#Winter carried volume 7 on her back

[itsclydebitches]

It's honestly so baffling to me that in the same volume that Hazel (who killed Mistral huntsmen with Tyrian, staged a coup against Haven, brutalised Oscar - a literal child) gets a redemptive sacrifice and paternal relationship with Emerald, but Ironwood (with a similar dynamic with Winter) is left to die with Atlas because the writers wanted to make him a cartoon villain. It's just so why.

You know, if I thought RT was doing this deliberately--in the sense of carefully planning out their work to achieve a specific and subtle goal--I'd be impressed by how often characters' worst actions happen off screen, or are otherwise ignored by the story until they're (almost) forgotten.

So, Hazel. We know he killed all those huntsmen; countless murders that caused a ripple effect decimating an entire kingdom's defenses. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the casual RWBY fan went, "Huh?" if I brought up that point. Because Qrow searching desperately for his colleagues occurred three volumes ago, Hazel's actions were revealed in an incredibly short conversation, and absolutely nothing has ever come of this heinous crime. For us his guilt is a significant factor in judging how the narrative treats him because we discuss the show as a community and, in doing so, frequently highlight and analyze aspects of the story RWBY has left behind. But for other fans, Hazel is "just" the antagonist who fell for Salem's manipulation. RWBY emphasizes his anger towards Ozpin--an anger the story never explicitly says isn't justified--and in doing so sets up a sympathetic response to his brutalization of a child. Hazel never would have done that if Salem hadn't gotten to him! Or if Oscar wasn't conflated with evil Ozpin! So it's "fine" that Hazel did all this because he was just on his journey of redemption. Hmm? He also indiscriminately murdered countless innocents off screen? Oh yeah, I forgot that... eh, who cares. The story certainly doesn't.

Same with Emerald. Post-Volume 3 the focus is entirely on her emotional state, painting her as someone easy to sympathize with and, therefore, more of a victim than villain: her talk with Mercury, trailing after Cinder for attention, fiercely defending her, and eventually the horrible, 'Don't lose now that I'm a good guy' speech that, again, serves to make Emerald likable and downplay her actions in one fell swoop. Anyone who's defended their disappointment in her arc has likely had a, "You do remember that she decimated Beacon, orchestrated Penny's death, and was absolutely out to murder our heroes, right?" moment.

Now, compare all this to Ironwood whose villainy is emphasized over his humanity. We see clear as day his murder, his torture threats, his random and absurd bomb plan--nothing is shuffled off screen and the sympathetic aspects of his emotional state are severely downplayed, especially after Volume 7. In a reversal, RWDE fans are reminding others about the good stuff: him saving Weiss, leaning heavily against the wall, Yang's arm, turning his weapon away from Qrow, trusting the group immediately, basic consequences of PTSD, etc.--things that the narrative did not carry through his fall. We don't get any moments where the group remembers and fights for Ironwood's 6+ season humanity in the way that, say, Oscar vouches for Emerald's, backed up by Ren seeing her in a pretty color. Indeed, both these characters have moments with Ironwood too, but Oscar condemns an impossible choice as equal to Salem's villainy and Ren cares only for the presumed logic of Ironwood's plan, not the fact that he's an ally they're choosing to oppose rather than compromise. (I will maintain until the END OF TIME that they could have just let Atlas go and focused on fighting Salem/getting the rest out via another evacuation plan. Team RWBY slashed holes in the small number of life boats when they could have let them set sail and then turned their sights on building a raft/fixing the hole in the ship ANYWAY). No one is using a semblance on Ironwood to go, 'He does care! I can see it! We just need to find a way to nurture that' and, you know, trusting that there's an inherent Goodness there that's worth fighting for. That Goodness apparently exists in the villains who have been trying to kill them since day one, but not the established ally who is Absolutely Going Through It.

This 'I believe in him' role that should have gone to Winter if, again, the story didn't kick all those aspects under the curtain and pretend they never existed. His status as her instructor, potential father figure, the devotion, even her choice to take on the Maiden powers at his request, all of it is overshadowed by Weiss' nonsensical implications that Winter has been groomed and her eventual, inevitable turn back to the good side. Winter went from being devoted to Ironwood, to indifferently watching him kill a man, to screaming that everything bad that's happened is his fault and she's going to do her best to kill him now. Most fans tend to remember only what the show is currently highlighting and boy, does the show work hard to highlight only the actions that serve a character's final destination. Putting aside the fandom trend of rewriting good actions to fit our conclusion ('Well, since Ironwood was a bad guy he must have been manipulating Yang by sending her that arm') I don't think a good portion of the fandom remembers, or really thinks about the canonical scenes that RWBY later wants to pretend never happened. Things like Hazel's murders, Emerald's "It's almost sad," Winter starting an actual fight to defend Ironwood/Atlas' honor, and Ironwood dropping to his knees to welcome Ozpin are all treated as small potatoes compared to, well, where we've ended up with. And when the show works that hard to say, "Pay no attention to the war crimes behind the curtain. Behold! The Great and Powerful Redemption Arc!" it's no surprise that so many would nod along, reassured that this is the one, correct way of interpreting the show.

So... yeah. Same, anon. To me it's baffling that characters with these similarities would be treated so differently. Or, rather, that one character whose villainy lasted all of a couple hours would be treated as so undeserving of redemption compared to the years long villain who was never a hero in the first place. Either way, to me and to you it makes no sense, but I think that's in part because we're looking at the whole of RWBY and spotting those similarities in the first place. For so many others it's just random pieces that they think create a complete puzzle: 'You mean the DICTATOR and the guy who SACRIFICED himself?? Uh yeah, they're totally the same /s.' Sure, when put like that it sounds absurd, but that's because you're ignoring half the actual puzzle. You've jammed two pieces together that don't quite fit and proclaimed the end result is a flower. We're on the floor picking up the discarded pieces that have been gathering dust and going, "Huh, actually with these it look more like a very dense and complicated forest."

#rwde #rwby #mymetas

[waheelawhisperer]

I think V3 & V8 do effectively convey the notion that raw force (be it personal or state level) doesn't solve shit if you're aimlessly saber-rattling, turning on allies & bamboozling (or throttling) the populace to preserve every scrap of power. There's also the ongoing failure of old-guard leaders (Jimmy, Leo, Oz.) to get out of their ruts, though I 'd have tabled the Musical Maiden Chair thing for a volume once Penny got it. *Ruby* has more than enough shit to work out with silver eyes alone.

Yeah, the old guard failing and leaving the new blood to clean up their messes is a pretty common theme in RWBY and we've seen it for several Volumes now, pretty much ever since Weiss started talking about how she wanted to redeem her family name. Between the mistakes of the headmasters, the various failures of Team STRQ, the way Maria talks about herself vs. how she thinks about the protagonists, and even the way Winter and the Ace-Ops struggle to make the right decisions, it's clear that RWBY wants to tell a story about the new generation surpassing their predecessors.

I definitely think Volumes 3 and 8 are really trying to hammer home the "strength is useless without unity" message. All of Atlas's vaunted military power is worse than useless when it's turned against the people of Vale. It fails to defeat Salem in Volume 8 because Ironwood is too rigid to work with others, to contemplate a solution other than brute force and sacrifice. Ozpin can't destroy Salem, no matter how hard he tries, and when we finally see her fight, she shrugs off everything the heroes throw at her. They only escape because of Hazel's sacrifice, because he stalls Salem long enough for Oscar to nuke her and holds her in place for the cane beam to hit.

When I think about my feelings about Volume 3 vs. Volume 8, there's a very similar sense of "what happens now?", but there are some distinct differences as well. It's hard to explain, but Volume 3 made me wonder "where do we go from here?", whereas Volume 8 makes me wonder "what's the point?". Volume 3 was a crushing blow, but it left me deeply invested in what came next. Volume 8 doesn't do that. It carries more of a sense of lethargy, a feeling of pointlessness, an uncertainty about whether it's worth even getting invested anymore, and it's because of the way the Volume handled a number of its plot points.

