#there are many ways to interpret v2 and this is one of them

[mipexch]

comic about v2 and the goal they'll never fully reach alongside a dissatisfying conclusion. intimate rivalry and all (alternative ending comic. V1 dies instead of V2 during 4-4. V2 is narrating. V1 is dead.)

[misstrashchan]

I know people have picked up on the board game scene in RWBY V2 Episode 2 (Welcome to Beacon) as foreshadowing the events of the show, but for funsies I want to take a stab at how it foreshadows the general arcs of each four kingdoms myself.

So we have Blake playing as the Kingdom of Vale, and she's completely unaware of the events of the game unfolding and not really paying attention, clearly distracted.

"Alright Blake, it's your turn!"

"Huh? Sorry, what am I doing?"

"You're playing as Vale, trying to conquer the four kingdoms of Remnant!"

"...Right."

The Vale arc is the first three volumes of RWBY, where all our protagonists are at Beacon, but during that time, much like Blake during the game, they're unaware of the larger conflict with Salem, and aren't actively participating in the war at that point. They are ignorant and reactive instead of active. However it's ironic that Blake plays as Vale, since the reason she's not paying attention to the game and seems distracted is because, out of all the main characters in the Vale arc, she is the one most concerned about being kept in the dark and that they're ignorant as to what's really going on.

Blake: I just, I don't understand how everyone can be so calm.

Ruby: (approaching Blake) You're still thinking about Torchwick?

Blake: Torchwick, the White Fang, all of it! Something big is happening and no one is doing anything about it!

She also leaves the game during her turn, much like how she runs away after the FoB and the end of the Vale arc.

"Right. Well, I think I'm done playing, actually"

Yang is playing as Mistral, and she's the most savvy and knowledgeable (hah) player, winning many rounds of the game, teaching Weiss how to play, and has the other players falling into her trap cards.

"Heh, pretty sneaky sis, but you just activated my trap card!"

There's two ways this can be interpreted, with how the Mistral arc (volumes 4-6) is when our protagonists start to gather more knowledge and awarenesses of themselves and the world. It's also in Mistral that our heroes have their most decisive victory so far. It's fitting to have Yang playing as Mistral then, since during the Mistral arc she's the one who who learns from Tai to fight smarter, and to question the authority figures around her from Raven, and after confronting her in the vault is the one who retrives the relic of knowledge.

But, most of the losses our heroes experience are because of Cinder, who is from Mistral, and them falling into her own "trap cards" with the Fall of Beacon being orchestrated by her, killing Pyrrha and Ozpin. And in Atlas the same, with her manipulating Ironwood, undermining the heroes plans to evacuate everyone from Atlas, and killing Penny. She often finds ways to trick and exploit others, and is most dangerous when overlooked and underestimated, like falling into a trap.

Which brings me to Ruby playing as Atlas, where Ruby and Yang have this exchange after Yang's trap card is activated by Ruby:

"Giant Nevermore! If I roll a seven or higher, fatal feathers will slice your fleet in two!

"But! If you roll lower a six or lower, the Nevermore will turn on your own forces!"

"That's just a chance I'm willing to take"

In the Atlas arc (volumes 7-9) the theme of trust and taking risks is very prevalent. Like the move Yang makes in the game it is a risky one, that could end badly for her, but it is one worth taking nonetheless. They take the risk of trusting Ironwood but he ends up turning on our heroes. Oscar takes a risk trusting Hazel and Ozpin, as well as Emerald later on being accepted into their group, and it ends up working out for them. Ruby takes a risky chance in sending a message out to all of Remnant and evacuating Atlas, which saves a lot of people, but they still lose some, including Penny, a dear friend of Ruby's.

"Noooooo! My fearless soldiers!"

"Eh, most of them were probably androids anyways"

"Goodbye my friends... you will be avenged!"

Ruby acts distraught when losing her turn in the game as Atlas, expressing anguish over losing her friends who are described as androids by Yang, just like how Ruby is incredibly depressed and broken after the Fall of Atlas in V9, mourning the loss of Penny, who was both a sentient android and Ruby's friend. (I do wonder if Ruby's comment on avenging her friends might be foreshadowing for her wanting to avenge Penny's death in the future, like how Jaune tried to 1v1 Cinder in V5 to avenge Pyrrha, but I think it's too soon to say)

As a sidenote the fact it is a Nevemore in this turn that has a chance of turning on Yang or helping her is interesting, as it puts me in mind of two characters who can turn into ravens/crows, like the bird and poem Nevermore is associated with. It could pertain to Raven, someone who turns on Yang in v5 during the battle of Haven, but appears to help her and her friends in the V9 epilogue. It could also be about Qrow and his semblance, since during the Atlas arc it begins to evolve so that it is not simply a bad luck semblance, but one that can generate good luck too. In other words he can affect whether the chances are in people's favour or not.

After defeating Ruby (Atlas) Yang says this:

Yang: Not until I draw my rewards! Which are double this round thanks to the Mistral Trade Route!

Ruby: Bah!

Yang: Oh, and what's this? The Smugglers of Wind Path?

Ruby: Bah! Bah, I say!

Yang: I say, it looks like I'm taking two cards in my hand!

After the Fall of Atlas Cinder retrives not one but two relics for Salem, and with Atlas falling into Mantle, two kingdoms are destroyed in one fell swoop.

Then it's Weiss's turn. Weiss is playing as Vacuo, but has no idea how to play the game. Yang takes it upon herself to teach Weiss how to play and what she can do to win the game:

Yang: Well, Weiss, it's your turn.

Weiss: I have... absolutely no idea what's going on.

Yang: (Yang slides up beside her and puts her hand on her shoulder.) Look, it's easy! You're playing as Vacuo which means that all Vacuo-based cards come with a bonus.

Weiss: That sounds dumb.

Yang: See, you've got Sandstorm, Desert Scavenge... Oh, oh! (She pulls up a card to show Weiss.) Resourceful Raider! See, now you can take Ruby's discarded Air Fleet—

Ruby: (crying) Nooo!

Yang: —and put it in your hand!

We know from the end of V9 that what remains of the airfleet of Atlas, as well as the airfleet of Mistral and Vale, have all flocked to Vacuo's defence. What remains of the kingdom of Atlas, the airfleet, but most importantly the people, have now fled to Vacuo and are trying to make a home there.

Yang continues to give Weiss advice on how to win the game to Weiss, building her up, until Weiss starts to get arrogant, believing she's going to win the whole game and is the one in control:

Yang: And since Vacuo warriors have an endurance against Natural-based hazards, you can use Sandstorm to disable my ground forces and simultaneously infiltrate my kingdom! (Yang points a finger at Weiss.) Just know that I will not forget this declaration of war.

Weiss: And that means...

Ruby: You're just three moves away from conquering Remnant!

But then Yang turns on Weiss, activating her trap card, and Vacuo loses.

Since this is may be foreshadowing for the Vacuo arc that we haven't seen yet, I can only speculate what this might mean.

...But judging from the V9 extended epilogue and the books, my best guess would be that if Yang/Mistral is meant to be in part Cinder/Salem and their forces, then Weiss as Vacuo is in part the Crown. In the extended epilogue Jax and Gillian appear to be recieving help from Tyrian and Mercury, meaning Salem has decided to recruit them to her cause.

