Light Glyph." to emphasise her point, she took out a piece of paper with the Glyph on and tapped it. The paper then went in onto itself, and became a ball of light that hovered over Tired Luz's hand.

"...Eh, good enough for me." Eda shrugged, then turned serious again. "Alright, kid. I'm not as heartless as I'm made out to be, but I am very good at not thinking things through without Apple Blood. Soooooooo..." she turned to Luz. "Mind keeping yourself company until we can send her back?"

Happy Luz's smile was radiant. Tired Luz also smiled, but perhaps from relief that Eda wasn't thinking things through probably.

Ah well. She can worry about that later.

[blehblarghblah]

Reverse Unpopular Opinion: Them's The Breaks, Kids? What did you like about the episode???

Clever, a way for me to gush about the most recent episode of TOH?

This episode might just be my favourite in the entire season so far. Yes, season 2a AND b. This is one of those, "Ahh, this could be considered filler because it's just fluff and backstory" debates that I could EASILY disagree on. Purely because, as always, there's nothing wrong with backstory development and character growth. But also, there's at least two major plot points introduced at the beginning and end. Luz is learning new glyphs from Philip, some of which are incomplete, and Raine isn't actually under the influence of a spell and Darius is aiding them in some way.

Quickfire things I liked as well:

Darius and Alador were, at the very least, amicable classmates back in Hexside.

Eda covering for Lilith.

Eda's Illusion pranks. Emira and Edric joining the Bad Girl Coven means they've got a lot more to learn.

Raine being a complete badass and showing why Bard Magic is awesome (it's one of my favourite of the Covens).

Raeda combos, Raine appreciating and liking Eda's humour while Eda just adoring Raine's nerdy side and appreciating Bard Magic.

Raine's whistle. My sister noted it was weird they blew on the drink back in Follies of the Coven's Day Parade.

Implication that whatever is planned, Raine doesn't want Eda involved because they know she has kids now. Eda's Requiem showed Raine was willing to sacrifice their life for the cause, but they're not willing to put Eda's life on the line knowing she has family.

Raine's influence of Bard Magic possibly being a factor in Eda wanting to learn all kinds of Magic, given she didn't think much of Bard Magic at first.

Bump and Eda as a sort mentor-mentee duo. I bet he was lowkey proud of her returning to help during the Palisman Adoption Day. It's like a star student coming back.

Dorky Lilith. Poor girl is trying so hard and for how little she speaks, Abigail Zoe Lewis does a good job a conveying her awkwardness.

All the VAs of the younger characters wonderfully capture the cadence of their older counterparts. It's great!

That aside, HUGE ramble of appreciation coming in so read more if ya'd like. It's about Bump. ( ^‿^)

Set that aside, this episodes reaffirms so many things about the characters we already know and just adds so much more love to why the way they are. I love Lilith, I really do, but there's something so rewarding with seeing Eda be so casual with her academics and still possess greater knowledge than her older sister. It just reminds us that "The Most Powerful Witch on the Boiling Isles" wasn't just something that was made up.

But another thing? Principal Bump was easily one of my favourite aspects of this episode. And I'm willing to go on a ramble as to why because I feel like Raeda is going to be the highlight of mostly everyone's points (justifiably so, I'd say). It shows so much of how he has changed but also tried to do better than his predecessor. Think back to The First Day: I know I'm probably alone in this, but I always fell Bump's turnaround at the end was so jarringly abrupt but was like, "Eh, not a big deal. Just weird." But if you add the context of Them's the Breaks, Kid you suddenly just understand he's trying.

He says he's smart enough to admit when he's made a mistake. It's as if he just recognizes that, "Man, the stuff I'm saying is something Faust would be so hard about" and steps back and agrees. It's the fact that he had an amicable relationship with Eda, setting aside all the reports he made for her rap sheet, he still looks back on those moments fondly. Because after the chaos of The First Day, he knowingly pulls out and reveals the photo of a student he knew wanted to study all the tracks. And then you think of Escaping Expulsion, where he seems to also think fondly of Luz, Gus, and Willow, a trio of misfits who are barely on Eda's level of chaos, but still just enough. And yet he still adores them.

He just represents aspects of an educator trying to change system bit by bit, in my opinion. He tells Terra that endangering children is against the law, but later in his life he's technically guilty of doing so with his detention system. Faust kept Eda in school for the most part because he recognized her talent, Bump supposedly is willing to let Boscha get away with murder. It's just facets of how as much as you want to change the system, adapting its techniques within your own is how life grows. But above all else, he's willing to change his perspective in favour of his students. Bump is by all means, a pretty good guy. Yeah he's a principal, but he's not a stooge.

Until next ask,

- Bleh

[bmblboop]

I’m gonna fuckin murder belos,

I’m also not entirely sure how,I feel about the collector being a “bigger bad” here, I kinda want belos to remain the main focus as a villain,

Then again maybe I’m just wired they’re gonna redeem belos, usually introducing a “bigger bad guy” tends to be a way to do that bus there isn’t really any real hint that belos will get redeemed,

I hope hunter is gonna be ok but I know he isn’t lol

I think that if the crew were gonna put any hint at a kinder Belos underneath, they would have shown that this episode. The show has undercut every moment that might redeem him, listed as follows:

Belos is gonna heal Eda's curse - lol no he's not. He couldn't care less.

Belos is worried for Hunter's safety bc Wild Magic hurt him - revealed to be a fabricated lie to keep Hunter in line. Belos damaged himself with glyphs and devours Palisman souls to stay alive longer than he should have lived.

Hunter giving Belos that Key means Hunter is in his good graces right? He can fix the portal and see the world again. LOL NOPE. The Collector even points out how close Belos was to whooping him for it.

Philip was a human! He knew glyphs! He built the portal! Yes, and then he betrayed anyone and everyone who was foolish enough to trust him.

The Owl Crew isn't gonna give us an episode with tiny baby Phillip - representing Belos in his own Mind- who turns out to be the same as Adult!Belos and attempts to murder the protagonists and STILL go the route of 'oh no, he was a good guy deep down'.

This show is smarter than that. They had plenty of opportunities to set up a misunderstood Belos. And they didn't. Luz gave Philip the benefit of the doubt and got betrayed for it. Luz, who helped Amity find friends and happiness again. Who got Hunter to open his eyes and steer him toward choosing his own destiny. Luz can't help someone who doesn't want to change. Belos isn't going to change.

