#this is a completely different topic but yangs existence in canon makes way more sense if both tai and raven are trans as well

[constantvariations]

gimme your top 5 hot takes about rwby

I'm afraid I don’t have an accurate gauge of what qualifies as a “hot take” (or even what it actually is. Is it merely a controversial opinion?) so if any of these are ice cold I apologize

Adam and the Rose family should be connected in some way. Visual cues are important and there's so much spicy potential, especially if the dynamic originated with Summer

For Roman, the best and longest standing villain of the show, to be one of the few on-screen Grimm deaths is borderline parody. Personally, I think Ruby should’ve had a more active role in his death, even if by accident or setting up circumstances like she did Neo

Ozma’s situation is far more horrifying and sympathetic than Salem’s. The gods proved that they could bring Ozma back to life in his own body, but instead he’s forced to be a body snatcher? That’s fucked up in so many ways. She may be able to die again and again, but I think it’s way worse to die knowing you’re dooming several people at once

May Marigold isn’t that great of trans rep. She’s so unmemorable and inconsequential to the plot that the only reason I remember her at all is because she’s The Trans One. Like, glad they made her trans, and the reveal was respectful and clear and not even plot-relevant!, but maybe make her a good character first?

If we’re going by the show’s queer golden rule of blushing = romantic feelings, then Ruby had a crush on Emerald in V3 and it should have been explored way more for angst purposes

[silvysartfulness]

The line about tantric meditation in the last chapter made me wonder - what actually is the each of characters level of sexual education/experience? CQL canon naturally only provides very little on that topic..

Warning, this got kind of long.

I have consciously kept my thoughts on these topics rather vague within the story itself, because – as you say – there is very little said in canon about it, and it's one of those topics where people tend to have vastly differing ideas and tastes.

But I can muse a bit about my headcanons in Roadtrip-verse!

Starting with Xue Yang, who is the only character whose sexual activities are mentioned at all in canon:

Of course that could be sheer bravado, but as we know, Xue Yang ”doesn't like to exaggerate when he speaks”, so...

Xue Yang fucks. Pretty much anything and anyone he wants. I hc him as pretty much pan with a gay preference – sex is like candy to him, different sorts of people just variations in flavour. One of those pleasant things you go get when you get cravings. If the other people involved are happy participants, that's nice. If not, it's often even nicer! Pain, receiving or dealing - or both - is a great rush!

Sex is 100% purely physical for him. It feels good. It doesn't mean anything.

I think even with Xiao Xingchen - though he does desire him, madly at times - it's less the sex he misses, more the casual familiar touches, the connection. The sort of bond he's never had with anyone before. Of course he wants Xiao Xingchen! But as long as he has him there, the rest... can wait.

He can be patient, for sweet things...

Then for the daoshi!

There is a lot of myth surrounding those odd, kinky sex-magic obsessed Daoists in ancient Chinese lore! While those practices were certainly not a part of all the Daoist factions (many being downright chaste and puritanical) and the stances on it changed a lot over time, there is still a lot of fun potential to dig into there! The whole concept of Daoist sex magic isn't some new thing invented by modern fandom; it was gossiped about and caricaturized even in ancient times.

At the core of Daoism is the pursuit of the superiority of the natural order, the most original state of the world. That includes things like bodies, and sex, and so they are in their primal form embraced rather than pushed away as something base and embarrassing.

Verse 55 of the Dao De Jing says (exact wording varies a lot depending on translation):

He who is in harmony with the Tao is like a newborn child. Its bones are soft, its muscles are weak, but its grip is powerful. It doesn't know about the union of male and female, yet its penis can stand erect, so intense is its vital power.

The Master's power is like this. He lets all things come and go effortlessly, without desire. He never expects results; thus he is never disappointed. He is never disappointed; thus his spirit never grows old.

Hence my take on that tantric meditation Xiao Xingchen refers to. To achieve that state of arousal without desire, to just exist in that vitality.