Basically, the way the Volume ended means a lot of major plot points went nowhere? Oh, Winter is being set up as the Winter Maiden, but that's a red herring and the powers and responsibility go to Penny? Nope, never mind, Winter has the powers now. Penny came back to life? Nope, never mind, she's fucking dead again, killed off in a controversial way by a controversial character in a scene that didn't even effectively establish the necessity of her death. Salem, our Big Bad, has finally taken the field? Surely she'll demonstrate how much of a badass she is now, why everyone should be terrified of the insurmountable evil queen of the Grimm, right? Nope, never mind, she gets sidelined 2/3 of the way through so Cinder and Ironwood can be the major villains. Blake spent her whole life fighting against racism and is now openly displaying her Faunus heritage in the Kingdom that's been most strongly associated with Faunus abuse and anti-Faunus racism? Surely she's going to have a major role to play here, right? Nope, never mind, she's going to do nothing but take Weiss's spot as Remnant's version of Renji Abarai and pine for Yang, all while Weiss and Yang do more to combat racism and Atlas's class divide by throwing a racist in a dumpster and snapping at an old lady and Nora gets the plotline that should've gone to her. Oh, Weiss's goal from the very beginning has been to salvage her company and redeem her family name, and she swears to defend her home in Volume 7? Nope, never mind, her home is now underwater, her company is in ruins, and the final boss of her storyline is apparently her own fucking brother, an abused child who her mother specifically begged her not to leave behind and was never more than a minor annoyance to be counteracted in comedic fashion, with no power or influence of his own beyond the password to his father's laptop. The culmination of Weiss's storyline was waving a sword in the face of her Auraless, untrained sibling and telling him to go to his room, after Willow handed her everything she needed to beat Jacques, and somehow this is supposed to be the big triumph we've waited 8 Volumes, 8 years of real-world time, to witness. Fan-fucking-tastic writing here.

It just... makes me wonder what plotlines I'm even supposed to get invested in at this point. RWBY's always had a problem with just never exploring things or dropping them when they become inconvenient, always rushing on to the next Cool Moment, the next thing the writers want to include, but Volume 8 feels particularly bad in this regard. Frankly, I think it's one of the worst Volumes in the show specifically for this reason. As much as I love the show, I just... don't feel the same hype for the approach of Volume 9 that I did with the approach of other Volumes.

#rwby #analysis #weiss schnee #winter schnee #maria calavera #ozpin #salem #james ironwood #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #nora valkyrie #jacques schnee #willow schnee #whitley schnee #penny polendina

[oldsalempost-blog]

The Old Salem Post

                   Our  Local Tamassee-Salem SC Area News each Monday except holidays                                          Contact: [email protected]                              Distributed to local businesses, town hall, library.                            Volume 7 Issue 18                                                                                                  Week of April 15 2024                https://www.tumblr.com/settings/blog/oldsalempost-blog                                                         Lynne Martin Publishing

EDITOR: A new resident to Oconee said her family moved here to get away from the overdevelopment.  “ There are not many places like this left, ” she said.   Shouldn’t that be a message to us all that we need to protect what we love?   People love community and the rural way of life.   I say to leaders and developers who want to destroy our Oconee County life—you move!  Move to the overdeveloped destroyed areas and cities.  Sell your home to the people who want to come here to get back to real living.  “There are not many places like this left.” Let’s keep it!  LRMartin

TOWN of SALEM: 5 Park Avenue * Visit the Downtown Market every Sat, Winter hours 9am-1pm. Town of Salem Clean up day– April 27th meet at 8AM at the Calvary Baptist Church– Invite your friends, neighbors, civic groups, and anyone interested in coming together for the good of our community.                  Salem Beautification Committee is a group of volunteers who support the Town of Salem by maintaining the gardens and decorating some areas for the holidays. If you are interested in volunteering or donating please call Vickie Towe 864-6229 or Ethel Cameron 864-280-4040                                                                                            SALEM LIBRARY:  5B Park Avenue.  Hours Monday 10am-6pm. Tues-Friday 9am-5pm. Closed 12-1 for lunch.                    

Jottings from Miz Jeannie  by Jeannie Barnwell.    Walhalla HS Plant Sale  Plan to visit the greenhouse area of WHS off HWY 11 and shop for hardy blooms at a reasonable price.  Instructor Josh McCall's green thumbed  students will carry your tray while you select from Zinnias, Okra, Daisies, Latana, Ferns and Hostas, just to name a few.  These high school students will educate you while you make your choices.  Then they cheerfully carry the buds and blossoms out to your car. I want to thank the students who planted  and tended the seeds and prepared them for the sale. They are Aiden Wallace, Reagan Smith, Kristen Winland, Hudson Smith and Jackson Medlin I told these young entrepreneurs that YOU WOULD BE STOPPING BY!  LOVE YA!!! Miz Jeannie                                                                                              ASHTON RECALLS    by Ashton Hester                               SALEM SCHOOL NEWS, APRIL 1, 1964 continued from last week -  The following are some more items from the "Salem School News" column, written by Mrs. Nelle Rochester, in the April 1, 1964 Keowee Courier. . . BETTY CROCKER SEARCH. . .Our senior girls did very well on The Betty Crocker Search for the American Homemaker of Tomorrow contest. . .Ruth Lusk and Sharon Rankin both received "excellent" ratings. Ruth had Salem's highest score but Sharon was only one point behind. We had nine girls that received "good" ratings, and three received "fair" ratings. None of our students received "poor" ratings. . .LEAP-YEAR CARNIVAL. . .The juniors did real well on their Leap-Year Carnival. They had a net profit of $309.74. Thanks to all of the merchants, parents, students and teachers who contributed to the success. . .ILLNESSES STILL ABUNDANT. . .We are still plagued with a variety of illnesses. Mumps seems to be taking the greatest toll while measles and chicken pox are also still prevalent. Ruth Lusk, Sue Murphree and Larry Jones are a few that have had mumps recently. . .DONKEY BASKETBALL GAME. . .The juniors are sponsoring a donkey basketball game on April 2, Thursday, at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $1.00, 60c. for students and 25c. for children.                                              

JOCASSEE VALLEY BREWING COMPANY,(JVBC) & COFFEE SHOP* 13412 N Hwy 11 Open Wed–Sat 9am-9pm and Sunday 12pm-7pm   Events this week:  Wed: Blue Grass Jam  6:30PM  Wings and more by Blue Ridge Grill starting at 4PM.  Thursday: Trail Talk Thursday at 6:00PM  Food: Kodesh BBQ Blue Ridge Grill  Fri:  Music: Scott Low ( Appalachian Blues Singer-Songwriter)  at 6:30pm Food:   Sat– Music: Conservation Theory ( Americana Mountain Folk Singer-Songwriters)  at 6:30pm Food: Just a Smile Caribbean   Sun:  12pm-7pm  Food:  El Charro  Music:  11 North with Chad Rawlings 4PM  More info 864-873-0048    April Book Club meeting on Wednesday, April 17th at 10AM to discuss The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose.                      COMBAT VETERANS MOTORCYCLE ASSOCIATION SC 34-2:  7th Annual Veteran Benefit Ride April 27th 2024  Register 0900 at Harley Davidson of Greenville, 30 Chrome Drive 29615  All vehicles welcomed.  **   These riders will be stopping at the  Jocassee Valley Brewing Company around noon.   JVBC is proud to be a host stop-off.   

Carolina Hemlock Festival:   April 20th  11AM-4PM  at the Mountain Rest Hillbilly Grounds. Music, Conservation Groups &more!     