The Collector is only the 'bigger bad' in the sense that he appears to be a cosmic entity, some kind of trickster deity. [Insert Bill Cipher comparison here.] It's clear to me that Belos will remain the biggest bad for the foreseeable future because the Day of Unity is what will free the Collector. The Collector is an underlying force but won't become an active player until then.

--

The notion of 'reveal bigger bad guy' = 'redemption for lesser bad guy' is a pattern yes, but it's not a trope. It's heavily reliant on context and character arcs. Skyward Sword did this great - in which the main Antagonist for 90% of the game is just an underling of the real big bad. Ghirahim is not sympathetic, doesn't get redeemed, and serves the story well as it's primary source of conflict. I have a feeling this story is gonna follow that similar format.

[linsallyworld]

Uneven Odds

(Lilith Clawthorne x reader fanfic)

Summary: You have fallen into a strange world, but the Owl House residents have welcomed you. You certainly believe you need to find your way home, but each day it’s a little harder to know where home is when you glance at a certain witch with heterochromatic eyes and pointy ears.

Chapter 4

Chapter 3

Words: 5.890

One week of classes with Luz and you were doing incredibly well. You weren't used to drawing, when it came to art you were better off with strings. Still, you learned to draw the glyphs as round as possible,  just as you began to learn to combine them to create different spells from those base ones. You found out that spells involving fire glyphs were usually the easiest for you to master. Perhaps because you had pretty intense emotions all the time. Or maybe because you appreciated seeing the flames around your fingers. You can't tell. You just know you love the idea of looking like Regina Mills from Once Upon a Time.

Luz was a great teacher and now you could consider yourself a witch's apprentice. You still didn't know how to feel about it, but doing magic...Doing magic was one of the most enchanting things you've ever done in your entire life. It's something to keep your mind and hands busy as well.

Your friendship with everyone in the house was gradually evolving. Luz enjoyed your company, probably because she saw an older sister in you with whom she could share the difficult life of a 14-year-old, between conflicts with the part of her that loved being human and the feelings she didn't understand about Amity. You're pretty sure they had mutual crushes but you haven't expressed this perception yet.

You had the warmest feet in the house according to King's judgment. Hooty loved the way you scratched right under his chin and also how you were patient enough to listen to him talking about all the different bugs he ate during the day and how they tasted different. Eda preferred your kind of dark and self-deprecating sense of humor, it was very similar to hers and according to her, you were also the person with the best style for clothes in the house. Despite the fact, you believe she just said that to make fun of the Sailor Moon t-shirt Lilith was wearing that day.

About Lilith...Well, you wouldn't say you were friends. But she says good morning to you now, which you once considered a breakthrough.

It was a cloudy afternoon on the boiling isles that day and you were reading, as usual. This time one of Lilith's magic books that magically appeared in the books pile of your room. It could have been Luz, but you had a hunch it wasn't her. A hunch that always made your cheeks heat. The book was particularly intriguing and brought some magic fundamentals in this world. Lilith made notes all over it and her handwriting is exceptionally perfect. The type of handwriting a girl who sat at the first desk and used colored pens for her notes would have. But you weren't complaining, she had pretty interesting insights and the beautiful handwriting allowed you to understand what she saw in each different chapter or paragraph.

You were about to move your feet because you were getting cramped as King was wrapped around your ankles when Eda walked into the room absolutely suddenly.

"Can you help me to make a chocolate cake?" Your first action was to frown over the top of your book, mostly because you didn't know if you got it right.

"I heard Luz muttering about how she missed the earth chocolate cakes." She says this with her arms crossed behind her back as if she's trying to pretend she doesn't care a lot about it. The owl lady would have to pretend better. You were in this house for less than 2 weeks and you were already fully aware she would kill to keep Luz happy.

"We can try." It was your reply as you got up from the couch. Eda smiled broadly, in a way that completely clashed with her previous attitude. Her eyes sparkled and you inwardly pushed the thought you would have loved to have a mother like her far away.

You made a list for her with drawings on the side so she would know exactly what to buy. Luckily for you, the ingredients for a chocolate cake were quite common on the boiling isles, due to human food experiments among witches, and 20 minutes later the owl lady was back, ready for you to get to work.

"What's so special about a chocolate cake?" Eda asked as you poured two fairly full tablespoons of cocoa powder into the bowl she was holding. She has her hair tied up now which makes her eyes a lot more evident. They look bigger than Lilith's, or maybe it was the other witch who didn't open them up enough like her sister.

“Well, they're sweet and fluffy. Every child loves chocolate cake and every adult pretends not to.” Edalyn frowns at this which makes you laugh as you reach for the milk carton and measure it into the cup so you can pour it into the bowl. "Adults on earth are not quite like you, owl lady, I'm afraid." Eda frowns a little more. "It was a compliment. Adults usually pretend they like things they hate and hate things they love because some things have just become too childish in the face of what society says.” The witch raises her eyebrows at you and you shrug, putting the last touch on the batter, a pinch of salt.

"Sounds like a bunch of jerks." Your smile crept across your face as you handed the wooden spoon to the owl lady.

“I have to agree. Circular movements." You imitate the movement with your own hand and Eda nods with her head before starting to mix the cake batter.

You go to the oven to get a cake pan and then start to grease it with butter and flour. Eda follows your steps with interest, she was actually memorizing each of the ingredients and each of your moves.

She was a good mother. The real kind of good mother. The kind that tries to learn how to make out-of-this-world goodies just to please the child.

"Luz is lucky to have you." The words just come out, float in the heated kitchen space, between you and the owl lady. Edalyn tilts her head toward you, just enough for it to be noticeable. She smirks then, light and delicate, the kind of smile she reserved for when Luz said something silly that made her caress her hair.

"Thank you, kid." You truly liked Eda. She was sincere in everything she did, there were no masks, no core to dig under her skin to discover any kind of unexternalized feeling. This is her. And you like how she is, humorous, playful, motherly, and quite chaotic.

You find yourself thinking about how they were as kids. Was Lilith ever a little more like her sister? A little wilder, more playful, or even more open?

It was at that moment that Luz entered pretty much like a hurricane through the living room door. You frowned and then laughed as she tripped over her own feet to reach the kitchen while she yelled a rather high-pitched “Eda”.

"Kiddo, if you haven't killed anyone or anyone is in danger of death, breathe." You went to help the girl up with one hand, but Eda's wheeze made you laugh at which Luz grimaced.

“We learned about the most amazing thing today in illusion class.” She said as she sat down at the kitchen table. You go get a glass of water and land in front of her which she thanks with a look. The girl looked like she was about to collapse. She was panting and her hair was sticking with her sweat.