Of course there's also the concept (oft-utilized in fandom) of dual cultivation – to let the forces of yin and yang weave together through sex, creating jing energy that can be absorbed to nurture ones cultivation and golden core. That's the other thing Xiao Xingchen blurrily thinks on in that same segment, how within his original cultural framework, that was what sex, that kind of physical union, was about. A means of strengthening spirituality.

Sex with Chengmei turned out to be something very different. In the original sense of Daoist sexual cultivation, it was an important point not to ejaculate, fearing that losing semen equated to losing life force, going against the concept of cultivation aiming for longevity and immortality.

But as it turns out, it feels good to come. Really, really good.

And after everything that's happened, by the time they settle down in Yi City, he has more or less given up on those once-aspirations, of longevity and immortality and spiritual purity. Less stars, more dust, and down here among earthly matters, he embraces this other way sex can work. As nothing but pleasure, the joining with another person, something that gives joy.

And so he is very conflicted in that scene with Song Lan, because now that he has his companionship back, he feels that he should, must hold onto his old ideals, his once legendary cultivation. The purely spiritual. But he is also something very, very human, touch starved, love-starved.

Hopefully he will be able to find a balance in that, going forward. They didn't do too shabby in that little rented, room, after all, so I'm sure he'll find ways to make it work. ♥

And then Song Lan, finally.

While there are certainly elements of sheer mysophobia - the distaste for any kind of uncleanliness - to him, I also hc him as touch-averse for its own sake. Placing him firmly in the ace/grey bracket.

While I hc him as hailing from a different branch of Daoism compared to Xiao Xingchen, there is that same basic understanding of sexual principles – as a vital life-force, it's something valuable that can be used spiritually to strengthen your own energies and cultivation.

The tantric meditation, I can see, was something entirely platonic that he and Xiao Xingchen may have done before. Just meditating into a state of physical arousal, free from desire for sex or climax, as a way of purifying and strengthening energies, like any other kind of meditation.

In my own private headcanons, completely without basis in any canon fact, I envision that he has had a few extremely conservative sexual encounters in his youth, with female fellow daoshi/cultivators, to attempt dual cultivation.

It worked, technically. It wasn't pleasant. The discomfort of such closeness and touch wasn't worth the energies gained.

So he tried it a couple of times, and then decided sex wasn't for him.

And now, suddenly, he's gotten back a Xingchen who – aside from the charming new laughter and endearing mischief – has also become something... Well. Frankly. Very horny.

It's a bit bewildering to deal with.

But he does love him, endlessly. He learned to endure holding hands, to be able to communicate – it was surprisingly easy. A part of him wanting to hold onto him, to make sure he would never lose him again.

He learned to endure holding him close. It was a bit harder, but still – the comfort, affection, being able to tell how much it meant to Xingchen made it worth it. It's still not something he would seek out for his own sake, but something he loves being able to give.

Kisses... Kisses are strange. On the one hand, he loves them, the concreteness of being able to express all the love he feels for Xingchen, so much love that he fears he could burst with it sometimes. On the other, the closeness, the touch... It's overwhelming, even repulsive at times. He struggles with it.

And then this, this territory they appear to be heading into... He has very mixed feelings about it. It's Xingchen, and he loves Xingchen. It's touch, and closeness, and things dirty and he abhors that. Some small, strange part of him seems to want it, even aside from it making Xingchen happy, which is very bewildering. Another wants nothing to do with any of it.

He is very torn. None of this is easy.

And that’s pretty much it, as things stand right now!

This got long. XD

Hopefully most of this comes through in the writing itself. And we are finally approaching the arc where proper sexytimes will actually become part of the story!

Thank you for asking!

[itsclydebitches]

Um one thing i wanna ask is why do you want penny to stay a robot? She would have been hacked again as it wouldn’t make sense for someone not to try it again... ignoring the pinnochio allusion thing cause of course RWBY shouldn’t follow fairytales like a script, but just thinking about practicality as the problem would just occur again.