2024 UPCOMING EVENTS           Check out our website Eaglesnestartcenter.org as future events are added.                                                                                                                                    April 20th 7pm– The War Cry Band will host a benefit for Ralph Turpin medical expenses at the ENAC venue.                              April 26th, 7 PM Friday Evening Wellness Event:  Reclaiming Our Inalienable Wellness  Doors open at 6:30 PM  Free event hosted by ENAC featuring speaker Meredith Orlowski, AFMC, INHC.  Bring your friends and family along. Gain Energy, Lose Weight, Feel Happy, & Save the World While Doing it!       Call 864-280-1258 for more information                                                                                                         Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea on Saturday, May 4th  from 2PM-4 PM:   Join us for a special afternoon and treat yourself to delicious goodies, hot tea, and a guest speaker!  Our youngest guests will enjoy manicures and a craft!  $10 per guest.  All funds will be donated to support the Eagles Nest Art Center.  There are also opportunities to sponsor a table for the event.   To RSVP or find more information:  Kayla or Emma Lusk at 864-903-0681                                                                                                               Oconee Mountain Opry:  May 18th at 7PM.   Jef Wilson, West End String Band, Mystery guests, comedy and more.  

June 3-7  ENAC hosts  Art Camp for children 6-12 years old.  9AM-12PM  Call 864-280-1258   $50 fee                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        EAGLES NEST ART CENTER                                      

The Eagles Nest Treasure Store is open every Saturday morning 9AM-12PM.  Will accept donations also or call 864-557-2462.

Information on sponsorships, events, volunteering, donations, or rentals call 864-280-1258 or email at [email protected]. 

Interested in becoming a YOUNG APPALACHIAN MUSICIAN?   For ages 3rd grade through adult.     Call 864-280-1258                                                       

           CHURCH NEWS                                                           Bethel Presbyterian Church (PCUSA),  580 Bethel Church Rd Walhalla, 29691. Worship at 10:30 a.m.   Come visit us. All are welcomed!   April 29, 2024, Mel Davis will give the message.                                                                                 Boones Creek Baptist Church, 264 Boones Creek Road, Salem invites you to join us for regular worship service on Sunday morning with Sunday School at 10am and followed by worship at 11am.

Salem Methodist Church: 520 Church Street, Salem.  9AM for breakfast, 9:30AM for Sunday School, and 10:30AM for Worship.  You may tune in to our live service on Facebook or view it later on our website.  All are welcomed!

Calvary Baptist Church in downtown Salem is inviting you to attend a special Bluegrass Gospel Singing featuring, "The Tugaloo Holler Band" on Saturday, May 11th at 6 PM. You will be blessed! Come worship God with us through singing and fellowshipping with believers.

News:  On April 9th from 5PM-7PM the Jocassee Valley Brewing Company was the host site of the OPUS Trust unique wine tasting event featuring rare California Napa Valley wines provided by a donor family, and matched funding from another generous family patron.  The tables were set up with white table cloths and fresh flowers.  The wine tastings were from 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014.  Paring these delicious rare tastes with local farm products created a unique palate pleasure. The Reed Homestead owners David and Casey Thornton presented herbed flatbreads, pickled watermelon rind, pepper jellies, chocolates, spiced pecans and more. The  Split Creek goat farm provided 3 types of tantalizing cheeses.  The McPhail Angus Farm  was the featured farm for a delicious cut for smoked beef.  This proved to be quite a social event for our Salem area with these fine tastings from local farms and this special stock from California Napa Valley wines.  You may purchase from our local farms on the Clemson Area Food Exchange online farmer’s market.   Check out CLEMSONAREAFOODEXCHANGE.COM.                                                                                                                                             

Love & Blessings to you!  LRM    

[odsalt]

James Ironwood and Darth Vader

A long time ago, in a town probably close to where I live now -- I've moved a lot during my life but never went far -- I watched the original Star Wars trilogy on VHS when I was a very little girl.

I vaguely remembered it. Growing up, I never really was a Star Wars fan. Didn't care about it before it became a Disney property, and certainly didn't care about it after. But some time in the year 2020, that oh so gloriously miserable year, I watched the original trilogy with my sister. We watched it on Disney+, so it was the newest version, I imagine.

I honestly enjoyed it. I really did. Now that I'm older, I was able to appreciate it for what it was and I can't believe there was ever a time that Star Wars didn't exist.

But then, eventually, at a Half Price Books store, my sister and I found something interesting. A VHS box set.

Of the original trilogy. Nearly brand new, but obviously old, as telling by the fact that they were video tapes. Oh, and it also came complete with coupons that expired in the 90s.

We got it for 10 bucks.

The original Star Wars trilogy has met its fair share of edits throughout its existence, but we recently learned that our new old copy -- which we started watching on May the 4th because we’re nerds like that -- was hardly edited since the original original version, if edited at all. Han shot first.

But that's not what this post is about. I just wanted to give a little of my backstory in regards to Star Wars so that I can show my basic understanding of the series. You may be wondering why I titled this post "James Ironwood and Darth Vader". Well we'll get into that now.

Darth Vader was once described as being "more machine than man". General James Ironwood was once described as losing his humanity with every organic body part that he lost. If you've been around these parts, you have seen people say, or you have said yourself, that this comment about Ironwood is insensitive and ableist.

Because it is. Becoming disabled and/or losing your organic body parts does not make you less human, and your replacement parts or aids are not "extra", as Yang Xiao Long would try to have you believe. So much for her arc of accepting her mechanical arm as part of her, huh?

So why are we upset about the comment about Ironwood but not the one made about Darth Vader? Both men may or may not believe that they are less human than they used to be. Other characters may or may not believe that as well. So what's the difference?

The difference is that Luke appealed to Vader's humanity. He believed there was still a human being in there, and he believed it till the very end. And it paid off.

No one, literally no one, not even his right hand Winter Schnee, whom he had been a father-figure to (as Vader was Luke's father), appealed to Ironwood's humanity. No one tried to convince him that he was human no matter what. Nobody cared. He didn't have a Luke Skywalker to believe in him. Ironwood's allusion was the Tinman, not because he didn't have a heart (he did), but because he didn't have anyone else's. Nobody cared about Ironwood in the end, none of the characters were written to even try, not even Ozpin, the one person who has been shown to care about all of humanity and was once one of James’ closest friends and allies.

Vader and Ironwood were both human, even if others did not view them as such. Both died human, but only one was recognized as human in the end, and it wasn’t Ironwood.

Crwby tries to make R W B Y be a lot of things, and I’m quite certain Star Wars is one of them. But they completely miss what makes Star Wars, and other media R W B Y copies from or is inspired by, special. You can have a character who some may see as "more machine than man". The mistake lies in whether or not you as the writer and creator, see them as human, and when you don't have anyone try to appeal to that character's humanity, that's when you come off as uncaring, unsympathetic, insensitive, and ignorant.

And that's where you’ve failed.

#rwde #james ironwood #general ironwood #darth vader #star wars #Long post #Winter carried volume 7 on her back #but dropped the ball in volume 8 #I honestly don't know how i feel about her at this point #And team r w b y WISHES they were a Star Wars protagonist #Sorry just some extra thoughts #also has anyone noticed that if you combine the names Death Star and Skywalker you get Deathstalker? #you know #that scorpion Grimm? #probably doesn't mean anything

[kali-writes-meta]

What Divides Them: The Biggest Factor Determining If a Character Trusts Ironwood or Not

With everything else that happens in Volume 7, it's possible to overlook the fact that Weiss drastically changes her opinion of Ironwood. In Volume 4 Episode 2 "Remembrance" she tells her father "I trust him." By Volume 7 Episode 3 she endorses keeping secrets from him, telling her teammates, "We need to play along for a while before we make any major decisions." Why has her opinion of Ironwood's trustworthiness changed so drastically?

Normally this is where I would do a scene-by-scene breakdown, but I want to approach this question differently. Instead of stepping closer at this point, let's step back. Weiss is part of a group of eight people who are reacting to Ruby's decision to not trust Ironwood with their secret. This large group breaks down into three smaller groups, those who support Ruby's decision, those who question Ruby's decision, and one whose opinion is unknown. Let's look at the breakdowns.