"Was it about the vomit spell?" Luz frowned at Eda and then scowled.

“Ew, Eda. No. It was about the mating bond.” She drank the entire glass of water then, her face finally leaving the red to go back to brown, even though sweat still glistened golden on her forehead.

"What is that?" Your question makes Luz widen her eyes and again, it's like feeling her excitement leave her pores. She seems like she's about to burst into a million words and you're ready to hear every one of them.

She looks so much like Eda in personality that it's hard to believe they aren't related.

"It's like a soul mate for us. Between two individuals, males, females, different genders, different species even." She seemed pretty excited by that last part and your mind goes straight to Amity. "But by the way they say it sounds a lot stronger. Not like something you choose." Luz takes a deep breath for a moment and then smirks in a way that tells you that a certain girl with green hair is on her head 24/7. It's cute. They're pretty cute.

"It's stronger." Eda announced while she was still beating the cake. Two more minutes and you could bake. She doesn't seem very interested in the subject, but unlike Lilith, she didn't mind explaining. "A lot of witches die without meeting their mate. It's a unique connection in time and space, created and guided by beings greater than us and impossible to ignore once found. It's almost painful for most of us." You frown slightly, wondering how physically painful it could be to ignore a simple bond.

A soul mate who wasn't chosen, so what's the point of that? Bigger beings who just knew who the right person was? Sounds kind of ridiculous. It could just be your sense of realism sounding too loud though.

"Have you found your mate?" The question escaped before you could predict it. You feel stupid right away. If it was even painful to ignore that bond then it was pretty obvious that Eda hadn't found it. Yet you didn't think before asking and feel your ears heating up in embarrassment.

Eda didn't look flustered about it in any way. She just smirked at you, like one who smiles at a small child who has just asked a stupid question, golden fang sticking out of red-tinted lips.

"No...I haven't. And I don't even think I will. Uneven odds." You frown, even more, not wanting to ask any other thing because you've already been The inconvenient question. Still, Eda proceeds the same way. "Listen, kiddo. Having a mate is something extremely unique and special to have, but the odds are minimum. We can't wait around for a mate all our lives or we're going to die without experiencing the slightest bit of passion or love.” There's silence for a moment and you can't deny that Edalyn is right. Who would have expected greater beings to finally guide you into the special one? This wasn't living.

Luz nodded, she looked a little resigned now, which almost made you ruffle her hair in consolation.

Eda wasn't wrong. But if you were at Luz age, you wish you could believe in crap like destiny, soul mates, or mating bonds. It's just good to be silly when you're 14 and you have a crush on a pretty girl. The disappointing reality could hit her later.

"Our teacher didn't want to explain how we know if we're mates with someone." She added then and Eda's laugh fills the kitchen this time. You smile because Edalyn Clawthorne's laugh was one of the most contagious you've ever heard. Luz laughs too even though she doesn't understand the reason for and that relieves you. Even after a reality shock, Luz Noceda was still luminous and believed. She was a believer and you would like to protect her from everything so that she stays that way.

"I imagine they didn't." Eda muttered under a wheeze, wiping the corners of her eyes to go back to beating the cake. "Usually you can feel your mate when they are close after recognizing the bond. It's almost like a link connecting you, your soul with theirs. You can feel their emotions, you can feel them in place. In the most intense mating bonds, I remember some saying they could even hear their partner's thoughts. But for you to be sure, there must be carnal consummation to accept the bond, kiddo." Your eyes widen and so does Luz. She doesn't blush, unlike you who feel the heat rise incredibly quickly in your ears at the prospect of having this kind of conversation with the owl lady.

You weren't a virgin but taking a mini sex education class with Eda Clawthorne wasn't in your plans.

"Oh." Added Luz and you are sure she will be as red as you. But she doesn't. She just chuckles, her eyes shining. "That would make a great fanfic." Your laugh is really loud this time, Eda giggles too and Luz follows her. And you are three idiots laughing in the kitchen for long minutes. "Wait!" Luz frowns as she looks at you and then sniffs the air. "Is this smell of chocolate cake?" She didn't wait for an answer, she practically jumped out of her chair as soon as you stopped laughing and ran to reach Eda's bowl. “Oh my Gosh! Can I lick the spoon later?” The witch widened her eyes at you and you gave a thumbs up with your hand.

"Of course." She responded, making Luz raise her arms in a little celebration dance.

“I'm going to change. DO NOT WASH MY SPOON.” She was about to walk out the door when she stopped. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly before she ran back again to grab Eda's waist in a hug. Your heart warmed and softened in every way possible as you watched this little gesture. “Thanks for that, Eda. You shouldn't have bothered." Eda placed a loud kiss on the top of Luz's head as she couldn't move her hands.

"Don’t mention it, kiddo." She pulled away and then your eyes almost flew from your face when she ran again, this time towards you. She doesn't ask before wrapping her arms around your torso.

This is your first sincere hug in a long time. That's why you close your eyes without even noticing. The body heat, a little shorter than you, the thin arms around you, the soft smell of mint and sweat. You rub her hair with a slight smile.

Comfort. You certainly think about the earth, a lot, because that was your home. But what you feel when Luz grabs you in a hug is simply comfort. Something far from what you felt at home.

"Thank you, Y/N." She leans up to reach your ear. “I know Eda would have no idea what cocoa powder is.” You let out a little giggle and only then does Luz go. Waving to you and the owl lady before disappearing through the kitchen archway.

"Oven now, right?" You nodded and helped Eda to pour the cake batter  into the pan and then put it in the oven.

"40 minutes and we will have my grandmother's chocolate cake." Eda was smiling as she leaned her hip against the table, right beside you.

"My grandmother cooked pretty poorly." You giggled at that feeling, the cake smell made your stomach rumble a little.

(...)

"This is easily the tastiest thing I've ever eaten." King glorified your cake for maybe the third or fourth time before stuffing another piece into his mouth. "It's so soft, so fluffy, so sweet, I could dominate entire breeds with this flavor." Your brows furrowed at that, but Luz chuckled as she took another bite.

Eda appreciated the taste too, even though it wasn't the kind of food a witch was used to having on a daily basis.

“Hoot. Hoot. Delicious.” Hooty added. He was enjoying a piece placed on the window frame for him. You had no idea where what he ate was going to, but you weren't too eager to find out.

Everyone is eating cake in the living room. Well. Everyone but one. You haven't seen Lilith since breakfast. Luz arrived late from school and Eda was cooking so she didn't check your spells today and that must have been the perfect excuse for Lilith to stay in her room all day.