Also, people complaining about how its a problem they cured her illness (having the virus)... why would you want her too keep the virus when its literally about to kill her and the cure is right there???? I dunno some of the complaints have me a bit confused and i need clarity on them.

Like, If they didn’t grab the relic for themselves, they would have been hunted by ironwood for penny, she would have been killed for the powers to open the vault etc... if they went to the vault with penny without their plan, she would have died... its all a lose lose for penny to me at least

Questions are genuine and I’m not trying to be rude or anything :)

Happy to explain, anon! :D

I’m going to break this up into three parts: The claim that people are upset about Penny’s virus going away, the idea that she’s in more danger as a robot, and the assumption that she had to be made human to fix this problem. 

The first is the easiest to tackle simply because I haven’t seen any of this myself. I don’t know why someone would “want her to keep the virus when it’s literally about to kill her.” My guess would be that there’s been some miscommunication at play. I’m not saying just because I haven’t seen these takes doesn’t mean they don’t exist, but rather that I have seen a lot of critical takes since Saturday and they all boil down to the fans being upset that Penny’s android identity was removed, not that the virus was removed along with it. Of course we’re happy about that additional outcome, we just believe it would have been possible  — even easy  — to achieve that same outcome without taking a core part of Penny’s identity along with it (more on that below).

Secondly, if one of the main arguments for Penny getting a human body is “It’s less dangerous” then I personally don’t find that persuasive. Yes, it means no one can try to hack her again... but it also means Penny can die all the horrible, messy human deaths that she was previously immune from (within the boundary of how long Pietro can give her aura, anyway). We saw it happen on screen. Penny was able to go from this

to this

purely because she was an android. Penny, due to her synthetic body, was able to be torn apart and then  — pretty casually it seems, based on Pietro’s comments  — be put back together, given more aura, and booted up with absolutely no downsides. Penny shrugged off death with a smile! No human body can do that. So yes, she’s vulnerable to hacking as an android, but she’s vulnerable to everything else as a human, things like Nora’s scars and Yang’s lost arm, things that android!Penny would have shrugged off. Each body has its benefits and its downsides, with my personal belief being that, from a combat standpoint, a synthetic body has far fewer downsides and far greater benefits. But that opinion aside, objectively I don’t think a human body is intrinsically safer for Penny in the long run, especially not after her biggest moment in the series was coming back from the dead. She can’t do that anymore. 

Which then touches on our third topic with the question: Why couldn’t the show have fixed android!Penny in a way that ensures she can never be hacked again? See, we have to remember that RWBY is a constructed, fictional story. Nothing “has” to happen. Or rather, nothing has to happen until the writers impose limitations on the text that the viewer expects them to adhere to. For example, if you impose the implied rules of 1. “Our four main characters will make it to the end of the series” and 2. “A character, without aura, will die from a spear through the gut,” then RWBY has to find a way for Weiss to survive Cinder’s attack (rule #1), but that solution can’t be, “Weiss is just randomly okay after a deadly injury, I guess” (rule #2). Hence, we get the solution of “Jaune unlocks his semblance and heals Weiss for her” and it works! It’s a solution that viewers like because it obeys all the rules, both overt and implied. Meanwhile, the problem with Penny’s solution is two-fold. The first is that it contradicts the entire journey she’s been on of “Android girl learns that she’s real and human just the way she is,” which I’ve already spoken about extensively (there are other posts on that), but the second problem is that the show ignores other possibilities and makes up new rules solely to reach this ending. 