The Crown wants to restore the Vacuoan monarchy and detest outsiders, especially Atlesians. They do however wish to protect Vacuo from the same forces that destroyed Beacon, aka Salem, and so they are likely going to be manipulated like Weiss is by Yang in the game, being offered aid and giving them advice on how they can win and achieve their objectives, making them believe they can "conquer Remnant", only for them to realise later they were being tricked and used.

"Once again, Vacuo had been isolated from the conflict raging throughout Remnant—only this time it was an opportunity. With the global CCT network disabled, Vale in ruin, Haven leaderless, and Atlas closed off, Vacuo was theirs for the taking. This was likely their last, best chance for a generation. And it was their only hope to defend Vacuo against whomever had been targeting the other kingdoms. In likelihood they had written off Vacuo, like everyone else did, but if they tried to move against the Crown, they would have an unpleasant surprise.

Vacuo wouldn't break this time around."

Weiss: (Weiss stands and a thunder clap accompanies Weiss' overjoyed psychotic laughter.) Y-yes! Fear the almighty power of my forces! Cower as they pillage your homes and weep as they take your children from your very arms!

Yang: Trap card... (Yang's arm appears holding the card.)

Weiss: Huh?

Yang: (Yang shuffles the pieces on the board, Weiss' pieces disappearing in a puff of smoke.) Your armies have been destroyed.

Weiss: (Weiss slumps in her chair, cries and whines.) I hate this game of emotions we play!

Weiss as Vacuo may lose to Yang after realising they've been tricked, but is offered comfort afterwards by Ruby who relates to her losses and empathises with her, which is interesting since Ruby plays as Atlas. So I'm predicting at the end of the Vacuo arc they'll experience somewhat of a loss, whether that's the Crown, our heroes, or likely both, but Atlas will give support to Vacuo and the two kingdoms will come together to heal and ultimately work together, making steps to overcome their tense history with one another.

"Stay strong Weiss we'll make it through this together!"

"Shut up, don't touch me! "

...Which does make Weiss specifically playing as Vacuo especially intriguing, as she is the SDC heiress from Atlas, and Vacuo is a kingdom that has suffered the most in being exploited and colonized for it's natural resources by Atlas. From the epilogue it seems like the Schnees are being confronted directly with all the harm that has been caused by their family and kingdom, so I wouldn't be surprised if Weiss recieves a certain amount of focus during the Vacuo arc in deciding what her legacy as an Atlesian and heiress to the Schnee name will be. Moving forward to make amends, maybe inspiring the citizens of Atlas/Mantle to come together with Vacuo so they can all help and support one another, instead of isolating themselves and suffering alone.

Jaune offers to plays Weiss's hand for a turn also, with Weiss refusing:

Jaune: (Begging with both hands folded together.) Come on, let me play your hand for a turn!

Weiss: I'm not trusting you with the good citizens of Vacuo!

Which is reminiscent of how Vacuo is mistrustful of outsiders, as we've seen in After the Fall and Before the Dawn books.

Yang follows up to say that Weiss attacked her own forces, which could reference the infighting in Vacuo, especially with the Crown.

Weiss: Besides, this game requires a certain level of tactical cunning that I seriously doubt that you possess.

Yang: Uhh, you attacked your own naval fleet two turns ago. (Weiss makes an annoyed sound.)

Overall Weiss as Vacuo recieves the most help as any player during their turn, being taught how to play by Yang, offered comfort by Ruby after losing, and Jaune wanting to help her by playing her hand for a turn. This seems to fit with both how all kingdoms have flocked to Vacuo's aid in response to Ruby's message, but also Weiss as a character, who starts out "the loneliest of them all" but gradually opens up and warms up to other people. The crux of her arc being looking outside herself and at the people around her, relating to their struggles and coming to support them and being supported by them leads to her better understanding herself and becoming stronger for it... Which is kind of what the Kingdom of Vacuo needs to learn too!

Following this is Blake's turn as Vale, which I covered at the start of this post, but that's not the end of Vale's turn. We don't actually see it, but we know the aftermath of the game is this:

Yang: Ugh, we should have never let him play!

Ruby: You're just mad cuz' the new guy beat you!

Blake leaves the game during her turn as Vale, and presumably the "new guy" which is likely Neptune, who they'd just been introduced too, takes over her hand as Vale and wins the game of Remnant overall, even beating Yang and her trap cards. This is likely the endgame of RWBY itself, our heroes return to Vale after the Vacuo arc during the last volume for the final stand, where they win.

How and what that victory will look like I don't know, as we don't see the last turn of the game, so yet again this is even more vaguer speculation. Neptune doesn't really have much plot significance so I can't think there's any meaning to that except that he's a minor foil to Jaune, and the line of it being "a new guy" that wins, so maybe someone who recently joins our heroes side in the final act of the story, possibly Mercury or Cinder.

[sneezilla]

Someone on AO3 asked for my interpretation of V1 as a transformer, so I had to doodle it out! Planning on doing another one with Gabriel, but this is what I have so far.

Lore Dump below the cut!

Shockwave, wanting to create the perfect supersoldier, started with V1 (short for version 1, of course). It was built for speed, trained for adaptability, and, if all else, has only one purpose: to kill.

A special biotechnology that Shockwave developed through dubious trial and error, this machine is able to heal itself by direct energon contact, specifically of which that has already been processed by the host. Though, this technology is especially difficult to develop.

Megatron was not particularly impressed, and demanded one without these modifications (and much more powerful), thus V2 was created.

V2, despite this increased power, was unable to keep up with V1's pure versatility. In training attempts, his scores always fell short. Thus, Shockwave sought to improve both of their abilities by making them fight eachother. While they both improved, certainly, V2 was continually beaten out. He began to loathe his predecessor.

V1, instead of hating its successor, it began to despise its creator. Up to that point it could not recall feeling anything else, but a definite resentment began to work its way in. It knew it needed to escape.

It destroyed as much of Shockwave's laboratory as it could before it did, leaving behind the mangled form of a prototype V3, but V2 found V1 before it could destroy anything else. They fought, but just like before, V2 was rendered obsolete, and V1 gained an arm from the other: his prized Knuckleblaster.

Upon finding his lab destroyed, Shockwave deemed that V2's punishment for his failure be that he trail V1 to drag it back home (but not without replacing his arm with the now ruined V3). He accepted this quest without hesitation, for he was set on making his creator proud. ((I think V2, upon seeing how Soundwave treats the minicons, would think that there must be something wrong with him for not receiving that treatment from Shockwave. I think he would also be really good friends with Rumble+Frenzy, but V1 is thought to be more like "the weird neighbor kid".))

I really want to write a full fic for this, but I have too many other projects at the moment. But it will happen!

Thank you for reading my ramble :))

[normal-nightmare]

It's me again and please keep yapping this is the tasty content I come here for. lol I've been sitting here a while (longer than is polite) trying to form a proper response to my previous ask cause it was literally everything! I wish I could be half as eloquent instead of just yelling XD

like there are so many things that draw me to these two, and ngl it definitely started with the whole pseudo-incest vibe but they really are so complex and you really hit the nail with this:

Just... they're so complicated and it sucks that people don't wanna explore that because of the preconceived notion that they're brothers, nothing more, nothing less. Sure, legally they are, but they don't... act like it? They didn't grow up together, they weren't very close before Jason died, and they only recently started getting properly close. Jason also has his crush thing going on (seriously, how else am I supposed to interpret RHATO v2 annual 1??)