Supporters

Blake

Weiss

Nora

Qrow

Questioners

Yang

Ren

Oscar

Unknown

Jaune

What do the people who support Ruby's decision have in common with each other, and not with the people who question Ruby's decision?

Is it team membership? No, there's members of both RWBY, JNR, and independents spread evenly across both groups.

Is it place of origin? No, both groups have members from different places. The supporters come from three different continents, the questioners come from two different continents.

Is it wealth/social status at birth? No, the supporters include a woman reared in the wealthiest family in the history of Remnant (Weiss) and two people who experienced abject poverty in childhood (Nora and Qrow).

Is it oppressed status? No, the Faunus Blake is part of the larger group which includes the girl brought up in the wealthiest family in the history of Remnant.

As far as I can tell there's one and only one commonality that the Supporters share with each other and the Questioners don't share with them. All of the Supporters and none of the Questioners are childhood abuse survivors.

Blake was gaslit and manipulated by Adam.

Weiss was manipulated and abused by Jacques.

Nora was starving and being bullied in her earliest appearance.

And from what little he's said on the subject, Qrow was socially ostracized if not outright abused.

We don't know anything of Oscar's life before he wound up with his aunt, but neither Yang nor Ren experienced abuse. Neglect, yes, but there's a world of difference between wishing the authority figure was around more often and fearing the authority figure. And while Jaune was misunderstood by his family, neither he nor his sister Saphron exhibit signs of overt abuse.

Before arriving in Atlas all of the group is united in their desire to find and confide in Ironwood to the point where they commit Grand Theft Airship. Whatever happened to trigger our abuse survivors happened between the ride to Atlas and Ruby lying to Ironwood. So what did it? Was it the sight of Mantle's suffering under the restrictions?

Was it the expert opinion of the renowned doctor who knew Ironwood that he was suffering from paranoia?

Was it Ironwood's own statement that he knew he didn't look trustworthy, but that other people suffering in order to meet his goals was "a price I'm willing to pay"?

Or was it all three? Whatever it was, abuse survivors are sensitive to signs of abusive behavior, and Ironwood triggered all the abuse survivors in the group.

(And not just among the characters. I first noticed this difference of opinion among the fans I talked with this summer.)

Whenever all the people with the most experience dealing with abusers start having the same doubts about someone, it's time to question that person's behavior.

So is there an abuse survivor who isn't triggered by Ironwood? Yes, there's Winter, who escaped Jacques' abuse by joining the military and becoming Ironwood's assistant. We can tell at the mine that she's still sensitive to Jacques' abusive behavior.

But in her eyes Ironwood represents freedom from her father's sinister castle that she escaped with Ironwood's help. (And yes, the parallel with Salem and Ozma is too obvious to be coincidental.) Although as she told Penny on her way to follow Ironwood's orders to kill a feeble old lady who has served Atlas honorably for decades, she has to wrestle with her conscience to carry out Ironwood's recent commands. And after watching Ironwood's version of due process carried out on a loyal government official engaged in the performance of his duties (somebody had to ask that question) it looks like Winter is triggered as well. Time will tell what course she decides to follow.

#rwby #james ironwood #ruby rose #winter schnee #yang xiao long #lie ren #nora valkyrie #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #oscar pine #rwby8

[remnantoforario]

7 Things I Want to See in RWBY Volume 8

So with Volume 8 being stalled because of the pandemic (though they are still working on it in increments) I thought about doing a post about things I would like to see in the next volume. This is similar to the “Questions I Want Answered in Volume 7″ before that volume came out, but this one will be more centered on the actual story and characters rather than the broader stuff I wanted in 7. These have no real order, just seven random things I want to see. Here we go:

1. More Varied Character Interactions

This is one of the bigger sticking points I’ve had with the show in general rather than a problem I had with V7 itself. It’s no secret that one of the biggest complaints about RWBY from even it’s most hardcore stans is the lack of interpersonal interactions between characters outside of their given pairs. Ruby only talks to Weiss, Blake only talks to Yang, Ren only talks to Nora, and vice versa. 

Yang and Weiss had moments in Volume 5, but when was the last time Ruby and Blake had a conversation? Volume 1? What about Yang and Qrow? A big part of his arc in Volume 5 was his alcoholism and Yang was nowhere near that. Ruby and Yang are also big offenders. Weiss and Blake had one small moment in the mine and then went right back to being perfect strangers. Weiss and Jaune haven’t “talked” since volume 2 (I don’t count their dialogue after she got stabbed in V5) and I can’t recall anytime Ren and Nora have ever had a conversation with Yang and Blake. These kids are supposed to be friends who have been through thick and thin together, but they seem more like strangers outside of their supposed ��pairings”.

The preview with Yang interacting with Oscar, Jaune, and Ren gave me some hope. Hopefully the show continues it. 

2. More Information on Summer Rose

Volume 7 dropped the only notable information we’ve had about Summer since Qrow’s talk about the Silver Eyes in Volume 3, that being that Salem was likely responsible for Summer’s death. It’s now time to finally get more information on her. Who was she as a character? What was her semblance? What was her weapon? How did others view her? What is her connection to Ozpin? Why was she so important? How exactly did she die? I think some, if not all, of these questions should be answered in either this volume, or the next. We need a reason to care about her. 

One more important thing I would stress is that it needs to be Ruby actively searching for these answers. She shouldn’t have them handed to her, she should ask Yang and Qrow. Hell, if I wanted to get crazy I would just have a bottle episode with the three trapped in a bunker or something while Salem is attacking and all they do is talk about Summer.  Anything to highlight just why this woman who has been hanging over the show like a specter since the red trailer is so important. 

3. Give Yang Something to Do

Yang has been mostly directionless as a character since Volume 4. Her goal was to find Ruby, and that mostly carried her through V5, but now that they are reunited she’s mostly used to dress up the background or play will they won’t they with Blake (we’ll get to her) for ship bait. Put her on a path of wanting revenge on Salem for killing her mother (Summer), make her more worried about Ruby, or add her to Nora’s “defend Mantle” plotline. Something to make her an active character in the story again. 

4. Put Blake Back on track

Told you we’d get to her. Blake is an interesting character when you sit down and think about. In theory she should be the most compelling character with the deepest story arc, but she’s not. She was usurped by Weiss (who we will also get to in a moment) not long after Volume 5 ran its course. Her original course was to face her past, which morphed into taking back the White Fang from Adam, and then finally devolved into getting rid of Adam. Since then she has had little to no direction as well. 

Atlas is a hotbed for Faunus discrimination (as far as the show has implied) so I would like to see Blake get back to that. There was a slight moment in V7 with the mine, but that was quickly discarded. It would be interesting if she was able to rally the Faunus in Mantle similar to how she did in Menagerie.

Also, fix her hair. Come on, CRWBY. My girl out here looking like a used swiffer duster.

5. More Focus on the Schnee Family

A lot of people expected Volume 7 to be Weiss’ volume and its not hard to see why. The set up was there. She ran away from Atlas at the end of Volume 4 to find Winter, only to find out that her sister had been called back home. Now she was going back and not only would she reunite with her sister, she would also have to face her Father once more. Ultimately, this didn’t pan out and Weiss was mostly window dressing for what should have been the biggest part of her story. 

The other Schnees weren’t much better. Winter got some things to do, but it was more in service to Penny’s character than hers. Jacques remained the same. Whitley STARTED to get a character arc and Willow did little more than drink and a be plot convenience for Weiss. With Jacques now in jail and the company and family in shambles, this is the perfect time to give us something to latch onto with these five individuals. 

6. Character Conflict and Consequences

RWBY has had a nasty habit of late of pushing “protagonist-centered morality”. Meaning that no matter the situation, our main characters are always right and whoever opposes them is wrong (despite the litany of examples illustrating the opposite). This has to stop going forward. It only serves to irritate the audience because it makes it seem like the characters can’t make mistakes. Nothing they do has any lasting consequences or stakes. 