Why is Penny made human? Because of Ambrosius’ rules. Why do those rules exist? Because the writers said they do in this episode. It’s not that they introduced these rules episodes or even whole volumes ago, thereby requiring that they adhere to them once Penny’s life is suddenly caught up in them (like with the Jaune example). Rather, the viewer only learned these were limitations while Penny was being fixed. So the writers could have just... not included those. There’s no reason why, in developing Ambrosius’ abilities right then and there, the show couldn’t have made them into something a little different. Have Ruby go, “We want you to magic up an anti-virus program that will heal Penny completely, with no chance of the virus returning. Thus, when you create something new, it doesn’t matter if that program disappears. The virus is already gone!” If the response to that is, “But Clyde, Ambrosius can’t create something he doesn’t understand” that’s a rule that the writers just made up. No one forced them to suddenly impose that limitation. It was a choice. Or even if we have to have it for some reason, you’re telling that the group gets to have the schematics for their escape route  — essentially inventing a teleportation system because Whitley looked at airship flight paths for a few minutes  — but they can’t have Penny or Pietro draw up an anti-virus program? There’s no reason why these rules couldn’t have been tweaked to cure android!Penny. 

There’s also no reason why Ambrosius needed to be involved at all. As just mentioned, Pietro exists and many fans (myself included) thought he would be the solution. Imagine for a moment we had a slightly different version of these events. Penny’s virus is briefly halted by Jaune and, finally given a moment to breathe, she asks where her father is. Last she saw, he was floating in a dead Amity after Cinder’s attack. This reminds Ruby that hey, Pietro made Penny! He’s just as smart as Watts and is far more knowledgeable of her systems. Maybe he can help? So the group heads to Amity and, due to the same techno mumbo jumbo that launched Amity in the first place, or had Klein heal Penny after her crash, Pietro says yes, he can get rid of the virus. Better yet, he can slightly redesign Penny so that she’s made un-hackable in the future, using (again, mumbo jumbo) parts from the now useless Amity. But it will take time. It’s then that the group receives Ironwood’s message and learns that they don’t have time. The reality that Penny will not be cured before the hour time limit necessitates that they come up with a creative way of dealing with Ironwood. Enter Emerald. Her semblance can make it seem like Penny is there, despite her being fixed by her dad miles away. We get an extended fight with Ironwood and, at episode’s end, the new and improved Penny catches up, ready to open the vault for them, this time of her own free will. 

Now, obviously I just made this up off the top of my head  — far from perfect  — but a scenario like this: 

Remembers that Pietro exists and lets him/Maria as an assistant do something for the plot

Re-uses Amity now that it’s just a floating pile of junk metal 

Creates a scenario where we get to see Penny and Pietro confront the fact that she was created to be a tool (sorry I originally made you so easily hackable/put a self-destruct in your brain) 

Maintains all the main story beats like Penny’s near escape, Ironwood’s message, and using Emerald’s semblance

Makes space to tackle other issues like the complaint that Ironwood was taken down too quickly 

Achieves the desired result of healing Penny without taking away her android identity 

Proves that, because we can easily come up with another solution, the idea that she “had” to become human is inaccurate. There were always other options 

Hell, we can even ask why the story bothered with a self-destruct threat in the first place. Seriously, why did Watts do that? I have my own headcanons, but the show never says. This act is the entire BASIS for Penny’s conflict and the show didn’t bother to a) say why he’d do this or b) explain why he’d do this when Salem would presumably like having a Maiden to control. It’s counterintuitive and the show never grapples with that. We have no canonical answer here. More importantly, what else changes if Penny’s self-destruct order is taken out of the narrative? Absolutely nothing. She’s still hacked and struggles to keep Amity afloat, still flies to Ruby, still wakes up and needs to be calmed down by Nora, still tells Whitley her order, still fights the Hound, still tries to escape, still tells Ruby to kill her so she doesn’t open the vault, and Ruby still realizes that opening the vault might be the answer. They could have taken Penny to the door and nullified the virus by letting her do what the virus ordered. Penny is fine now, they snag the Relic, and the group proceeds to save all of Mantle and Atlas. The only thing this self-destruct sequence brings to the narrative is a reason to give Penny a human body. That plot-point was introduced solely as an excuse to give Penny a human body. That never had to happen. It’s not that the writers had a story where, by the rules already in place, they truly had to change Penny to ensure they didn’t lose her, it’s that the writers carefully crafted a story that existed to justify their desire to change Penny. That was always the end goal. They decided they wanted this to happen and that’s the problem here. That they took a character who has spent her entire, fictional existence learning to love herself as she is and crafted a bunch of unpersuasive, needless, and contradictory scenarios specifically to get Penny to a place where they could erase all that. 