Look I will forever maintain Dick was Jason’s gay awakening and that boy has been in love with Dick since he was what 12? 15? Also the way you described their relationship to each other was so delicious and alterous is such a great term for them.

I feel like jaydick becoming canon one day would be a natural progression of their relationship. Especially since they seem to be getting paired up as a duo more often. Readers love them, comic artists and writers like them too- i feel like jaydick actually happening one day wouldn't be extremely surprising.

THISTHISTHIS!!! I hope this does happen.🙏

Also re: dickbabs and not making certain characters bisexual I feel that on such a spiritual level. Like I’m sorry but both Jason and Dick read as queer to me? Idk how to describe it. Which is why I love the little touch of bi Dick in Gotham Knights.

Also speaking of Gotham Knights, I finally finished it and holy fuck what the fuck? One of my few complaints is that I wish it was longer. I need GK2: electric boogaloo but this time with a Poison Ivy case file because reasons. I adored every interaction Dick and Jason had, from the emails to the flirting in front of everyone’s salad, plus how they were almost always near each other? (also Jason looked so good in that post credit scene in the Batcave I choose to believe every time he wears it, Dick can’t keep his hands to himself 🫣)

ALSO

I genuinely feel like the writers were intending for jaydick to happen in a DLC given how much setup there is.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this? I want to yell about this game so much. I wish I had someone to play co-op with me so I could see some of those Jaydick interactions too 😞

GOD honestly i have a million thoughts on Dick and Jason's relationship in Gotham Knights?? Because what the HELL is going on in that game!!!

It utterly BAFFLES me when other people read their interactions (Belfry, cutscenes, whatever) as brotherly/familial bc like... if you're interacting with your family like that I'm so concerned?? Bc they're gay as hell!! They flirt the ENTIRE GAME. Like... it's ridiculous how in-your-face they are about it. It's not even gay subtext anymore, it's just... text. Saying they're not gay in Gotham Knights is like saying Jayce and Viktor were 'just brothers' in Arcane to me LMFAO.

Like... the rooftop scene for one reads as really BAD flirting on Dicks part. It doesn't feel like he's being deliberately silly to cheer up Jason until he fakes falling over the edge, THEN he's properly silly. The entire scene otherwise, he's just... being really bad at flirting? And it's funnier that both that and then him being silly actually kinda WORKS on Jason. He laughs (laughs!!), relents and let's Dick sit next to him! It's so, so cute!!

And then the little interaction where Dick says that the Belfry needs a cat, and then Jason suddenly flirts with him?? Like the line "Listen, Grayson, if you're scared of some mouse you saw scurrying, I'll keep you safe." Is ABSOLUTELY flirting, and this is only supported by A) the tone Jason has and B) the way Dick stutters and stumbles over his words afterwards. Like, Dick is AUDIBLY flustered and surprised by this. He tries sooo hard to keep it cool but that boys BLUSHING.

And then there's the tension in some scenes?? When they argue in the beginning and when Dick puts a hand on Jason's wrist (after Jason jokes about making Tim a fake ID), and kind of the scene where Jasons mad, and he's sparring with Dick and Dick catches his fist and says "Easy, Tiger." Like.... the tension in these scenes goes crazy?? The physical closeness, the eye contact, the brief silence, calling Jason tiger?? Like I CANNOT be crazy thinking that there's at least a LITTLE sexual tension in these moments. Juuuust a little 🤏

And like! Yeah you're 100% on them being so physically close most of the game. It's hard to find scenes where they AREN'T standing right by each other. And their stories focus a lot on each other!! At least Dicks story focuses a lot on Jason! Like... a LOT, it's 90% Dicks story 😭

And the like,, nicknames. Dick calls Jason things like Big Guy, swole, and Miracules throughout the game, like, consistently. He points out Jason's size and strength a lot?? (His size and strength kink is so blatantly obvious, good lord this man is horny LMAO. I don't blame him though... 👀) and then Jason mainly calls him Grayson, but when he's being vulnerable he calls him Dick? Which is so cute?!

And a cute little detail is how angry Dick gets on Jason's behalf when Talia says they should be grateful she brought Jason back even though she took away his autonomy and used him. Like, Dick is PISSED! Lowkey he's so ready to throw hands right there.

And i think one of my favorite interactions is when Dick chooses to take Jason to a circus that's in town. Like! He's literally asking Jason out on a DATE. And it's the cutest thing ever?! Jason is surprised and it's just... it's so sweet.

And in general they have the sweetest interactions and emails. It's adorable how they kinda talk about Tim like they're proud parents, and it's also cute how they kinda bicker over the perfect sandwiches cause they sound like a married couple loll.

Just!! Auuggghhhh they're so CUTE in Gotham Knights! There's a mountain of setup there for a romantic relationship. It's very in your face, and honestly impossible to ignore if you have ears and eyes. I'm sure there's more i'm missing or just haven't mentioned, but it's so blatant it feels like it couldn't have been on accident.

Just... it's so cute, I'll never get over it 😭

[invested-in-your-future]

One thing that baffles me is how unwilling the main show was to just... dig a bit deeper in terms of fairytales. There's a treasure trove of myths and legends all over the world—some of which even tie together. There are so many ways to celebrate myths and legends and draw inspiration from them. Like, when worldbuilding, I came upon a ton of folk tales and other details that made me wonder why they had never been touched upon in the show.

Years ago I remember being pleasantly surprised when the show did the whole Achilles thing in V3 or Cinderella in V2.

In those early moments of brilliance, iconic recognizable story beats were transformed and inserted neatly into this story. The show didn't merely plop down a reference like with the names but incorporated it into the story.

The ingenuity in the rest basically starts and ends with "uhhhhh, there was this giant whale in Disney's adaptation of Pinocchio so, uhhh, here you go?".

The show added a Robin Hood character, and the said character had been kind of pointless.

The show's implementation of Hansel and Gretel ended up being one of the worst-written elements of the entire story.

The last time "Thor" had anything to do with the myth itself was V4 and then it kind of just stopped anyway.

The Jinn stuff, instead of drawing from the legends, ended up being just a weird mix of fanservice and orientalism.

The show didn't really draw from Oz lore at all beyond the names, instead sidelining that element in favor of the Two Gods, which have very little basis in mythology.

The show ended up doing a kind of ableist interpretation of Pinocchio that's polar opposite of the story itself. Hilariously, had they not brought the character back for clicks, the original ending would have been near perfect implementation of the first version of Pinocchio's story.

Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, etc. also just exist.

And I can't help but wonder—why?

Not only its within the foundation of the show, not only is it fascinating, but it's also a kind of easier way to lore-build? So why not take that road? Why fixate on this brother gods stuff and relics, both of which are just Miles Luna stuff that have barely if any basis in mythology?

Then again, these people took Alice in Wonderland (the story about adolescence and growing up, how the world is chaotic, and that eventually, we will need to leave childhood behind, growing up) and used it to make a statement about how change, growing up, learning from mistakes, etc., is bad/evil.