You're not sure if you blame her. Not with the rain that started to fall outside, boiling rain, for which Eda had to build a golden shield around the house with Luz's help and a combination of glyphs you remembered to write down. And not with the cold that was coming from the same weather. If it wasn't for the fireplace in the living room, you would  try to hide under the blankets as well.

“Lilith isn't coming for dinner? Or for dessert before dinner?” It was as if Luz read your thoughts, you tilt your head to look at Eda, hoping the question was evident on your face. She purses her lips for a moment before shrugging.

“Maybe she's tired. We've been working a lot these days.” Well, it wasn't a lie. But it wasn't a completely truth either.

You could be a nosy brat when you wanted to. You are lucky you never have too many friends, as you would surely get them into trouble in your various miscalculated actions. For example, counseling Ms. Smith about how her husband was abusive and she should leave him. Or when you kicked that guy in the balls because he stumbled over an old lady and walked away as if she was a piece of garbage. You were a nosy brat when you didn't have your nose in a book. That's why you cut a piece of cake and put it on a plate before getting up from the couch and heading upstairs. You feel all the residents' eyes on your back, they're not judging, you can feel they're a little worried, which might be considered a well-founded fear, but Eda is the only one speaking.

"Watch out with my sister! She can be a magpie." You frown at that word again, but don't ask before getting to the stairs.

Luz's room was at the end of the corridor, right after, yours. Eda had the one in the middle and if you weren't mistaken Lilith had the one across the hall between two junk rooms.

You wonder if this was really a good idea. If Lilith wanted to eat she could just go down stairs and eat like she did every day. This is just another example of how you don't really control everything you do around her. She intrigues you, you want to understand her, and you do this kind of stupid thing trying it. If she kicked you away, literally, you couldn't even blame her.

You raise your fist and hesitate two or three times before knocking on the door.

There's no sound for a moment, which almost convinces you she could be sleeping. But you hear it in the next second, the sound of feet hitting the floor, almost as slowly as your knock on the door. Your heart starts beating faster as you hear footsteps approaching. What the hell would you say? Hi Lilith, I know you've been in your room since early and that you probably don't want to talk to anyone but I brought you a piece of human chocolate cake, smile.

God. You are pathetic.

The door opens. Extremely slow. Or maybe it's your nervousness turning everything into slow motion.

But as soon as the door opens completely, you regret going up all the way and knocking on her door.

God. She looked beautiful in those pajamas. The blue sweater that falls over one of her shoulders, leaving most of her collarbones exposed, the pants loose. It fits so well with her eyes, even if it's not the same color, it seems that the duplicity of colors further enhances the difference between her irises.

Lilith looks truly surprised to see you there, in her bedroom door, and then really confused. Why do you feel the heat rising and warming your ears by being right under her gaze? And why the hell did she have to be tall enough for you to be forced to lift your head to look at her?

"May I help you?" You have to hold back the urge to moisten your dry lips with the tip of your tongue, shifting your weight from one foot to the other as you look at her. She still looks the same, different eyes, white streak running through her pitch-black hair. Her voice is still the same, slightly hoarse and in a very balanced timbre. She wasn't abducted and exchanged for someone else just because she was in her room all day.

“I…” Stuttering now would be the height of high school shame, so you force your voice to steady. "I brought you cake." Lilith's eyebrows got even more pronounced and you could almost see “what the hell” written on her forehead. "Eda and I made it, it's pretty good." Pretty good. Pathetic. You are so pathetic. Why did you have to act so stupid in front of beautiful women who intrigued you? You were old enough to know how to control this kind of impulse, right? Well apparently not, you feel like you're a kid again.

It's Lilith's turn to moisten her lower lip with the tip of her tongue, as if she were analyzing what you were doing. Her eyes play between the cake and your face, her eyebrows rising, her eyes narrowing. What are your reasons?

If you were honest, you didn't even know why you came up here with a cake. Perhaps being nice would make her open up a little more, make her finally a little more readable. Her absence bothers you, you were so constantly aware of her presence that her absence at such ordinary times makes something stir under your skin.

You feel like a kid. An incredibly stupid kid trying to please the teacher with an apple on the first day of school.

"I...I'll save a piece for you...In the fridge...If you don't-don't want to eat now." You simply want to end your shame session. It was a huge mistake to nosy and climb up here with a piece of cake. That's why you turn your back on Lilith. Determined to go back to the living room and stick your head in a hole for the rest of your days.

Stupidity. Complete stupidity.

Her gaze on you is completely noticeable even from behind. She's probably wondering why the hell she even decided to help you out that day at the market. She brought a clueless to the house that keeps chasing her around the corners. At least that's how you feel.

You take the first step and would have immediately returned from where you shouldn't have left with abrupt steps. 

However, that's the moment you hear her voice.

"Wait." She doesn't need to say it a second time. Her voice is clear, but a little hoarse, what you think, is from sleep. You stand in place as if she had used magic, which you're pretty sure she didn't. "Do you want to come in?" The words echo. You turn away, excessively slowly even for your senses, and your eyebrows almost knit together in doubt. The words fall into your ears, reach your brain, but they don't make much sense. You can't decode them very well. You lift your head to find Lilith Clawthorne again, and you have to use everything in you not to ask what she meant. "I...I'm just going to change and I can go down stairs with you." Well, you could go downstairs and wait in the living room, but you weren't the one reminding her of that. Also because there was that slight pink blush on her ears, as well as on her cheeks and you sure as hell you weren't imagining that.

It was shame, embarrassment. Her fingers dig into the doorframe, which you take to be a nervous, almost withdrawn gesture.

Lilith Clawthorne embarrassed was something you might as well name the loveliest thing you've ever seen.

"Sure." The reply comes out of your mouth, but you're not sure if it was your brain sending that command. She tilts her head toward your, lips pursed in what would be the beginning of a smile.

And then she steps away from the door and lets you in.

She heads toward a door at the back of the room, which you understands for a bathroom. The sound indicates she has locked herself in there and then you are alone.

Lilith's bedroom is easily the brightest in the entire house. There are several lights in the ceiling that you would imagine are mostly kept by her magic, they are charming little chandeliers that don't allow any dark corners to form in the room. You wonder if there is a reason for this.

There is a desk just beside the door. That's where you leave the cake plate. Numerous books stacked up there, as well as a few notebooks and several pencils, but completely organized. Just like the bookshelf, full of books, you can't tell if they're in alphabetical order or by color. A big chair raises next to the wide window, with a few different plants on the casement, the seat is big enough to accommodate more than one person and the ends of the back are carved in a raven shape, as you'd expect.