There’s no version of Penny that exists who truly had to get a human body to survive because Penny is a fictional character. Everything she does and experiences is thought up by our writers. Thus, at some point they thought up the idea to erase her android identity for a completely human one instead  — the part a lot of people are upset by   — and then made some messy attempts to write a story to justify getting that ending.  

[kkglinka]

I gotta say how much I love that this DC Limited Series is validating so many of my personal interpretations of existing canon. But of course, I'm talking about Blake — you know me.

I understand that many have difficulty with various inconsistencies in the art, but as someone who has read comics since age thirteen, I find them negligible Unless the company commissioning the series is wealthy, media tie-in comics are invariably slip-shod, with beginner artists and rushed art. Everyone's gotta start somewhere. I do accept the comics as canon and treat some scenes as the visual shorthand they are.

I really love many of the little details such as the Japanese aspects of her home life, along with the emphasis on Pacific Islander cultures, such as love of ocean sports — especially little Blake in a muumuu, draped with beaded necklaces. We also see she was a child in the city while Sienna is holding a rally with the Belladonna's both present and publicly acknowledged. Kali's dialog in a later issue tells us that Blake had fallen under Adam's influence when they still led the organization — so Blake was only eleven or twelve, at best. Clearly, younger Blake had periods where she was on the island. To me, that makes perfect sense, but to explain, I need to back up a little.

At odds with early fandom, I figured that Blake had to come from an upper class family and, if she were an orphan as her equivocation implied, then it was late enough in life that it left her with noticeably elegant manners. There was even a memorable instance in which Blake reflexively corrected Yang's slip in etiquette by thumping her across the stomach. (Just as Kali did to Ghira years later). From the way she holds a teacup to how mortified she was over Sun's behavior, we know manners matter to Blake. I was surprised as anyone else to discover her home still existed.

I was uncertain about her family home for a time until another viewer directed me to the post-episode storyboards. The house and lands are identified as "The Belladonna Estate" rather than, say, the chieftain's lodge. There is also a sepia toned photograph of what might be grandparents standing in front of what looks like the bungalow's portico. Finally we have V5's dialog about the Belladonna's time ending, which usually implies a family has been in power for generations.

The tragic princess story suggests that the island was already colonized by Faunus before Humans "gave" it to them. It's far more plausible, from a real life historical perspective, that Humans found the land inhospitable, full of dangerous wildlife and, most salient, resource poor. After the Faunus uprising, the people of the island welcomed refugees and those emigrating from Human controlled lands. The "gifting" was an underhanded way for Human's to cede authority and agree not to invade. So either the Belladonna's were native (unlikely since the capital name suggests a different culture), or they were Mistrali who married into a ruling family.

A chieftain system like we see in Kuo Kuana mostly closely resembles a constitutional monarchy. In smaller villages or tribes, the ruling body might be a council of elders. In a sprawling Rio de Janeiro city like Kuo Kuana, which stretches across the entire valley, it's likely a set of government department heads. The chieftain acts as a figurehead where compromise and mutual support are desired, but not necessary.

That person also forms alliances with other groups/governments and spearheads trade negotiations. In this system, the chieftain doesn't need to be present for the government to continue running smoothly. This system is completely compatible with the Chieftain of Kuo Kuana serving as High Leader and spearheading long-distance political rallies.