Team RWBY stalled Atlas’ defense plans against Salem by lying and unwitting sabotage, yet the story treated it as if they were in the right despite them offering no alternatives. Any attempts to speak against them were framed as “villainous”, turning once compelling characters into caricatures (Ironwood did nothing wrong). 

When it comes to character conflict, Ruby is always right. No matter what she says or does, her group falls in line no questions asked. That’s not natural. Someone should question her, someone should disagree with her methods and give a different perspective. 

Yang blistered Ozpin for lying about Salem and the Relic, but she was ok with Ruby doing the same thing to Ironwood? It made no sense and made her look like a hypocrite. 

Blake abandoned her friends, yet was welcomed back with open arms with little to no conflict. Even if the audience knew her reasons, her friends didn’t. For all they know she just up and left because she felt like it. Yang talked all this mess about Blake leaving, but didn’t keep that same energy when she came back. 

It’s ok for characters, for friends, to argue and disagree. It’s normal and happens all the time. Let them fight in the beginning of the volume, break up, and come back together in the end. Something. Maybe Ruby has a plan that Blake, Weiss, or sister don’t agree with and their clashing ideas split the group in half for a while. Then you can have the underlying narrative be them coming back together with new ideas to combat Salem when their individual plans don’t work. 

7. Give the Villains A Win

This is probably the most important thing I want to see. Salem and her forces are supposed to be the most evil group of people the planet has ever seen. A force of nature filled with killers, monsters, and madmen who want nothing more than to watch the world burn...but they haven’t posed a real threat since the Fall of Beacon. 

The show TELLS us Salem is a big deal, but until the end of Volume 7 all we’ve seen her do is sit in her tower and yell about Ozpin. She had yet to directly do anything that made our main characters want to stop her other than “she bad person”. Cinder has had more impact on the plot than her, and she hasn’t been useful since Volume 3. 

The villains NEED win this and the next volume. They need it so the writers can reestablish the stakes and make it so we WANT to see these bad guys defeated. Whether that be killing notable character off, taking the relic and Maiden powers, or dropping Atlas out the sky and destroying both it and Mantle completely, SOMETHING needs to happen to assert the villains dominance again in the plot.  

These are just what I personally want to happen in the next volume. I’m expecting them all to happen, but I least hope one or two of them do. We’ll see how it goes. 

#RWBY #RWBY Volume 7 #RWBY Volume 8 #Ruby Rose #Weiss Schnee #Blake Belladonna #Yang Xiao Long #Team RWBY #Jaune Arc #Nora Valkyrie #Lie Ren #Team JNR #Oscar Pine #James Ironwood #Winter Schnee #penny polendina #Summer Rose #Rooster Teeth #Salem

[tumblezwei]

Y’know something I’ve noticed is that unlike the rest of his family, Whitley’s design doesn’t have any red in it. Weiss, Winter, Willow, hell even Jacques has some red in his design but not Whitley. What do you make of that?

It could mean a couple things depending on what you think the red in their outfits is meant to symbolize. For me at this point, I consider it to be a symbol of freedom, or control over one’s own life, percieved or actual. 

Jacques is the head of the SDC, he considers himself completely in control of it and of his family. The red is an addition to his outfit, and like adding a handkerchief to his wardrobe is a choice he made for himself, he also created this oppurtunity for himself through his deceit and manipulation. But it’s a stolen position, so it’s not something he can truly control. 

Winter is similar, but different. In her first outfit, the red is represented with a jewel on her collar, but also lining the inside of her clothing. She ran away from her home to join the military, giving herself her own freedom, but it’s also something she genuinely feels was the best move for herself. This is where she’s meant to be, away from her family and doing actual good for people (as much good as the Atlas military can be at least). So the internal red is there, but subtle, easily missable. 

Her volume 7 outfit, however, tells a different story. It’s purely cosmetic this time. The red jewel is still there, but the only other red on her outfit lines her boots, which, aside from the ironic implications, are the exact same boots that Ironwood wears. She’s been convinced by Ironwood that her destiny, the true way to control her own fate, is to choose to become the Winter Maiden. Sure, it’s exactly what Ironwood wants her to do, but she made the choice to agree, so it’s real to her. Except it’s not, it’s not at all, and I think deep down she knows that. 

Willow is just like Winter, and a little like Jacques. Her only red is the jewel on her collar. She’s trapped in that house, convinced she’ll never leave. The wine she carries around is red, a desperate attempt to make herself forget that she’s trapped and her family is in ruins. But she does something. It’s small, and seemingly fruitless, but those cameras in Jacques office are something, and they give her what little control over her own life that she can muster. 

Weiss is simple, her red has always been lined inside her outfit. The only time this hasn’t been the case was when she was back home, forced to dance to Jacques whims once again and unable to see the people that she came to consider her real family. And when she escaped and finally found them again, she added a red scarf to her drab blue-grey clothes. She chose them, over her blood-related family. And now she has her elegant royal blue outfit, inlined with red and decorated with red jewels. 

And with all that, I think it’s pretty easy to see why Whitely’s outfit doesn’t contain any red. He hasn’t been able to control anything in his life. He couldn’t run like his sisters, or drown in alcohol and convince himself that this is fine, like his mother. His only coping mechanism is acting like the perfect son for his father. He’s stuck and he knows it. He knows that none of this is his own choice, but there’s nothing else that he can do. 

#so yeah Whitley escape arc when lmao #rwby #ask #anon

[thatsjustrwde]

For the RWBY character prompt thing: you gotta tell me about Ironwood for sure! And if somebody already asked, how's about Qrow? :)

OH BABEY A DOUBLE (I’m gunna put Qrow in a separate post to avoid making this too long) thank you so much!

Warning: This is a PRO IRONWOOD POST. I also go into team RWBY taking responsibility for their abuse towards Ozpin. Don’t read this if you don’t like it. You’ve been warned

My top three two ships for Ironwood

1) Ironqrow (Ironwood x Qrow) {Volumes 3-7}

I have loved the idea of these two since the fall of beacon. When they first interacted, I wasn’t too sure about them because it seemed like they didn’t really like each other.. but that scene where all the robots were turning on beacon and Qrow spotted ironwood, ran at him with his scythe, only to jump over him and save him from a Grimm, sold the ship to me. It was clear that they didn’t actually despise each other. Qrow wasn’t quick to point fingers; he knew that what was going on wasn’t James’ fault, and he even tried to add a little bit of comic relief to the scene. (When ironwood’s ship fell, and Qrow smirked “well, it won’t be much of a walk”)

My love for the ship was reinforced in v6 (yeah I know it was the fan service volume but I’m rolling with it anyway). Qrow knew that they HAD to get to ironwood in order to complete their goal. He trusted James, and he knew that he was a smart and capable leader who would know what to do (ah,, the good old days ;;)

And then in the early episodes of v7, their bickering that we once saw in v3 was non existent. They were happy to see each other, and James even initiated a hug. He was just so relieved to see him ;; it made my heart melt, I remember posting about this moment so much, all over instagram and tumblr. I loved them so dearly.

2) Ironwood x Glynda (idk if they have a ship name)

God,, I always loved them. that scene in v2 with Ironwood and Glynda standing together in the dead of night looking over the city of vale was so special to me. I love Glynda and her character, she is so dynamic. that scene with her and ironwood showed to us that she truly respected and cared for him and his well-being. She was worried for him as well. I just wish they had more interactions before his death. they would have been very sweet and POWERFUL together.

My three least favourite ships for Ironwood

1) Ironqrow {Volumes 7-8}

Oh boy. RT really knows how to take something good and just, ruin it huh.