From whichever angle I look at the decisions within the show, it all just keeps going back to untapped potential.

[reds-ultrakill-brainrot]

Universal Heacanons

character headcanons that are included in my other works (included V1, V2, Gabriel)

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V1 - is unable to speak. they were not programmed with speach in mind due to being a model for war, they are able to understand most languages but do not have any form of voice box - as previously stated they enjoy painting with blood. in a form one might compare to graffiti they tend to paint as a way of tracking where they have been, and for their own enjoyment - their enjoyment of art and painting started as a method of self expression and a form of connection to their creators, as this particular V1 model had only ever seen a handful of humans before arriving in hell - can record and capture photos of things they see, this was yet another vestige from their original purpose. they often record fights with more notable opponents for reference in subsequent battles

V2 - is not inherently programmed with the ability to speak but is equipped with a voice box. i imagine that they were at one time planned to speak however it was not finalised in this model. there are however vestigial limbs of that design plan, and if sounds are uploaded they would be able to speak - after a certain amount of time in hell they do find a way to synthesise speech. it is a bit janky, but once they find a way to speak they don't stop. literally. please shut them up dear god - similar to V1 they have the ability to capture photos of what they see, however their ability to record was removed from this model due to privacy concerns. Unlike V1 V2 rarely takes photos of things, they are still intent that they are leaving hell and want as few reminders of the place as possible - they contain many images and pages of information about human cultures in their databanks which was intended to better inform them about the humans they would be guarding and interacting with, helping them serve their role as bodyguards or security

Gabriel - while i always love seeing other's interpretations of what Gabriel's face look like i do not believe that he has one in a traditional sense. i believe that the armour he wears is actually part of his form, and that removing it would be a sort of beheading him - before his fight with V1 he disliked the sight of blood and gore and avoided being around it as much as he could. it is not as if he couldn't stand it, he simple didn't like to be reminded of the realities of what Heaven's justice looked like for the average person. after his fall from grace, he is no longer phased by it, if anything prefering it to clean surroundings as a reminder to himself that he did the right thing - with the father's light Gabriel was technically immortal, as long as there was some part of him left he would eventually ressurect. as a soldier of god he was designed to be able to fight evil, unlike the council members (which is how they were able to be killed so easily) TW Self Harm v - has not been given many positive ways of dealing with traumatic situations and as such has resorted to using battle as a form of self harm. he sees his physical wounds as a karmic payment for his misdoings ^

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many thanks for reading, i will endeavor to update this with my headcanons for other characters where i am able to. as always feel free to send your own headcanons in, i love learning about how others interpret the same characters

[killerrobot-killingmatch]

V1 Propaganda

it's literally a war machine powered by blood. after the fall of humanity it ventured down into hell to keep searching for fuel, and has since been on a warpath and emptying out hell. it managed to defeat its successor (V2) and has also managed to give an angel a religious crisis thru the power of homoerotic battles

OH GOD PELASE PLEASE PLEASE This is THE MURDER MACHINE ok I need to calm down.. Every machine in ultrakill’s world is fueled by BLOOD. MANKIND IS DEAD BLOOD IS FUEL HELL IS FULL V1’s mission is to literally kill EVERYTHING in hell, DEMON, HUSK, MACHINE, ANGEL V1 KILLS ALL OF THEM V1 was built for war, but never made it to mass production as the war ended and there was no need for it now.. so V1 is the only prototype to exist. It is a one machine army capable of, as I said, wiping out the entirety of hells denizens. Which is what’s happening right now in game!! V1 is so powerful that it’s beat up an angel TWICE. The creator, Hakita described it as “imagine losing to an ant” because angels are that powerful! And V1 is THAT POWERFUL Uhhh idk how to describe this goodly but: The game has an SSS-style mechanic, uknow like getting a really cool combo kill streak going on, and killing enemies real stylishly. This isn’t canon canon but you could deffo see it as canon: I love the thought that with the inclusion of the sss style meter, you could interpret as V1 having that in its systems. So it’s a really cool stylish murder bot who kills you really coolly! And V1 could also be a reflection on the player, in that YOU the player are having fun killing, so by extension.. V1 also enjoys killing. No offence but this thing is literally so powerful , with an unnameable kill count as Hell has the majority of the human population, plus other uncountable machines down there too!

V1 is a supreme machine built for war—purging all life it comes across to satiate its (literal) thirst for blood. Though its exterior plating doesn’t offer much protection, it has the advantage of being able to refuel and repair itself on the fly, rejuvenating on contact of an enemy’s blood rather than through a separate refueling process. Its lack of durability hardly matters, as oftentimes its movement capabilities combined with its ever-growing arsenal are able to reduce an enemy to ribbons—whether they be human, husk, demon, machine, or angel—before they get a chance to land a hit.

"MANKIND IS DEAD. BLOOD IS FUEL. HELL IS FULL." is the tagline the game opens up with. V1, the playable character, and other robots like it are more than implied to be one of the major factors in humanity's extinction in the Ultrakill universe. It is stated in a terminal that it was built for war. A key mechanic of the game is the ability to absorb fresh blood of damaged/killed enemies in order to regain health. One of the things you're graded on at the end of the average level is how many enemies you killed. I would add more but it's highly unlikely that I'm the only one to submit it.

killer robot literally fueled by blood, on a trip through hell killing everything in its path and having fights with the archangel gabriel that are gayer than gay sex

V1 was built during a time of war. It's a hyper-efficient killing machine that runs on blood. Due to the subsequent death of humanity, it has ventured down Hell to look for fuel. Its main advantage is its unique exterior plating, which allows it to directly absorb blood splatter, instead of having a separate refueling process like the other machines. V1 is the only machine that was built this way. This does make its armor weak and flimsy, but its abilities make up for it. V1 is very agile with the ability to slide, dash, and jump extremely high (if we consider slam storage to be canon). It wields five different gun types, 20 weapons in total with the variants, and four (currently three in game) different left arms. It can also ride on top of the rockets it shoots out!! It's also very silly with its built-in style system. If you do cool tricks and combos you get rewarded. This robot has the ability to feel whimsical fun when mass slaughtering enemies isn't that so cool?! V1 was able to, with the help of other machines, purge all life from the first three layers of Hell and is currently continuing its path of destruction. Its notable victories include: -Beating Heaven's most respectable angel and the Righteous Hand of the Father, Gabriel, twice. And genuinely making him atheist (possible third fight? #early access game) -Defeating its successor, V2, and then killing it during their rematch with no remorse -Killing both Minos Prime and Sisyphus Prime. Prime souls are a manifestation of sheer power that don't need a physical vessel to exist. These two are hardest bosses in game It's the most killer robot that has ever killed in my opinion :D

They run on fresh blood. ULTRAKILL itself begins with a short text ending in MANKIND IS DEAD / BLOOD IS FUEL / HELL IS FULL. Literally the entire game is just them slaughtering enemies as quick and stylistically as they can, and finding more creative or clever ways to kill things, especially in numbers or in midair or with a combination of different weapons, is heavily encouraged by its mechanics!! Ranking up your Style and Kills meters to the max are needed to access certain parts of the game!!