Blake refers to the early White Fang environment as being like a family, which kind of implies entire family groups were involved. But they were not a band of Roma or Sinti refugees continuously fleeing Nazi's and denied settlement everywhere they went (and still are). The way I see it, the WF were essentially a missionary group. Anywhere they went holding rallies, giving speeches, rocking the boat, they would have attracted converts and followers. They would have collected refugees, the elderly, the disabled, children, homeless, all wanting to flee and find new homes. Everyone needed to be fed, clothed, protected from Grimm etc.

There is no way that WF traveled through the winter — that would have been an unnecessary logistical nightmare, and suicidal for family groups. Instead, I imagine the Belladonna's gathered resources, planned travel destinations, organized funding, volunteers and everything else during the northern hemisphere's winter, while back home in Kuo Kuana. The band would then travel from spring to winter, which would be consistent with Blake's claim that she spent most of her life traveling with the WF. Then they would bring everyone back to Kuo Kuana in the fall, get new immigrants settled and so forth.

Let's go back to all those kids. First, the notion that semi nomadic groups don't educate their children in all aspects of life is an example of internalized racism with its roots in colonialist beliefs. All societies educate their children, but prior to the western colonial era, schools took a variety of forms. Some were permanent structures, some were tents, some were a circle of seats in an open clearing.

The materials might be written or oral, the teachers might be scholars, philosophers, priests or rabbi. In older models of education, you might think of it as elementary schooling followed by vocational training that inherently included relevant high school level topics. Regardless of method, the WF's children weren't a bunch of uncouth illiterate wild animals, though I'm sure Remnant's Humans believe exactly that.

Blake's vocational training would have been to a government position — more or less. That would have been history, politics and diplomacy, public speaking, combat abilities (for social appeal and to avoid being assassinated for power), self-restraint and etiquette. Much of that training would have begun when she was very little — some of it occurring subconsciously because little kids are like social sponges. But imagine truly comprehending that as you hit your early teens, that an entire island population will depend on you (even if only as a figurehead).

That is what brings us to the royalty in disguise trope. The most familiar example is Aragorn from LoTR. This trope always begins with the young royal attempting to abdicate from an overwhelming social responsibility, which haunts them whether they choose to go solo, follow another leader instead, or become a hermit. That guilt underpins their actions until they ultimately accept their role in society.

TL;DR; The White Fang did missionary work most of the year, helped new immigrants and planned for next year during the winter, and educated their children the same as any other society does. Blake spent about an aggregate third of her childhood at the family estate before Ghira became Chieftain full time, after which Blake traveled year round with Adam's splinter group. Her original very carefully worded equivocation was true and we're just having the six years of fanon problem.

[dragynkeep]

I know you've likely done this but I humbly request salt on all current rwby moms we know

i haven’t done one of all of them together but should be fun! some of this salt is serious but most is just little things that bug me & luke.

summer.

i really don’t agree with a lot of fndm interpretation that makes her a ruby 1.0, i.e traits like being a wallflower, being socially anxious, etc. following on from that, i dislike her canon design. it’s very obviously just an older recolour of ruby much like the one in poser era & it’s just so lazy. they didn’t want to put anything more into summer than have her be an older ruby with a different coloured cape & dress. it’s just disappointing tbh.  —  owl.

raven.

A lot of people are very willing to ignore that she’s killed a lot of people and she’s responsible for countless people. She killed the spring maiden, implied to be a child, she destroyed an entire village. She used Vernal as a scapegoat and got her killed all while saving her own skin, knowing Vernal would be in danger. I don’t see half as many people defending other villain’s bad actions as they do with Raven.  —  luke.

i think that a lot of people are trying very hard to slap some form of disorder or sympathetic reasoning on raven to excuse why she left when canon has already spelt it out quite clearly, she left because her tribe meant more to her than her husband, child, brother or friend. a lot of people can’t deal with motherly characters that’re abusive & neglectful but raven is the perfect example of an abusive, neglectful daughter & the effect she’s left on yang shouldn’t be ignored or downplayed.  —  owl.

willow.