There's a wardrobe and a trunk on the other wall, but there's not much furniture beyond that. Just large mirror hanging on the wall, nothing like the posters in Luz's room, just cream-colored wallpaper.

Finally there is her bed. But it's not exactly a bed. It's a large surface surrounded by branches that are tightly woven together to form a very wide circle, not a single branch out of place, which makes the nest look much more organized than your own bed. In the center are more braided branches and various colorful blankets on top, including one filled with stars and some pillows. She did a great job making that place look super comfy.

If Eda is the owl lady. She is surely the raven lady. 

Yet, and this is definitely what draws the most attention in the entire room, there is something reminiscent of a crib mobile hanging over the nest's entire surface. Glittering stones and miscellaneous objects wrap themselves in tiny silver strands to form the most brilliant and quirky ornament you've ever seen.

And it's extraordinarily beautiful. You approach for a closer look and find some very polished keys, some small light bulbs, pieces of glass that she has molded into octahedrons, precious stones and even a small mirror ball that makes a small smile appear on your face.

You step back so you don't look too suspicious when she comes out of the bathroom and that's when you see a single picture frame on the bookcase, one you hadn't noticed before, probably because of the shiny mobile. You walk there and lean over, only for the most pathetic smile in the world come to your mouth.

Eda's easy to identify. It's the same big, animated eyes and the same wide smile. She has apicot orange hair and clings to the waist of another little girl slightly taller than her. You wouldn't say it was Lilith, if it weren't for her green eyes, just like the one she had. One, because both Eda and Lilith had ordinary eyes as children, amber and green, there were no gray eyes. Lilith's hair is wild, wavy and the color of fire and she wears a pair of rather adorable round glasses on the tip of her nose.

You could see that Eda and Lilith were sisters as soon as you caught sight of them, from the shape of the face and the heterochromatic eyes. But now, looking at this photo from when they were young, you're surprised at how much they look alike. Even the shape of the hands looks the same.

"I was 12, Eda was 10." You jump in place when Lilith appears completely out of nowhere beside you. Your heart seems to stop in your throat for a moment and she twitches the corner of her mouth at you before turning her eyes back to the photograph. She's wearing the same clothes from the day she found you at the market, but without her boots, which leaves her with only one head of height advantage.

"Yeah...I recognized Eda." Lilith then lets out a low giggle. She... She laughed. The sound is like nothing you've ever heard. Because you don't think you ever truly heard her laugh with you. She has an amusing, slightly mischievous giggle that makes all the hairs on the back of your head stand up out of control. 

"It's probably my fault." She picks up the frame and watches herself for a moment. Your eyes are on her, on her straight black hair, on her glasses missing. You so want to ask why. “Two spells. One to fix my myopia, another to make my hair look like this.” She returns the photo to its place, arranging it in a way that you understand is important to her.

She loves Eda. There aren't many things you're sure of about Lilith, but she loves Eda. You've already suspected that by the way she acted around her, but now just with that little gesture, you understand she loves her. Even though they were so different and they sure had a lot of disagreements over the years like most siblings. Which reminds you of something that is also missing from that photo. Earrings. Eda wasn't wearing any, just like Lilith.

"Don't you like earrings?" It's not a very personal question and it's certainly not a question designed to understand Lilith Clawthorne, but it's a start. You had to start somewhere.

"What do you mean?" Her eyes lock on your face and it's extremely hard not to feel overwhelmed when that witch's full attention was on you, when those too-intense eyes were on you, in an empty room a few inches away.

Your ears get a little warmer and your breathing hitches a little.

 

"Hmm...Eda wears earrings, Amity too, so I thought it was common among female withes as much as it's common among female people on earth." Her brows furrow softly before she shrugs for a moment. You suddenly realize that it might have been a little rude to ask this because it meant you had been staring at her ears for some time.

"I have the holes." She lifts her hands to her ears, tracing her lobes with her fingertips. "But it didn't quite match my outfit in the emperor's coven." You try not to show your surprise at actually getting personal information. She was in the emperor's coven. She was an ally of the one everyone in this house seemed to want to slaughter with all their might. That didn't explain much, but it was already a path. "I should probably go back to wearing it now, there's nothing in my outfit that matches anything anyway." You smile a little at that, remembering Eda's mockery of her clothes.

For some reason, you remember the weight of your own earrings in your ears. This was your favorite pair, moon and star, a sapphire gem in each. It was your grandmother who gave it to you, because you were the kind of kid who would go in the middle of the night, in the middle of the backyard just to look at the moon. Always with your head in the clouds.

"Here." You don't ponder. You do. Your fingers reach for the earring back, the one shaped like the moon, pulling it out easily.

Lilith's eyebrows almost join in doubt.

"What? What are you doing?" You weren't sure if there was a chance of her casting a spell on you if you tried. But the fact that the glyph pad was on the desk gives you enough confidence to brush aside one of the smaller hair strands that framed her face to reach her earlobe. Her hair is soft and silky smooth.

She stays still. Completely paralyzed when you put the earring through the hole and put it back on. Her skin feels even warmer than the last time you touched her, even though you try your best not to brush your fingers against her any more than necessary.

"One earring for a pointy ear, one earring for a round ear." You didn't mean for your voice to come out as a whisper, but your hands were shaking now. You could be very impulsive at times and this was definitely one of those moments. Your ears are burning and you're pretty sure your face is a red mess. You put an earring in Lilith's ear. Simply put an earring in her ear.

You don't want to look her in the eye because you don't know if you can face what's there, she might have found it so weird or even extremely invasive, you had no idea. That was very stupid of you. You should at least have asked first.

Still, when you finally look up, she's just looking at you. Ears slightly reddened and head tilted. There is a silent question there, there is a why that echoes between the small space that separates you two.

"It matches the gray eye." She opens her mouth as if to say something, maybe something about her eyes, but then she closes it again. A new blush rising around her nose as she lowered her eyes. Her ears move the same way and this is for sure the cutest thing you've ever seen.

"Thank you, Y/N." Your name sounds good in her voice, almost massaged into her tongue. When she walks away this time the cold is instantaneous. Perhaps because you didn't even notice it was hot again.

Your arms curl around yourself as Lilith picks up her plate of cake and sniffs it before picking up the fork and tasting a bite.

You watch with interest and are surprised when her pupils double in size, enough for you to notice even a few steps away.

"This is interesting." You catch your lower lip between your teeth to stop the laugh that wants to come out of your mouth.