In a tournament full of bloodthirsty robots, here’s a robot who actually runs on blood. All of humanity died and was sent to Hell, so for V1 to continue functioning, it enters Hell and slaughters everything in its path so it can absorb blood. It also beat up an Angel so badly he turned atheist after he lost to V1 twice. Funny little bloodthirsty GoPro 

Literal killing machine made for war and built to be fuelled by the blood of the enemies it kills, but, humanity dies out one day so it simply goes to hell and tears it up down there in order to get more fuel! V1 is capable of killing angels, hellspawn, and even other machines down in hell using a variety of weapons it collects!!! Its also a silly guy :]

it's just a silly little guy who is rampaging through hell killing everything in its path to obtain the blood it needs for fuel. it's even gay

V1 is capable of killing everything in Hell in the most elaborate bullshit ways 

This robot literally runs on blood to survive. It's a short and tiny killing machine, and good enough at fighting to make an angel question his sexuality. It can (debatably) compose music too!!! Right now, it's undefeated. But that may lead to its demise when it finally runs out of blood.

sure your fav is a killer robot, but do they have a style meter that encourages them to kill with as much swag as possible?

I LOVR V1 SOO MCUH. THEYRE A VAMPIRIC SECURITY CAMERA MACHINE WHO SHOOTS COINS AND PUNCHES BULLETS

[inventors-fair]

The Number of Followers: Runners-up ~

Our runners-up this week are @bergdg, @deg99, and @mudthing!

@bergdg — Thought Sparker

You mentioned in your submission that this card was for a theoretical "hand size matters" kind of deck. While I respect that, I feel that your card unfortunately does everything right in a way that makes me question how that set would look mechanically. Cards like Ensnaring Bridge could have fun with that manipulation, but what would red and blue care about equally? Having an exact size? Changing the board? I'm sure there's room for interpretation and for greater adhesion in the scheme of things, but I love looting, I love counters, and I love activated abilities. Whoops, this card has all of them.

Small note: The first ability could perhaps use Nantuko Cultivator's wording, e.g. "...enters the battlefield, you may discard any number of cards. Put that many +1/+1 counters on Thought Sparker." But, Mind Maggots says "For each card discarded this way" so who knows! It hardly matters. This card is great for the draw power and excellent for the potential flashback/madness that can come along the way.

@deg99 — Reflections of Valor

Well. Holy crap. I'm not gonna call it "adamant typal" because that would be silly, but man, that would be very silly indeed. Just like before(in the winner's post), this is one of those cards that you get, you look at, and either you're never going to touch it or you're going to dedicate your life to breaking it wide open. This is a massive amount of text and it only impacts the 3+ mana spells that you cast, but damn if it doesn't do just that. And for each! That means if you have something like Casualties of War... WHOOF. Or three Ur-Dragons. Yikes.

I won't say that this card is flawless, because it is asking quite a lot to make it pop, but essentially copying every spell thereafter with mana value three or greater is worthy of a six-mana mythic no matter what your techniques. Perhaps its that that's making me put it on the fence: this card can just be good by sticking no matter what deck you play it in. Perhaps it's not an autoinclude, but it's powerful enough that I'd be nudging people towards it all the same. I like how all the permanents are temporary. That's good balance.

@mudthing — Sunmaw Ignition

And I'll say for sure that this is the weirdest one I've loved so far. Well, is it too weird? The thing is, as soon as I saw it, I thought about my girl Zirda. She's a lovely little foxbeast and she's been one to court activated abilities before. I think that that amount of precedent is hardly enough to call an archetype, though, and this kind of card is indeed asking for an archetype. I think it's balanced enough, and perhaps it's a little slow, even, but it can ramp up quickly—especially in a cycling deck. Honestly, I didn't think about that until typing this, but there you go.

Is this just cycling archetype v2? It's possible. I want to call it weirder than it is because I was just thinking about creatures on the battlefield, but all the same. That said, cycling hasn't seen as much love since Ikoria standard, y'know. I wouldn't count on this card to push it over the edge. It's certainly a good'n and it's certainly well-made for what it wants to do. Perhaps it speaks to a greater cycle of counters-mattering on certain permanents, two-color shenanigans, etc. Maybe I just like the name. Maybe it's easy for me to see the kind of deck that can be made from it! All of the above, then, a compromise.

Commentary will follow as we get to it! @abelzumi

[shaykhpodpics]

In a Hadith found in Sunan Abu Dawud, number 4993, the Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, advised that thinking well about people is an aspect of worshipping Allah, the Exalted, correctly. Meaning, it is an aspect of obeying Allah, the Exalted.

Interpreting things in a negative way often leads to sins, such as backbiting and slander. A muslim should interpret things where possible in a positive way in order to give the benefit of the doubt to others. Unfortunately, adopting a negative mind-set effects people from a family unit to a national level. For example, how many times has a nation gone to war over an assumption and suspicion? The vast majority of scandals which are found in the media are based on assumptions. Even laws have been created which support the use of assumptions and suspicion. This often leads to fractured and broken relationships as people with this mind-set always believe others are taking a dig at them through their words or actions. This prevents one from taking advice from others, as they believe they are only being mocked by the one giving advice and it prevents one from giving advice as they believe the other person will not pay any attention to what they say. And a person will refrain from advising the one who possesses this negative mind-set as they believe it will only lead to an argument.  This leads to other negative traits, such as bitterness.

It is important for muslims to understand that even if they assume someone is taking a dig at them, they should still accept their advice if it is based on the Holy Quran and the traditions of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.

Always interpreting things negatively also gives rise to a powerful mental illness namely, paranoia. The one who adopts paranoia will always suspect others of bad things. This can be extremely destructive to relationships, such as marriages.

One should strive to interpret things where possible in a positive way, which leads to a positive mentality. And a positive mindset leads to healthy relationships, feelings and unity. Whereas, always interpreting things in a negative way encourages one to always think and act negatively towards others, even when their behaviour is good. This only prevents one from fulfilling the rights of others, something which has been commanded by Allah, the Exalted. Chapter 49 Al Hujurat, verse 12:

“O you who have believed, avoid much [negative] assumption. Indeed, some assumption is sin…”

Socializing, Justice & Ties of Kinship Complete Set Free eBook & Backup Link:

https://shaykhpod.files.wordpress.com/2024/03/socializing-justice-ties-of-kinship-v2.pdf

https://spebooks1.files.wordpress.com/2024/04/socializing-justice-ties-of-kinship-v2.pdf

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[sweet-herbal-peach-tea]

TKATB Theories

Evidently spoilers ahead for chapters 1 and 2!!

This is my analysis and theories based on 3 character's we got intense lore drops for including Sol, Crowe, and Hyugo.

(THIS IS SPECIFICALLY FROM THE ORGINAL TKATB V2 UPDATE NOT V3 WITH IMPROVED DAYS 1 AND 2)

CW: mentions of drugs, and implied abuse,

SPOILERS UTC!

Credit for header goes to the wonderful @arklayraven

HYUGO

So, the recent lore drop for Hyugo was crazyyyy. The whole thing about him and Geo being brothers was implied especially with Geo's introduction on Fantasia's twt where he talks about disliking Hyugo. There definitely has to be a reason beyond sibling bickering to why Geo dislikes Hyugo. Whether it's Hyugo's vigilante tendencies or his connection with a potential crime syndicate.