The DC comics did her so dirty. They took what was a compelling character, a neglectful alcoholic who still had very sympathetic traits and obviously cared for her children despite not being able to do very much to protect them and made her the stereotypical Stepford Wife trope who owns a literal zoo and is far more blatant and dramatizized in her abuse of Weiss, to the point of it not being realistic or redeemable to what we see her as in the show. The two iterations of Willow just don’t mesh together.  —  luke.

ironically for mine, i think the fndm plays down a lot of willow’s abuse, especially concerning her neglect of her kids. i get that she’s a victim of jacques abuse, but she had an inherent responsibility as the schneeblings mother to ensure their safety from their father, not just retreat into herself & leave them out in the cold. i wish that had been adressed more in the show.  —  owl.

kali.

I don’t find her that funny.  —  luke.

a lot of my dislike for kali stems from the fact that her’s and ghira’s inclusion in the story prompted a lot of problems for blake’s story, more than it’s worth & they were in the end, really a detriment. there were no meaningful scenes with blake & kali & when it was tried to be remedied in the comics, that was completely bollocksed up. also her design is again lazy, it’s older blake with a more japanese spin & her supposed allusion makes no fucking sense.  —  owl.

pyrrha’s mum.

I just wish that they confirmed that this woman was Pyrrha’s mum or not, I don’t get the need for there to be any mystery or secrecy around the topic.  —  luke.

ditto.  —  owl.

an.

The fact that her last name is REN, because of how they changed Ren’s name. His name was introduced in the typical way for asian men and Ren itself is a Japanese first name. The fact that this was changed so now all of Ren’s friends are calling him by his Last Name, including Nora who’s known him for years, is aggravating and nonsensical.  —  luke.

i don’t have any complaints about an that hasn’t been said, she was done very well for the small role that she needed to serve.  —  owl.

terra & saphron.

I wish the fndm would stop ignoring the actual wlw ships like saphron & terra while crying for rep like, they’re Right There.  —  luke.

again, nothing to do with the actual canon but more the fndm jumping on two unspecified wlw to paint them as lesbians & only that, being rude or aggressive to others when the allusion for saphron, sappho, was bi. her bisexuality was erased & it’s annoying to see that continued in a fandom space.  —  owl.

salem.

No one has said anything about Salem being abusive to her children. Ignore Ozma for a moment, take him out of the equation ; this woman murdered her children. She also wanted to use them to repopulate remnant, probably ignoring  any of their own autonomy or wishes and it’s weirdly . . . not addressed.  —  luke.

the idea that salem’s endgame is her getting reunited with the souls of her husband & children, who she murdered via magic & burning alive, is honestly disgusting to me & i hate that this idea even exists in the fndm lmao. salem is going the way abusers do in rt, to her own death & ozma will finally be free of her.  —  owl.

[megashadowdragon]

summer.

i really don’t agree with a lot of fndm interpretation that makes her a ruby 1.0, i.e traits like being a wallflower, being socially anxious, etc. following on from that, i dislike her canon design. it’s very obviously just an older recolour of ruby much like the one in poser era & it’s just so lazy. they didn’t want to put anything more into summer than have her be an older ruby with a different coloured cape & dress. it’s just disappointing tbh.  —  owl.

raven.

A lot of people are very willing to ignore that she’s killed a lot of people and she’s responsible for countless people. She killed the spring maiden, implied to be a child, she destroyed an entire village. She used Vernal as a scapegoat and got her killed all while saving her own skin, knowing Vernal would be in danger. I don’t see half as many people defending other villain’s bad actions as they do with Raven.  —  luke.

i think that a lot of people are trying very hard to slap some form of disorder or sympathetic reasoning on raven to excuse why she left when canon has already spelt it out quite clearly, she left because her tribe meant more to her than her husband, child, brother or friend. a lot of people can’t deal with motherly characters that’re abusive & neglectful but raven is the perfect example of an abusive, neglectful daughter & the effect she’s left on yang shouldn’t be ignored or downplayed.  —  owl.

willow.