I feel as though I don’t need to dive too deep into this (as I’ll be covering Ironwood’s fall from grace later) but yeah... The fight with Qrow and Clover was.. unfortunate. Everyone seemed to lose their braincells in that scene, and the moment it was over, Qrow was dead set on killing Ironwood for some reason even though he was the one who decided to side with a literal murderer, but go off MKEK you really did something there...

Yepp this absolutely killed the ship for me in canon (though I stilln love thinking about them out of the canon setting), I was an absolute wreck after this scene. they deserved better.

2) Ironwood x Winter

don’t worry I’m not about to pull the “IRONWOOD WAS AN ABUSIVE FATHER FIGURE AND GROOMED HER CAREERRHYUGGHR” no.

I always saw Ironwood as a POSITIVE father figure to winter, even before v7. We knew that winter was one of his best soldiers, and was most likely one of his students before then. I believe that Ironwood gave winter a chance at something great, to leave her actual abusive father and hone her skills as a soldier instead of becoming the heiress to a company that she did not want to be tied to. I believe Ironwood was a stellar father figure and role model to her, and that is the reason why I do not ship them. their relationship was so much deeper than that. it was found family.

3) Ironwood x Salem

What the fuck. Like actually what? This was a thing? What is it with this fandom and glorifying abusive relationships... I remember seeing a lot of people trying to justify it like “awh salem was so sweet with him she just wanted him to stop fighting. She would leave him alone after!!” Thats manipulation honey, we don’t fuck with that here. no. Absolutely not

My biggest criticism for Ironwood

See: the reason I made this side blog

It’s no secret to us in the RWDE community that his fall into the role of the villain was POORLY WRITTEN AND WE ALL HATE IT SO FUCKING MUCH. where the hell did this even come from? oh I know! TEAM RWBY LYING TO HIS FACE AFTER HE WAS NOTHING BUT KIND AND GENEROUS TO THEM. god I’m heated already.

I’ve talked about his stupid semblance before but it doesn’t even matter because his semblance wasn’t the cause of his descent anyway. We were all HOPING that it was but nope! it was him “losing his humanity” because he lost his other arm. How fucked up is that.

Shitty writing aside, I know James had flaws even before the shitshow that was v7-8, but honestly there was nothing he did that I can criticize harshly. He was a good and honest man with good intentions and a pure, big heart made of gold. Of course he made mistakes and of course he wasn’t perfect, but he was always trying to do the right thing to protect the people. He was a good man until MKEK decided they needed a reason to kill off another headmaster.

My favourite thing about Ironwood

his MUSCLES

His willingness to sacrifice himself to save others. During the fall of beacon he told the students that they didn’t have to stay, even though he could have used the help greatly. But he KNEW that they weren’t ready to handle a crisis like this, and he didn’t want to force them into a responsibility that could have left them emotionally/physically damaged, or worse.

During the Ironwood and Watts fight, IRONWOOD MANGLED HIS OWN ARM TO CAPTURE WATTS. He was so headstrong and brave and he wanted to do everything he could to prevent Salem, even if that meant hurting himself and losing another part of himself. God I miss him so much ;; I’m tearing up a little writing all of this...

A head canon I have for Ironwood

I love creating head canons for characters, it always makes them feel more real to me. one of my biggest head canons is that, in a peaceful world setting, he would enjoy sleeping in on the weekends. ;;. He is a headmaster AND a general which means he has to follow a strict schedule all the time. Maybe this is coming from my desire to take care of him and make sure he is happy and healthy and not stressed out.. But yeah, lazy Sundays, sleeping in late. pls let him sleep he needs so much sleep. What I would change about Ironwood if I were making a rewrite

Strap in kiddos I’ve been thinking about this for a very long time. I’m sure that someone has come up with a similar concept, but I will share my ideas anyway (: I am going to preface this by saying that for this rewrite to work, we need to have Winter receive the Winter maiden powers from Freya in V7.  To start, we will have to go back all the way to v2 when Ironwood was first introduced. I would have Ozpin and Glynda share their concerns to each other about Ironwood bringing all of his ships to look over the festival, but I would take that time to thoroughly explain his semblance. His semblance is stupid, so I would make some changes. To start off, I wouldn’t make it passive. The way it is now is just,, a weird way to give him a mental illness without actually giving him a mental illness. Activating it would have to be a decision that he made if he knew that he had to make decisions that would be hard for him. This way if his semblance caused him to do something actually horrible, he would be directly accountable for it, instead of blaming him for something that he couldn’t control. Semblances are a representation of the user, so with time and with more stress put onto Ironwood, I could see him falling victim to his own semblance if he were to abuse it too much. This will help as we lead into a better way to write his fall from grace. 

From there, I would keep pretty much everything the same until we get to v7. Team RWBY arrives in Atlas and gets arrested and brought to Ironwood just as they do in canon. This time, however, we have Oscar explain EVERYTHING. No lying. Salem cannot be killed. Oscar explains that Ozpin shut himself off after team RWBY forced the truth out of him, and while the truth is a lot for Ironwood to handle, he understands why Ozpin kept it a secret. He shuns team RWBY for their methods and explains why their actions were unnecessary and abusive, but agrees to help them anyway since he knows that they all need to come together if this is going to work. Hence, his arc kind of goes backwards. Instead of team RWBY having his trust from the beginning, they will need to work to gain it back. 

He takes Oscar under his wing to try and draw Ozpin back out. He greets Qrow, they fall in love, he also formally introduces the team to the Ace Ops. The Ace Ops take an IMMEDIATE backseat in the story. We don’t need more characters. For the sake of this rewrite specifically, they are barely around. We are focusing on Ironwood and his growth/relationships. I would explore more times to show the deep connection between him and Winter. As I said earlier, I see him as a healthy father figure for her, so I would definitely focus on that for a bit. At this point, Winter would not have received the maidens power yet, so we could have a scene of him assuring her that she is a perfect fit for the role, and encouraging her and just,, you know, solidifying that he wasn’t pressuring her into doing it. 

Carrying on with the main plot, instead of being left in the dark for the whole season, Ironwood is already aware that Salem cannot be killed. This gives him and the rest of the team a lot of time to work on a new plan to defeat her. They spend lots of time training, Ironwood takes care of them, offering his resources to them. Overtime the team do start to gain his trust little by little again, but this will all kinda fall apart when Salem arrives. 

With stress levels higher than ever, he activates his semblance. Team RWBY and friends KNOW about his semblance and they understand why he is acting irrationally. Maybe they have different ideas than him, but they would not directly oppose him. This completely fixes him from becoming a cartoon villain. Team RWBY and friends would work WITH Ironwood at a distance to fix amity and get global communications back up safely. From there, Ironwood could deliver a message to the world about Salem. Since people know who he is, it will make the message more impactful. Just like he did with his message to Mantle.

Qrow and Winter are positives in his life. They keep trying to ground him and bring him back to reality, but he will not deactivate his semblance. He is too scared of what’s to come with Salem. They support him in this, and do not turn their back on him. 

Winter receives the maiden’s power, and is told to open the vault to obtain the staff and raise atlas further into the sky to save his people. Winter agrees, why wouldn’t she? They have already evacuated most of mantle to atlas anyway. In situations like this it’s impossible to save everyone. RWBY could whine and bitch if they wanted to, but there is nothing they could do in this situation because, for the sake of this rewrite, they wouldn’t be as stupid as they are in the canon proper. 

The vault is open and the staff is vulnerable. It is in this moment that the ACTUAL VILLIAN comes into play. Watts took advantage of the security from behind the scenes, giving Salem the exact time that the vault was open. And thanks to him overhearing everything, he knows that all she needs to do is use the staff, and Atlas will fall. Salem appears in the room, and the big finale battle would occur. They weren’t ready yet. They hadn’t finalized the plan to stop her without killing her. Team RWBY Oscar and Qrow would do their best to keep Salem distracted while Winter and Ironwood speak to the staff. Meanwhile, Neo could breach Ironwood’s office and retrieve the relic of knowledge for Salem. 