One of my theories is that possibility Geo and Hyugo's father are a part of the syndicate or some kind of organizer. The reason Geo possibly despises Hyugo so much could be due to the fact he believes Hyugo is so heavily intertwined in the world of crime? I guess we'll find out in the next few chapters??

SPEAKING OF HYUGO'S CONNECTIONS TO CRIME?? THE SECRET ENDING??

Okay so idk if Hyugo is skipping town in both endings but I think regardless of what choices we've made he'll be skipping town bc of the events that took place in the theatre. Whether we were present or not. What I think hints towards this is the particular ending we get when we go to the arcade and when Hyugo asks us to "take care of Sol". Then he smiles and leaves. It may not be as obvious at face value, but I do think we won’t see him for a good while.

ALSO, the deal he made with Sol??

I think it has to do something with definitely gathering information on us, or it could be as someone else said supplying Sol with sleeping pills. However, I think it's implied that Sol does unfortunately missuses them, but they are intended for Sol to be able to get sleep.

More than likely I think the simpler version of their deal would consist of Hyugo keeping quiet of Sol's list of many many crimes, and Sol doing the same for him.

CROWE

I think will generally be the shortest, however I think my theories for him are more based on context clues and reading between the lines rather than baseless conjecture.

As we know literature and double meanings play an extremely important role in this visual novel. We see this in reference to Anabel Lee and the constant references between our past and the poem and how each verse links each chapter.

Where getting to in this is during Crowe's route when he asks for the MC's opinion on Marie Antionette. In the answers we give he seems to take them to heart, and when a negative opinion of her is brought up he seems to take them strangely to heart.

It is clearly evident is some way shape or form Crowe is somehow connected to the man that took our farm away. I think it is most likely that he is Crowe's father. Crowe evidently feels guilty about the place he takes and the role that he is forced into in regard to our debt. He more than likely can’t say anything either out of guilt or second party purposes. Regardless he is obviously trying his best to support the MC from the sidelines in any way he can.

I love Crowe… :( My sweetybear snookums pie…

SOL

ughhhh this man.

I love him but he's clearly insane. Okay let's talk about him bc I have so much to say.

My first theory unfortunately is my least favorite, and it is that potentially MC is not Sol's first soulmate, and he is projecting an image of someone else long gone onto us as the MC.

My reasoning behind this theory is because of his views of rebirth, death, and life. Specifically on two occasions that really made me think of this.

During the conversation you have with him in the library after making the decision to sit on his lap you ask him about his interpretation of the poem Annabel Lee, which the game takes heavy inspiration from. During this conversation Sol speaks of "being separated by death" and it's followed by Sol's responds in a fast dialogue something along the lines of "I won’t. it won’t happen again." Which leads me to believe we may potentially remind him of someone in his life that has passed.

There's also a second dialogue during day 02 which sparked this idea, in which based on the player's pronoun options Hyugo says something along the lines of "you remind me of her/him/them." It's unknown if Hyugo and Sol are childhood friends, but if it is likely then it may confirm that we remind Hyugo and Sol of an entirely separate person.

The only thing that sways me away from this theory other than the fact I detest the idea of it is during Crowe's route on day 02 when Sol mentions something about how…

"It has always been you, Ichabod."

This line could imply a multitude of things really. This could also imply that he generally detests the family due to the fact that they play a role in the MC's suffering. However, for now, I'll diverge into a separate theory that definitely more likely being Sol somehow knows us from childhood.

I like the theory that a fanfiction author pointed out that our farm may have been near the sea, and the reason why Sol detests it so much is due to the fact we the MC were separated from him, and the sea may remind him of that.

There are also these implications of the flowers in his hair in Fantasia's braiding hair post with the "forget me nots" in his hair.

I also believe the key carries around him has something to do with our past as well. Given that in fantasia ask box when someone asked about how Sol and MC first met, he actively fiddles and plays with the key that he wears? Where does it unlock? Where does it go to?? Only the lord knows.

BUT ALSO?? SEPERATE NOTE?? FINAL THEORY AND IMPLICATION?? THE NSFW ENDING ON DAY 02??

Seeing Sol's back in the last CG absolutely broke my heart. It's clear that his back is riddled with bruises and burn scars clearly from recent abuse. (after my second check I also noticed his stomach with bruises??)

Obviously out of respect for fantasia's terms I will not link it nor post it, but it's there in game and I recommend other theorists checking it out.

The reason why I say recent is due to the fact that if they were just scars, we most likely would have seen the marks features in Day 01's NSFW art, seeing as it also has his stomach exposed.

Again, this all conjecture, and they could be in places we couldn’t have seen.

On the subject of scars, I think it's also evident that Sol is more than likely hiding a scar on his neck or some sort of burn scar behind it. He's extremely self-conscious about his looks, and Fantasia has stated that his choker will more than likely stay on at all times when he's with his soulmate.

The side however, and its coverage eludes me considering the only time we've seen Sol's neck is in art Fantasia has given us (but his neck is covered with a scarf or ribbon). The only time we see a little smidgen of his neck is in the Day 01 NSFW ending, but it's barely anything to form a for sure statement on!

I think here is where I'll wrap up my theories for now!! Thank for reading this extremely long yap fest! Fantasia if you are reading this I just wanted to say I love your game and I love Sol!! Hope he knows this very much! Thank you for your hard work and I hope your internship goes well!

Very excited for the future of this wonderful game! I will now go lock in for finals season! This is peach signing off!

[magpiejay1234]

I will do over Days in a much, much later date now. We'll likely be moving to Tag Force 5.

****

Anyway, back to Days, due to BBS Volume 2 concept trailer, many people assumed Ventus moving away from his Chamber was him becoming Roxas. This is a particular pet horse of Frustrated Jacob, who very unambigiously dislikes the character, and everything he stands for. This is a common trope for KH1-primary fans, or as I like to call them, Genwunners of KH.

However, the game proper has the whole Shadow the Hedgehog style red herring of him being a replica, with the implication of Kairi's memories of Sora being the thing that allows him to leave the Org., so Nomura's original idea was something different, something we don't know, and probably never know, as many plot points in BBS V2 were repurposed in other games, primarily KH3.

So this is seemingly another case of Jacob forcing his interpretation, rather than Nomura's actual intention. Which is fair I guess, we end Xion's death with the whole Asuka hand to cheek pose in EoE, so a decent chunk of Days is meant to be up to interpretation.

Either way, it seems with the The Truth About Naminé thing, the whole ambiguity around Roxas seems to be intended by primarily by Kanemaki who wanted bring back her favourite character Naminé back, and since Xion is basically her OC, she needs to bring back the person she self-shipped herself with. And obviously as an easy out it is, the Replicas of characters without bodies is a consistent way to achieve this.

****

Since game crashed, I cannot say a full verdict about Days's storyline as I cannot get to the post-game stuff, but what I experienced so far up to Day 358 has been quite good, and gave me a similar experience to KH2 FM, despite Days having a more uneven script at parts. I consider the game version to be superior to movie version, due to added context for the rest of Org.

Do I consider this game deserves a remake? Sure.

Would I expect it to be as good? Not with current SE, and Nomura's current priorities (we would need add stuff to tease next game in MoM arc).