"I'm glad you liked it." Lilith looks at you again, she has some chocolate smearing the corner of her mouth. She stretches her lips just enough for the beginning of another smile. Quite adorable.

"I'm only honest when it rains." And that's when you realize how screwed up you were. Because she just needs to purse her lips a little bit so you forget about anything else you were thinking about earlier. She just needs to nod her head the right way or say your name for your heart to start beating a little faster and your ears getting warmer.

You wanted to know that witch and now you believe you have fallen into a path of no return.

How lucky was the human who created a crush on the most emotionally cold witch of all boiling isles?

Well, you've never been known to be born lucky.

Chapter 5

[jay-zzz87]

Prompt: Luz comes back

I feel angsty today so have some hard written angst. I tried not to hold back so if you cry, whoops. Don't worry, there's other stuff at the end.

3 years

It's been 3 years since Luz left the demon realm, and now she's making her way back. Camila was stern on when Luz could return, but after some discussions, she allowed Luz to go back after she graduated. Luz was now 18 and ready to go back to the Boiling Isles. Luz couldn't believe it's been 3 years since she left. She grabbed the key from a drawer in her desk and pressed the eye. The portal unfolded and in she went. Luz felt tears in her eyes as she look to the side to find the owl house. She immediately ran to the front, only to be greeted by the infamous bird tube.

Hooty: LUZ

Luz: HOOTY

Hooty wrapped around Luz and squeezed her a bit too hard. He quickly released her and Luz caught her breath.

Hooty: IT'S SO GOOD TO SEE YOU. WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU EVERYDAY. I CAN'T WAIT TO SHOW. THE COOL THINGS I'VE DONE.

Luz: I can't wait to here all about it but where's Eda and King?

Hooty: THEY'RE INSIDE

Luz swung oppen the door and took a peep inside. The place almost looked abandoned. She walk in and the lights suddenly came on.

Everyone: SURPRISE

Luz screamed. She didn't expect to see everyone in the house.

Luz: Hi everyone. You almost scared me to death.

Eda: Sorry kid, we just wanted to give you a warm welcome.

Luz rushed over to hug everyone. She noticed that all was here except for one person.

Luz: Hey guys, where's Amity.

Willow and Gus looked a each other nervously.

Willow: She's...uh...busy.

Luz: Of course she is. What's she up to?

Willow: She still does abomination magic

Willow looked over at Gus for help.

Gus: She's better at it

Luz could sense something was wrong, but didn't really question it.

Luz: Is there a chance that I could see her

Gus: NO

Luz stared at Gus who just realized he might've made the situation worse.

Willow: She's probably really busy and doesn't want anyone to bother her. You know how she can get.

Luz: I'm sure she wouldn't mind seeing me though?

Willow and Gus forgot how stubborn Luz can somtimes be. Willow gave in and sighed, hoping she wasn't gonna need to deliver the news.

Willow: Look Luz, I didn't wanna say anything because it's not my place but there is something you should know about Amity.

Luz got worried. Really worried. She started thinking of what horrible things could've happened while she was gone.

Luz: What happened to my Amity. DID SHE DIE?

Willow: NO. No. She didn't die. She's just... engaged.

Luz was stunned. Amity? Engaged? HOW? Luz remembered the promise they made before Luz left.

-Flashback-

Amity was sobbing loudly into Luz's chest. She didn't want to let Luz go. She was too scared too. Luz held onto Amity and tried to calm her down. This wasn't easy for any of them, but they knew this would happen eventually.

Luz: Just because I'm leaving doesn't mean this is goodbye forever. I will always be with you and I promise I'll come back.

Amity: But what if something happens. What if you lose feelings and fall for a human. Or what if you get hurt. I don't wanna lose you.

Luz: You won't lose me. I would never fall for someone in the human world. You will always be my cotton candy haired goddess.

Amity looked up to see Luz's golden eyes. Luz pulled Amity into a long passionate kiss. The two girls savored the kiss, for it felt like it would be their last.

Luz: I love you Amity Blight. Nothing will ever change that

Amity: I love you too, Luz Noceda.

Luz: I promise I'll come back

Amity: I promise I'll never love another.

-flash-forward-

Luz couldn't find the strength to move. She was distraught. Did Amity really move on? No. There has to be an explanation. Right? Luz couldn't feel the hot tears falling on the side of her face. Willow felt terrible. She should've never told Luz about Amity. But she was bound to find out eventually.

The welcoming party ended shortly after and everyone went home. Luz laid on the floor in her room. She didn't feel like eating or going outside for the rest of the day. She couldn't even sleep at night. She just stayed awake thinking about Amity. After some time, Luz decided to head into the woods to clear her mind.

Luz walked around the woods and observed the scenery. She picked up a stick and begin to play with. She remembered the time in the woods when she decided to stand in Amity's place as grom queen. Luz immediately dropped the stick like it was burning her hand. She kicked it out of the way and kept moving foward. Luz realized she had no way of getting back but kept walking. She stopped after she heard a twig snap nearby. She grabbed a glyph from her pocket and proceeded cautiously.

Luz: Ok Luz, it's probably nothing. You're ok.

Luz prepared herself. She let out a war cry and threw out a plant glyph. Vines shot out of the paper and captured a young witch by the leg. Luz lit the forest with a light glyph and guided the light towards the witch. Luz stumbled backwards after seeing who the witch was before her. Luz caught Amity Blight.

Amity struggled to get down. She drew a circle and cast fire magic to burn the vines that held her captive. Amity fell to the forest floor. Luz was hesitant in reaching her hand to help the witch. Luz lifted up the witch and they met eye to eye. Amity's eyes widened at the sight before her. Her eyes were filled with tears.

Amity: LUZ?

Luz couldn't do much. She wanted to run away but she knew she couldn't. Luz looked at Amity's finger and sure enough, there was a golden ring present. Before Luz could do or say anything, Amity wrapped her arms around Luz to hug her. Luz didn't know how to respond. There were many mixed signals her. Luz pushed off Amity which left Amity confused.

Luz: Why are you happy to see me?

Amity: What? Why wouldn't I be.

Luz: Because I know you don't love me anymore.

Amity: What? Of course I still love you

Luz: THEN HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THIS

Luz grabbed Amity's hand with the ring on it and held it up. Amity was shocked to see Luz noticed. But she couldn't hide it.

Amity: Luz, please let me explain.

Luz: EXPLAIN WHAT. You don't love me anymore. I thought you would've kept your promise, but I guess that was just wishful thinking. Either way, I should've known you would've found someone better than me.