The battle plays out, she keeps coming back, the team gets tired, Salem loses her patience and just PLOWS through them to get to the staff. She enters the realm and the mystical world around them begins to shatter and break. With that much concentrated evil in this place coming up out of nowhere, it would be sure to shift the balance. 

She goes head to head against Winter and Ironwood for the staff. She knows that using the staff will cause Atlas to come crashing down, so that is exactly  what she does. Since he is already out, she just gives him a command. It doesn’t matter what it is. Atlas starts to fall. She strikes a lethal blow to Ironwood (Keeping the theme of her killing headmasters) and flees with the staff. Qrow runs to his side, he and winter are crying, Team RWBY is upset, OZPIN IS UPSET. With his aura broken and his semblance down, he smiles at them all, says that he is proud of them for their work and he knows that they will find a way to defeat her. He tells them to get out and save themselves, save as many people as they can. They do that, but for further angst, Qrow stays with him, holding him and crying against him as Atlas falls. Team RWBY use the gravity dust keeping Atlas falling slowly to their advantage. They get as many people as they can into airships and send them to mistral. They then make their own way to Vacuo... Since global communications are back up, the world would know about this. This would give Shade academy a good chance to prepare. (damn I could write a fic)

What I think of Ironwood’s allusion and what I would change.

It’s dumb the way that CRWBY has portrayed it. In the story of the Wizard of Oz, the tin man doesn’t have a heart, but learns to love overtime. I used THIS aspect for helping my rewrite of Ironwood. He was hardened at the beginning, but managed to trust again and eventually smiled and said that he was proud of team RWBY and friends in his dying moments. It’s just more impactful that way I think. 

#long post #ironwood #pro ironwood #ironqrow #rwde #rwby crit

[itsclydebitches]

None of them liked Ironwoods growingly tyrannical actions, it's the whole reason Ruby lies to him, he looked shady as hell. They are shown very clearly uncomfortable with what he's turned Atlas into in the First episode. It's just that at the end of Volime 7 he crossed the line.

The key words there are “first episode.” I’ve mentioned on other posts that if the plot had simply continued the forward momentum of the group being disgusted with Ironwood’s choices and working against him (hiding out in the city, gathering like-minded allies, etc.) then we would have been golden. Ironwood is Volume 7’s antagonist. There, done. The problem is what starts in the second episode. Our basic events are as follows:

The group (and audience) learn that Ironwood has arguably justified reasons for everything “shady as hell” that he’s done. The embargo? They are at war with Salem and people have been stealing resources since our introductory trailers (Blake). Soldiers in the streets? That first episode showed that grimm are attacking defenseless civilians and, if the soldiers hadn’t been there to fend the grimm off prior to Penny’s arrival, they likely would have died. Taking resources? That’s to re-establish global communications and enact a plan to stop Salem for good, freeing the world from the danger she presents. 

However, they’re still morally gray choices which our group could have opposed… but they didn’t. They join Ironwood as public allies (standing with Clover and Penny against Robyn), as Inner Circle allies (they learn all of Ironwood’s plans—and we learn that he never lied to them), as huntsmen (it’s his power as general that gives them their licenses), and as fellow soldiers (they are indistinguishable from the Ace Ops in the missions they conduct). Now toss in a bunch of other connections like living in his academy, taking his weapon upgrades, and carrying the Relic. They might not like his actions, but they’re certainly doing everything possible to support and reap the benefits of them. 

Ruby does lie to him… which two in the group oppose (however lackluster that was). Yang and Oscar both question the wisdom of doing the very thing they punished Ozpin for. Ren also develops a strong (if quiet) alliance with Ironwood that will carry into Volume 8... until his semblance changed and he forgot about it. 

During all this there are efforts—mostly through Nora—to condemn Ironwood for his choices. How can you continue to hurt the people like this? Same answer as above: because he believes a short-term struggle is worth the long-term victory. Nora doesn’t agree… but Ruby, the leader, does. She pushes Ironwood to finish Amity somehow.

Which is an incredibly strange stance to take considering she knows that amassing a world-wide army will not defeat Salem. If the group wants Ironwood to stop hurting Mantle, all they have to do is tell him that Salem is immortal… but they don’t. They let him continue under this false belief, despite having more information about this war than he does and despite that information being the key to stopping the harm he’s enacting.

The arc of the volume is not the group choosing to trust Ironwood and then realizing he actually isn’t trustworthy, it’s the group (or rather, Ruby) deciding not to trust Ironwood and then realizing he is trustworthy. We get that climactic scene of Ruby and Oscar simultaneously realizing they should tell him about Salem and Oscar apologizing for keeping that secret in the first place. 

 Note that this occurs after they’ve talked him into telling Mantle about her. So not only is the group not made up of mindless subordinates being ordered about by a powerful general—it’s their advice Ironwood listens to—but now they’ve put an entire city in the position they were in during Volume 6. We’re told, via Ozpin’s arc, that telling people about Salem without including the issue of her immortality is a horrific thing to do. Those like Qrow have supposedly “wasted” their lives fighting an impossible war and the fandom has argued strongly that Ozpin has manipulated everyone involved in this fight by not giving them the full picture. Yet now, the group has spent months keeping that information from Ironwood when his questionable choices are based on that ignorance, and they’ve talked him into telling half his population that Salem exists and they should rise up to fight her… but not the pesky detail that she’s immortal. They did to Ironwood and all of Mantle exactly what Ozpin did to them.

Immediately after hearing that they’ve kept this secret from him the entire time they’ve been here (which he takes very well) Ironwood captures one of their main villains, loses his arm in the process, learns that two in the group have outright betrayed him to a political enemy, learns that despite all their best efforts Cinder has just waltzed into his office, learns that Salem herself is on her way and their defenses are already gone, knows that everyone is exhausted from a major battle… so when he decides to take all of Atlas, the majority of Mantle, and the Relics/Maiden they have to try and get out of Salem’s reach… Ruby says no. What’s her plan? She doesn’t have one. You’re just not allowed to leave.

The problem with the writing is it wants us to believe two contradictory things at once. Looking back, Ironwood is meant to be seen as an unambiguously bad guy in Volume 7, which we know because of scenes like Winter’s fight wherein she condemns him for everything he did in Volume 7, not just Volume 8 stuff like threatening to bomb Mantle. Yet at the same time, we’re simultaneously meant to believe that the group is made up of unambiguously good people who function as direct contrasts to Ironwood. Given what we got, these two things cannot coexist! Either Ironwood was a good man who the heroes backed for an entire volume and there’s no acknowledgment of that, or Ironwood was a bad man… who the heroes backed for an entire volume and there’s no acknowledgment of that either. If the group’s defense is, “We knew he was shady as hell. We knew what he was doing was wrong. We knew he was the bad guy here… but we still helped him maintain power, forward his plans, and reap the benefits of the flawed system for months on end”… that’s really bad. “I supported, assisted, and benefited from the guy who was shady as hell, but that’s fine because I felt uncomfortable about it the whole time” is not the hot take the fandom wants it to be. We cannot make these broad, sweeping statements about how the Atlas military—merged with its huntsmen—is an Evil Thing and then show scenes like, say, Jaune using his military grade huntsmen license to convince a bunch of civilians to follow his evacuation plan. The heroes cannot be Good and Pure while supporting the supposed villains and their systems; or, the villains cannot be purely Bad and Evil if they’re supported by the heroes.