Would I expect this game to be remade over Re:Coded? Certainly not. As others noted, Re:Coded has a much better balanced gameplay, though I probably won't prefer it since it doesn't have the sheer power experience of the late-game Days has.

Considering the fandom's current disdain for the platforming, adventuring, and RPG aspects of KH over the character-action-combo gameplay against human bosses, I don't expect a game like Days to be ever made. Western Fandom really, really wants Final Fantasy franchise overall to become Devil May Cry with better writing, and that is nothing but a pure nightmare concept for me, and one that will further degenerate KH's plot structure for centuries.

Would I recommed this game? It will take a really long while you to get full hang of this game, since this game is the anti-Speedrun game due its visual novel structure, but if you are into visual novels over speedrunning action slashers, this game is the Kingdom Hearts game for you. Due to Kanemaki's influence, the story does better justice to the visual novel formula over BBS, and Coded's variants, not to mention there is tons of added context to KH2.

So yes, get a good setup, and play this game, and document every oddity here, since the stuff introduced here are the ones Nomura digs the least through, which means more people will be bamboozled when they come back.

Now we wait for the inevitable Strelitzia game, where you play as the Specter Nobody, playing the events of CoM from Marluxia's perspective. Just like CoM was partially based off SotN mixed with Castle of Illusions the Strelitzia game will be GBA Castlevania games with Soma Cruz mixed with the old DuckTales game.

[wack-ashimself]

My memory has been going. Not short term. I oddly remember a lot of shit on command that even I go 'I don't know why you held onto that.' More long term. The past....10 years alone have been a blur. Not bad, not good. Just...helped me evolved, but nothing was 'THIS WILL DEFINE ME FOREVER.' Most of that came from when I was a kid, and I'm glad. Because I didn't know as a kid, I WAS mean and stupid in too many ways to count. But...all my dumbest things I said/did were in my past. And I only remember as to not repeat; not so much define me.

I just...ya know that question 'what's your happiest memory?' I don't have one. Anytime I think of happy moments, they all blur. Sure some better than others, but kinda like my fav song/movie, I do not have one. I have....my best memory of THIS, of THAT person, or a vacation etc. And...I'm glad. I used to use my memories as prep for the future; expect every situation, conversation, and whatever drama follows. But in being over prepared, I was never in the moment, sometimes didn't react quick enough, or, again I wasn't in the moment, didn't react appropriately. Cuz I was too in my head 'Oh they said X, so Y v2 is what I need to say.'

What I am saying is I have lived in my head almost my entire life. It's why my memory was so good; it gave me something to do up there. And yeah, I am still in my head most days, but more...for right now and/or whats coming. Not reflecting or worrying about my past. It's weird. Cuz I feel different, the world looks different and...part of me is thinking 'how many years did I waste living in my memories?' I dunno. I am saying this more for myself. When I talk outloud or type, I get clarification that I normally wouldn't just in my head. Maybe cuz this is hard, finite, and not open for interpretation. Draws a line in the sand so I can see the sand, ya know?

I just see so many people who are entirely determined by and living life by their past. They are never here in the present, and have NO HOPE for the future. They kinda hate themselves, but blame the past/other people for it. As if those people are standing next to them yelling 'be as miserable as you always were.' I refuse to do that. I ain't perfect, I fucked up, but...I believe I won't fuck up again. At least not in the ways I have before. I want to fuck up in new ways! lol Seriously. You don't learn if you're always right, and you never learn if you aren't willing to take a chance. On existence and yourself alike. YOU determine yourself and this reality; quit giving power to the past or others in your present.

End of the day, fuck your religion: NO ONE KNOWS. The only thing we do know is you die. This is YOUR LIFE. I ain't saying live it selfishly, but I am saying LIVE IT YOUR WAY, RIGHT BY YOU. Nobody is promised anything, so promise yourself a good life not hindered by things that do not honor you. I mean, why the fuck not? What else do you have to lose? YOUR LIFE? If you're gonna die, which you are, why not live first?

[wolfbetweenrivers]

If you could change 1 thing about RWBY what would you pick? Personally I'd remove that entire Jaune chasing after Weiss thing from v1&v2 cause yikes

As much as I hated watching him do that to Weiss, from a narrative standpoint, I feel that this was important in establishing the difference between who was then and who he is now. Jaune started off as someone with very toxic ideas of masculinity that he is strongly implied to have picked up from his father, and one of the common attributes of toxic masculinity is not taking no for an answer, especially when it comes to flirting and seeking a partner. This is reflected in his repeated attempts to flirt with Weiss, even in spite of her explicitly not showing interest, to which Jaune, with his not so healthy views at the time would likely interpret as her "playing hard to get". Yes, it was very unpleasant to watch, and I absolutely do not like this behavior, but I kind of see that as being the point, because one of the main points of Jaune's entire story as a character is being a subversion of the common shounen protagonist boy tropes, dismantling all these cliches and harmful ideas, and growing out of them and getting closer to setting an example for a more positive and healthy masculinity.

Now if there was 1 thing I could change about RWBY, as far as Jaune goes, it would be shortening the whole story of him getting bullied by Cardin as I feel it took up way too many episodes in the volume, especially compared to the ones that were supposed to focus on Ruby and Weiss' relationship as teammates, and Blake being revealed as a Faunus. While I understand the importance of those episodes in the overarching series, I simply think the story it tells should have been given equal attention to the others instead of more.

[sneezilla]

After many long hours of deliberating and doodling, I bring you:

Transfomified? Transformed? Transformered? Gabriel!!!! (Open images for better quality <3)

So much fun to design. Thank you to my friends on Discord again for letting me bounce ideas off them, and thank you to everyone who's enjoyed what I've done with these guys so far.

If you'd like to see some of my design process and my interpretations for V1 and V2, go check those posts out!

As usual, Lore Dump below the cut!

Gestalt, for as long as he can remember (when the Circle of Light had escaped Cybertron, at the very least) has been a Guardian of New Crystal City, eventually garnering a spot in Dai Atlas's council.

Some time after Gestalt rose to power, a small Decepticon-sided drone managed to worm its way in. It struck it down at once, and it fell out of the sky. Despite being so small, the droid fought hard with its concealed arsenal. Still, Gestalt prevailed, and the droid fled.

Not long after, Crystal City began to be ruthlessly attacked by Tyrest and his Legislators, leading to much of Crystal City's imprisonment, despite the Circle of Light's brave defenses. Gestalt managed to survive, but was ultimately imprisoned and sent to Luna-1.

Eventually, a rescue party found their way to Luna-1 to free those of the Circle of Light. The rescue party consisted of Whirl, Cyclonus, and that pesky drone it fought all those years before. Gestalt initially thought it was a trick, and challenged the drone to a battle, but it has become much more adept since they last fought. Gestalt admitted defeat, ready for his helm to be relinquished from his body, to be slain like he should, but the drone allowed him to stand. It did not care for revenge. It has a job to do.

((Desperately trying to wait to start a new fic until i finish writing one of the ones I already have))

Thank you for reading!