Amity: Luz, you don't know the whole story. Just let me explain.

Luz didn't wanna hear it. For all she knew, the situation could've been worse. Luz tried walking away but Amity held onto her arm. Amity cried for Luz to stay.

Amity: Please Luz. Just hear me out.

Luz turned around and faced Amity.

Amity: Thank you. Luz I promise I still love you, but this marriage was not by choice. This was an arranged marriage set up by my parents.

Luz couldn't say anything. She felt bad for yelling at Amity. She let her emotions get the better of her. Luz looked at Amity. She reached out to caress Amity's cheek. Amity leaned against her touch and purred. Luz giggled at the sound the Blight made.

Luz: I missed your purrs.

Amity blushed.

Amity: I missed you.

Luz pulled Amity into a passionate kiss. Luz and Amity's tongues danced as they were hungry for eachother. As they pulled away, Luz whispered into Amity's ear.

Luz: So who were you supposed to marry?

Amity: Boscha.

Luz: WHAT

Amity: I know it's bad, but I'm trying to find a way to escape.

Luz thought for a moment. She knew the perfect way to get Amity out of this.

Luz: I could help you.

Amity: It's no use. My parents hardly let go out and they're always watching me.

Luz: How did you escape this time?

Amity: I had Em cover for me.

Luz: Then lets run. Right now.

Amity: I can't leave Em by herself.

Luz: Then we'll go back for her. Is she allowed to leave?

Amity: She doesn't live with us anymore. So maybe?

Luz: Then we can tell her to leave right?

Amity: I guess. But what if she gets in trouble and gets hurt or something because I'm not there.

Luz: Don't worry. We can work this out.

Amity: Thank you Luz

Luz: Also, why were you in the woods at night?

Amity: I heard you came back

Luz: You really waited for me after all this time?

Amity: Of course I did my love. I promised, didn't I?

Luz smiled and gave Amity a peck on the lips. The two were happy to be in each others arms after 3 years.

[alansparkshark]

Alright, this hit me like a Boarbatusk. Or a truck. Same thing.

So, here I am, happily making some RWBY OCs. I get to their Semblances and think: "What can I give them that's useful and connected to their character?" Cuz, you know,

I don't quite get it from that explanation though, so my next thought is: "Well, let's look at the original cast, see what they got and how it pertains to their characters."

And yet the more I looked, the more a thought grew in me.

"There's aren't so much decided by their personalities as they are by their wishes."

Now, hear me out here. For most Semblances we've seen yet and have heard/seen the unlocking of, they seem to have appeared in a moment of need, a moment of physical or emotional stress.

And it always seems to pertain to certain desires the user has.

Alright, let's just start from somewhere. Let me explain my thought process.

I take a character who's Semblance we know of, then check their backstory and personality. Then I check if said backstory/personality could lead to a desire in said character. And finally, I try to see if that desire connects directly to the Semblance of the character in question.

Let's start with someone who's Semblance we not only know, but saw the moment they found it.

Lie Ren.

First off, we check their personality/backstory. Ren is a quiet, less emotionally expressive character. He seems to stay calm in every moment. As the story progresses, he grows more expressive - in current-day Kuroyuri, he is shown in a rage.

So far, it seems fitting that such a character gets a Semblance such as "Calmness", as I'll dub it.

But it's the moment that he unlocks it that makes it interesting.

Up until that point, we've seen Ren as an excitable little boy. He went from store to store, trying to find something to buy his father for his return. He shows a lot of emotions at that point. When the Nuckelavee attacks and his parents perish, he is panicked beyond belief and is hiding under an archway. He notices Nora a little ways away, in a similar state. He wants to help her. He wants to take action, but he's too panicked to move. He wants to calm down , he tries and tries and- his Semblance activates. His desire to calm down activated his unique ability - to instill calmness despite negative emotions. His wish was to do as his father and mother did - be brave and inspire others to feel the same.

In other words, his Semblance was unlocked by his desire to be calm so he could be reliable to those he cares about.

Alright, next big example - Jaune.

His Semblance was first hinted at in "Forever Fall, pt.2" as Cardin attempted to give Jaune the good ol' knuckle sandwich, only hurt his hand after a bright flash of light (This'll be of importance later). The next time we see it is alllll the way in "Vault of The Spring Maiden", and this time it was fully unlocked. His Semblance of Aura Amplification is one that I personally feel really fits his character - he doesn't want to protect his friends. He wants to do as Pyrrha did for him at Beacon - bring them up, assist them in achieving new heights but not doing it instead of them. Notice how I again used "wants". His desire to do as a good leader should, bring up his teammates, is the basis of his Semblance. It's the same with when he blocked Cardin's punch - he wanted to bring himself up from the pitiful state he was in at the time, not just protect himself from the pain but have the strength to overcome it.

Alright, next up on the list... is Raven, surprisingly.

She was one of the easiest to piece to this logic, as she and Qrow have an irony with their Semblances. But back to Raven.

Her Semblance is "Connection", as I'll call it. It's premise is relatively simple - she can create a portal to those she has a strong emotional connection to. The list so far includes Qrow (brother & teammate), Taiyang (lover & teammate), Yang (daughter) and Vernal (right-hand woman until her untimely demise). We know about Vernal due to process of elimination - unless you wanna imply she actually had a connection to Cinder or her companions. And yet, her whole story is how she abandoned her daughter and her husband. She told Qrow "they owed everything to the Branwen tribe", strongly implying, if not confirming she feels a sense of thankfulness to the people who raised her when she needed it. She admonished Qrow for deserting the clan. She feels a sense of duty towards them. And yet, her Semblance is based entirely on emotional connection - something I doubt is of great importance in a bandit clan composed of "killers and thieves", in Qrow's words. I'd hazard to guess that a childhood in a bandit clan would easily stir a desire to form lasting bonds - something easily achievable when you can make portals. Despite her sense of duty, she still desires a strong emotional bond, devoid of power dynamics and a sense of "we may die any day". Something she had with Taiyang and Yang. Something she had with Qrow and Vernal, despite the circumstances. Really adds a layer to her character if you put it like that.

Alright, who's next... hm, let's put Qrow on the dissection table now.

His Semblance of "Misfortune" seems awfully contradictory to his character, that of a caring man who can barely stand to hurt those close to him, even if they're not family and friends. Why would that be his Semblance?

Well, he obviously didn't have a great opinion of the Branwen tribe. Who knows, maybe what Raven saw as being saved, Qrow saw as being used. Maybe he wished that they'd be caught by bad luck, that the tribe would just collapse and disappear. But that spite evolved into his current Semblance - everyone around him suffers while he's only really left with emotional scars.