The DC comics did her so dirty. They took what was a compelling character, a neglectful alcoholic who still had very sympathetic traits and obviously cared for her children despite not being able to do very much to protect them and made her the stereotypical Stepford Wife trope who owns a literal zoo and is far more blatant and dramatizized in her abuse of Weiss, to the point of it not being realistic or redeemable to what we see her as in the show. The two iterations of Willow just don’t mesh together.  —  luke.

ironically for mine, i think the fndm plays down a lot of willow’s abuse, especially concerning her neglect of her kids. i get that she’s a victim of jacques abuse, but she had an inherent responsibility as the schneeblings mother to ensure their safety from their father, not just retreat into herself & leave them out in the cold. i wish that had been adressed more in the show.  —  owl.

kali.

I don’t find her that funny.  —  luke.

a lot of my dislike for kali stems from the fact that her’s and ghira’s inclusion in the story prompted a lot of problems for blake’s story, more than it’s worth & they were in the end, really a detriment. there were no meaningful scenes with blake & kali & when it was tried to be remedied in the comics, that was completely bollocksed up. also her design is again lazy, it’s older blake with a more japanese spin & her supposed allusion makes no fucking sense.  —  owl.

pyrrha’s mum.

I just wish that they confirmed that this woman was Pyrrha’s mum or not, I don’t get the need for there to be any mystery or secrecy around the topic.  —  luke.

ditto.  —  owl.

an.

The fact that her last name is REN, because of how they changed Ren’s name. His name was introduced in the typical way for asian men and Ren itself is a Japanese first name. The fact that this was changed so now all of Ren’s friends are calling him by his Last Name, including Nora who’s known him for years, is aggravating and nonsensical.  —  luke.

i don’t have any complaints about an that hasn’t been said, she was done very well for the small role that she needed to serve.  —  owl.

terra & saphron.

I wish the fndm would stop ignoring the actual wlw ships like saphron & terra while crying for rep like, they’re Right There.  —  luke.

again, nothing to do with the actual canon but more the fndm jumping on two unspecified wlw to paint them as lesbians & only that, being rude or aggressive to others when the allusion for saphron, sappho, was bi. her bisexuality was erased & it’s annoying to see that continued in a fandom space.  —  owl.

salem.

No one has said anything about Salem being abusive to her children. Ignore Ozma for a moment, take him out of the equation ; this woman murdered her children. She also wanted to use them to repopulate remnant, probably ignoring  any of their own autonomy or wishes and it’s weirdly … not addressed.  —  luke.

the idea that salem’s endgame is her getting reunited with the souls of her husband & children, who she murdered via magic & burning alive, is honestly disgusting to me & i hate that this idea even exists in the fndm lmao. salem is going the way abusers do in rt, to her own death & ozma will finally be free of her.  —  owl.

atlesianic said: can i just personally say, as someone’s who’s been eternally uncomfortable when raven’s on screen because she mirrors one of my abusers, i agree that the fandom doesn’t take her abuse seriously. she’s not a good person, she hurt her family and abandoned her daughter, but people see her as just another hot anime MILF and that doesn’t matter anymore

fyrecrackeruwu said: I’ve had an abusive father (emotionally, verbally and mentally) and Ravens actions mirror alot of what he did Walking out on my mother and I for no reason. Manipulating me into thinking my Mother, family and friends were the ‘crazy’ or 'stupid’ ones and that he was the only one I could trust Any bad traits/traits he didn’t like of mine were 'from my Mother’, and any 'good’ traits I had came from him

fyrecrackeruwu said: Never being able to admit he was wrong, sorry or that he did wrong and because of that he would blame someone else or make out like he was the victim The ‘I’m strong’ complex It scares me how much Raven mirrors these traits and I don’t get why people sweep don’t acknowledge this.