[citadelofmythoughts]

I don’t know if the Bees we’re gonna be a couple from the start but V2 is where it begins for me if you look at it. And it’s only in hindsight bc we didn’t know much if anything about Adam. But we of course learn that he and Yang have similar semblances. The Roman fight in V2 is when Ruby tells Blake that Yang taking hits means she can come back stronger (that’s what makes her special). So the comparisons were already being made by Blake in her mind. Then we have burning the candle tho I think that came first? The order of events doesn’t matter too much since it’s all V2 so it happens in the same timeframe for them. Then of course the vital festival and Blake saying “I had a partner once who said the same thing, they started as accidents or self defense” but of course Adam was lying. At least later on in their relationship if not from the start which. Probably from the start or near it. And she decides to trust Yang. She makes Yang look her in the eyes and promise she was truly aching in self defense. And Blake decides to trust her. Not an easy thing to do considering her not so recent past at that point. So while the physical touch part of their relationship and being more open started or took place in V6, Bees we’re not just a random pairing they took off with to please fans. Hell even in V5 Weiss said she knows she and Yang aren’t as close s her and Blake (but she will be there for her too they are a team made of love actually). But it’s very clear that Blake and Yang have a separate dynamic from the others. (My one and only wish was that we got more Blake/Ruby and Weiss/Yang and Weiss/Blake bonding moments just in general but that’s a bit off topic haha)

Yeah, It *might* not have been planned from the absolute beginning but then again, it might have too. We have no way of knowing for sure. But it was obviously headed that direction as early as V2.

As I've said so many time. if it had been a m/f pairing there wouldn't have been the slightest doubt but two girls in love? Don't talk crazy! You're exactly right about Blake & Yang's dynamic. You can see it in the way they look at each other, the way they move around each other, the casual contact. I don't see how anyone can interpret that as anything other than two people who are into each other romantically.

[krixwell]

This is going to be a bit long-winded, but hopefully it'll be enlightening for anyone interested in Norwegian.

So I've been thinking about Norwegian sentence structure, and I've come to the conclusion that Norwegian is actually much better described as a kind of VSO language than as an SVO language or even a V2 language. Except there's a twist to it that is responsible for 90% of the confusion new learners have about the order of words in Norwegian.

Let's start on the confusing end.

== THE BLATANT LIES OF SVO ==

Many sources will list Norwegian as an SVO language, which is to say that the core elements of a sentence come in the order subject (who does), verb (what is done), object (who is it done to).

This is true for most basic sentences, but it breaks down very quickly the moment you add something as simple as an adverbial phrase (something about the manner, time, reason, etc).

Example 1:

EN: I eat breakfast in the morning.

NO: Jeg spiser frokost om morgenen.

Breakdown: Subject, verb, object, time adverbial.

This seems reasonable enough. That's a basic SVO sentence with an adverbial phrase at the end, SVO(A). But sometimes you want to put the adverbial phrase at the beginning of the sentence. Look what happens:

Example 2:

EN: In the morning, I eat breakfast.

NO: Om morgenen spiser jeg frokost.

Breakdown: Time adverbial, verb, subject, object.

The subject and verb switched places with each other, just because something was added before them. This (A)VSO sentence makes very little sense as SVO and looks like a strange exception, but this happens any time you put something at the beginning of the sentence besides the subject.

To make matters worse, this is still a correct sentence:

Example 3:

EN literal: Breakfast eat I in the morning.

NO: Frokost spiser jeg om morgenen.

Breakdown: Object, verb, subject, time adverbial.

What?? This is OVS(A), the exact opposite of SVO. The fact I'm using "jeg" and not "meg" still makes it unambiguous that I'm the one eating the breakfast rather than the other way around, but you can do this with plain nouns, which don't mark whether they're subject or object, too.

Example 4:

EN literal: The cat feeds my sister.

NO: Katten mater søsteren min.

Breakdown: Object, verb, subject.

The only things marking whether this is SVO or OVS are context, common sense and sometimes intonation. Both readings are grammatically correct, though the sister is probably feeding the cat.

== THE LINGUISTIC SHRUG ==

Because of all of these apparent "exceptions", more advanced sources will tell you Norwegian is a "V2 language". This is a fancy way of saying the verb goes second, no matter how everything else around it is arranged. (A)VSO? The verb is second after the adverbial. SVO, OVS? The verb is second so it doesn't matter.

That still has a couple significant flaws, though. For one thing, V2 is essentially throwing your hands up and saying "I don't know how this works, so here's the one thing that seems consistent." It doesn't explain how anything else in the sentence works, such as why (A)VSO is allowed but not (A)VOS.

And for another, there are plenty of times where the verb does not come second. A particularly frequent example is yes/no questions, where the word order (and tone) is the main thing setting it apart from a basic statement.

Example 5:

EN: Does your sister feed the cat?

EN literal: Feeds your sister the cat?

NO: Mater søsteren din katten?

Breakdown: Verb, subject, object.

Orders are also given with the verb first:

Example 6:

EN: Feed the cat!

NO: Mat katten!

Breakdown: Verb, object.

Subclauses tend to be SVO, but the specific type called relative clauses can be SV or VO. Admittedly the logic behind this one is tangential to my overall point in this post, but it does put the verb in a non-second position within the subclause:

Example 7:

EN: My sister, who feeds the cat, eats breakfast.

NO: Søsteren min, som mater katten, spiser frokost.

Breakdown: Main subject, relative clause marker, subclause verb, subclause object, main verb, main object.

(interpreting "som" as a stand-in for the subject of this kind of relative clause causes more trouble than it's worth)

The third flaw of V2 is it doesn't explain WHY we sometimes flip our sentences into forms like OVS.

== SO WHAT THEN? ==

So I've established that SVO is no good beyond basic sentences, and V2 is better but flawed. It's time I propose what I think is a better solution.

I think Norwegian sentence structure is best analyzed as "TVSO".

The T stands for "topic" and is essentially the main focus of the sentence. It can be the subject, the object, an adverbial phrase, or even the verb. This element is moved to the beginning of the sentence to mark it as the topic.

In most basic sentences, the topic is the subject. The subject moves to the beginning of the sentence and we get the familiar SVO.

Remember in example 2 how the subject moved behind the verb when we put something before it? That's because the subject stopped being the topic and jumped back to its default position. The adverbial phrase became the topic, changing the nuance of what the sentence is about:

Example 1 (SVOA) is about you and what you do (eat breakfast in the morning).

Example 2 (AVSO) is about the morning and what happens then (you eat breakfast).

Example 3 (OVSA) is about breakfast and what is done with it (you eat it in the morning).

In a similar vein, example 4 (OVS) is about the cat and what is done with it. "Katten mater søsteren min" is the kind of sentence someone might say to explain how the cat is going to be handled when they're going away on vacation.

Example 5 (VSO) is what happens when the verb takes the topic role, because the sentence is about the verb and whether it actually happens. Similarly, in example 6 (VO), the sentence is about what needs to be done, and the subject is an implicit "you".

== CONCLUSION ==

Most Norwegian people don't consciously think of this "topic" marking as a feature we have in our language, but it's 100% a thing we do constantly, and in my opinion, recognizing that the default order is VSO (but with the option to pull any element to the front to make it the topic of the sentence) rather than SVO makes Norwegian word order make a whole lot more sense.

I really hope I'm not the only one who thinks that, and that this helped you understand the quirks of the language better. Hopefully I didn't just confuse you further by overcomplicating things.