Welp. That was depressing. Who's up for getting at Nora next.

Now, this is gonna be pretty short this time. There's not a lot to talk about. She sees Ren as her emotional anchor, her savior. She wants to give back for what he does. She sees he's struggling on the physical side (he's pretty low on the endurance, as evident multiple times throughout the show), so she desires to be strength he's lacking in. And look where that got her - her Semblance, "Charging" makes her grow exponentially stronger the more electricity she absorbs. She can even channel it into objects, like Magnhild or an Ursa. I'd say mission successful, you funky little Thor ginger.

Let's finish up JNPR with their resident apology machine - Pyrrha.

So, we know she'd been in many tournaments. She's the Invincible Girl. The three-time Mistral regional battle tournament winner. She's honestly a gladiator. And what does a gladiator crave? Victory. That's where her overpowered (in comparison to others) Semblance appeared from. She simply wanted to beat her opponents more easily. Well, until she didn't want all the fame that came along with her power.

Alright, who do we mentally lay bare... Hm, Velvet seems simple enough.

What's there to say - a shy, bullied bunny. She's a second year in the first year's history class. I'd say that would do some things to your confidence. And what's her Semblance? Well it just so happens to be "Movement Copying". She can copy a person's physical movements, even if she has not seen them, as shown in "Heroes and Monsters". Makes sense - her desire to be as strong as those around her shows both in her Semblance and her weapon (which is basically a weapon-copying camera). She doesn't have confidence that she's strong, so she (quite literally) does as those around her.

Hm, who next... oooh, how about Yang?

"...basically a temper tantrum", I'd call it "Rise Up". This also can connect to a desire. Yang, being repeatedly battered by one damaging event after the other - her mother abandoning her, her stepmother dying, likely a depression in her father and mothering Ruby. The girl has likely been brought down more than once. But she desires to get stronger from it, so much so that the desire has become a characteristic. She shows so when she decides to find Ruby, when she decides to start training again. She has done it again and again and she'll continue doing it - her desire is now another part of her personality that won't break.

Alright, we put Yang here, how about we make a Bumbleby combo and go for Blake next.

"Shadows", now that's a name I can get behind. She "leaves an empty shell, a shadow to take the hit while she runs". It's, all things considered, a kind of cowardly Semblance. It's basically "here, beat on this while I dodge away and escape the attack". And with the recent events, we've seen she doesn't wanna run anymore - yet she retains her Semblance unchanged? Makes no sense if it's connected to a personality trait. But if it's connected to a desire, then it would make perfect sense. Firstly, she's a Faunus. We know for a fact that there's Faunus discrimination (seriously, if the Adam short and Adam's scar aren't enough proof for you...) and that she was fighting against it in protests. And if our world is anything to go by... yeah, it's easy to see how peaceful any counter-protests would be. Not to mention Adam himself. From all those factors collected, well, the thought process behind the desire her Semblance is founded on becomes obvious - she realised the racists only saw an animal, nothing of importance where Blake stood. So she gave them just that - an empty sandbag to hit while she runs. I'm not gonna get into Adam, as I'm simply sick of the topic.

Hmm, who's left... Well, Weiss has a familial Semblances. The Schnee Glyphs aren't so much unique as the summons included. Really, the only thing unique about her Semblance is who she summons, as we've seen a Queen Lancer, a Boarbatusk and the Arma Gigas, unlike Winter, who we've seen with a flock of tiny Nevermores and a Beowolf. The show says the Schnee family Semblance is a very rare thing, a passed-down-by-blood power. So it's an understandable outlier.

Let's look at Ruby next... Well, she seems to be a very big outlier to this theory of mine. Her silver eyes have more to do with her desires than her Speed. Maybe she has a desire we have yet to see? Anyways, I don't quite have an explanation for Ruby, so I'll leave her aside.

Let's clean our palates with Sun, then.

His Semblance, "Kage Bunshin No Jutsu" (I know it's called "Via Sun", but I wanted to make an unoriginal joke), actually seems to fit my theory. We don't have much, if any, backstory, but in this case we need none. His desire, as we've seen many times throughout the series and which was twisted in Volume 4 & 5, is to help people. He wants to be there for those he cares about, like Blake and his team, but he realises he can't do it alone. So his desire turned into his Semblance, "One Monkey Army" - a way for him to help even if he's alone to do so. You can't tell me he hasn't used his Semblance to fetch something for someone at least once.

Hm, few people left. Let's go with Emerald.

Her "Hallucinations" are a nod to her growing up on the streets. A place you'd be begging people not to pay attention to you. Her Semblance, then, is born from the obvious desire to fool prey and predators alike.

Neo... We don't know much about her. No backstory, some personality, but honestly? The only idea I have at this moment is more of a headcannon. But I CAN connect her Semblance's evolution. So, before V6, her Semblance is simply making physical illusions. It's honestly similar to Blake's "Shadows", in some uses, but it's definitely a lot more of a multi-use tool. It can be used to make her look different, if not outright invisible. But it always shatters upon being hit. Fast forward to V6 and her fight against Cinder, and suddenly she can use the illusions as straight up puppets to fight for her. Her Semblance grew, to put it bluntly. But why in such a manner? Her illusions were fragile and immobile before, now they're tougher and mobile to the point of being straight up weapons. But why in that direction? Well, they can move and touch things without them breaking now. Guess who's started to get more headpats from her partner.

Alright, Hazel is up for the mental strip.

Honestly, despite our lack of major backstory here, his Semblance is pretty easy to trace back. Nobody likes pain, outside of masochists, so it's easy to understandable he'd have a Semblance that removes the feeling of pain.

Adam. Adam Adam Adam. He's surprisingly more similar to Hazel than Yang in terms of Semblance. Yeah, you heard that right. "He gets to dish out damage and not feel it". His Semblance is basically a self-loading gun - he can use the power of strikes to charge it, only to the unleash various empowered slashes. He refuses to feel pain, just like Hazel, but unlike him, he also desired to return what was meant for him straight back at his attackers. Hazel is relatively peaceful when the situation doesn't include Ozpin, but Adam? He's aggressive, always bloodthirsty. His desire was simple - feed his thirst for vengeance. A perfect Semblance for that wish, no?

Hm, well we only have Glynda left. I got nothing. I don't see how I'd understand her desire to have telekinesis without a backstory I doubt we'll get.

Well, that's it for that! I feel like I'm onto something.