The reality is that RWBY is badly written and this sort of simplistic, inconsistent writing doesn’t lend itself to a topic as complex as this one. To be frank, we don’t even know enough to make informed decisions about these actions because the world building is nearly nonexistent. What are these “resources” and how are the resources to patch a hole in the wall the same as the resources used to make Amity Tower into a world-wide communication device? How much power does Ironwood actually have and what other decisions has he made that impact Mantle? We never hear about any policies to explain things like the poor conditions, or the slum areas with the faunus. Why are the civilians so against the soldiers patrolling when we don’t see them abusing the public in any way, but we do see the grimm threatening them on the regular? Why does Ruby want Amity built so badly—willing to hurt Mantle to do it—when she knows a bigger army isn’t the answer/that telling people about Salem has almost always led to panic and betrayal? Is there really any difference between huntsmen and soldiers here? And if the answer is, “Yes. Huntsmen aren’t beholden to any power. That’s a good thing because following orders is Bad. They do what they think is best” than what are we supposed to make of someone like Rhodes who, apparently, did what he thought was best? If he’d been beholden to some superior there might have been a system in place to help Cinder. As it was, he was left to his own devices and a lot of fans are furious with the solution he, as one flawed individual, came up with. We simply don’t have a good picture of this world and when we do, things constantly contradict. It’s good for huntsmen to make their own choices, but only when Ruby does it, not Rhodes. It’s bad for heroes to keep the Salem secret and tell lies to their allies, but only when Ozpin does it, not Ruby. It’s bad for someone to try and save who they’ve got, but only when Ironwood does it, not Ruby, who apparently left Atlas after failing to create portals for her Uncle, Robyn, the Ace Ops, Pietro, Maria, and an entire army.

The way that the fandom gets around these problems—because too few are willing to just acknowledge that they are problems and RWBY is shoddily written—is by simplistically comparing RWBY’s military to a real world one. I cannot tell you how many posts I’ve come across that amount to, “Imagine thinking the teenage girls are the bad guys when a military general is right there, being a military general 😒 ” Those posts imply that fans like me are too stupid (too brainwashed, too close to “bootlickers”) to be critical of the military, but I assure you, that’s as far from true as can be. Those posts are trying to conflate real life politics with a fantasy story whose world looks nothing like our own. The is not a question of being critical of the military, it’s a question of being critical of RWBY as that fictional text… and that fiction never established any of the military problems we deal with in the real world. It might have (very easily), but it didn’t. Is Ironwood leveraging his people to conquer others or go after wealth? No, his world has literal, unambiguously evil monsters to fight. Does he amass power out of a desire to control the people? No, he lays out his exact thoughts on how these measures will help protect against those monsters and a witch. Does the military abandon its soldiers after war, leaving them with few resources and fewer prospects? No, we never see anyone struggling in that manner and one of the most prominent tragedies—Yang losing a limb—is answered by Ironwood personally sending a replacement to her home. Is the military at least built around propaganda, painting civilians an inaccurate picture of Freedom and Glory to convince them to fight? No, we see no propaganda, Ironwood—since Volume 2—has been focused on replacing people with robots and our entire story is built around one child’s desire to fight the exact same battle. Why do you want to be a huntress, Ruby? Because I want to help people! And that goal is never painted as a naïve outlook that Ruby becomes disillusioned with. Posts like the one mentioned above bank 100% on the reader mapping real life military criticism onto RWBY… rather than actually looking at the world RWBY built, what choices the characters make, the amount of information we’re given (little), and whether that in any way reflects our current, political problems. It doesn’t. 

I’m never going to pretend there weren’t problems with Ironwood’s decisions. In fact, I love that this was actually a conflict in Volume 3 that gave both sides a fair shake: is it better to scare people and have an army at the ready to defend them, or is it better to keep them in the dark and potentially be defenseless? Ironwood’s kind heart bumping up against extreme measures is what made him compelling, especially when the story was having him grow in the “right” direction (AKA, listening to Ozpin). His treatment of Penny is another big issue, creating a whole ass person to serve as a military defense tool. That’s horrifying! So he’s absolutely had his problems long before the writing had him turn into a trigger-happy murderer, but part of the issue here is that the writing doesn’t acknowledge those problems in other characters. If Ironwood is “shady as hell” for forwarding a military agenda and using military resources… then so is Ruby, the leader who backed that for months. If Ironwood is “shady as hell” for funding the creation of a person to defend his kingdom… then so is Pietro, the scientist who not only built Penny, but came up with the idea in the first place. He’s not some defenseless victim who was forced by the evil Ironwood to create something morally reprehensible, he suggested it! The same way Winter wasn’t some defenseless victim who was forced by the evil Ironwood to go along with these plans. She supported them, agreed to be his Maiden, and was the first to suggest martial law! Yet Ruby, Pietro, Winter and their like are all presented as unambiguously Good People, whereas Ironwood is presented as the unambiguous Bad Guy—and when a lot of fans went, “But you’re not writing him like a Bad Guy? Especially when we compare him to the heroes?” we got his sudden, OOC murder streak in Volume 8. But it doesn’t work. Either the group is made up of morally gray/bad people because they did the things our antagonist Ironwood did, or Ironwood is not the morally gray/bad person the show insists he is (prior to Volume 8) because he did the same things as our heroes. You cannot give us that plot, those choices, that agency and insist on both at once. This problem has existed ever since we got an entire volume about how simplistically evil Ozpin is for keeping this secret… only for Ruby to immediately turn around and keep it herself, with no acknowledgement that either a) Ozpin wasn’t the bad guy then or b) Ruby is as bad as he is. But the show wants Ruby to be the Good Person in every situation, no matter how much she models her behavior after those she deems her enemies, and Ironwood’s arc only increased that problem tenfold.

#rwby #mymetas #tempoaryblogformightyjensblog

[aknolan]

Going with the idea that Winter will be put into the aura transfer machine so the part of Penny she carries with her can be brought back into a new body to revive Penny... what are the outcomes?

1. First off, of course there's a chance it doesn't work. There's a chance nothing will happen, there's a chance someone will come to life, but it won't be Penny. This isn't happening. This is not the kind of story rwby is, if we get to the point of trying to bring Penny back - she's coming back.

2. Penny comes back, and she's the Winter Maiden again. But then, what's stopping her from pulling this trick again? When she was brought back the first time, it was with a limited resource. But 'aura donated by the next winter maiden' is not that limited.

3. Penny comes back, and Winter is still the Winter Maiden. Possible, but odd. Depends a lot on what kind of body they get Penny. Does she have a weapon? Can she fly? This could end up making her a lot weaker than she's ever been before, useless in a fight, what would her role in the narrative be? Also, for as much as I love Winter. She's right to be confused when Penny chooses her. Winter being the maiden is not an improvement compared to Penny being the maiden.

4. The powers end up split. Way back in volume 3, the concept of having two half-maidens was first brought up. We never did find out what that was like, did we? These powers were a gift, meant to be shared. So why not share it? Why not share the burden?

I think that's the likeliest option. Not just for Penny to stay relevant without getting an infinite source of revivals, but also in a more metaphorical sense.

Penny can't leave the responsibility with Winter, but the burden is too much for Penny to carry. Ever since she got these powers, she's been consistently offering to sacrifice herself as the first option she thinks of.

Sharing the burden lowers the pressure on her, but doesn't let her abandon the responsibility she took on at the end of volume 7.

#first spoilers #rwby8 spoilers #rwby spoilers #rwby #penny polendina #winter schnee

[oldsalempost-blog]

The Old Salem Post

 Our  Local Tamassee-Salem SC Area News each Monday except holidays                                          Contact: [email protected]                              Distributed to local businesses, town hall, library.                                                   Volume 7 Issue 4                                                                                                  Week of December 12,  2022                https://www.tumblr.com/settings/blog/oldsalempost-blog                                                         Lynne Martin Publishing

EDITOR: Salem United Methodist will participate in Wreaths across America by placing wreaths on the graves of our veterans after Sunday Worship service, Dec 18.  Tour the gravesites to remember and honor our veterans for their service to our country, where we enjoy freedoms that others only dream of. It only takes a few moments. First Thank God! Then thank a veteran!  Our unique-God-loving hometown is filled with  His Sweet Spirit.  That is why people love it here so much! LRMartin                                                                                  

TOWN OF SALEM:  *Downtown Market every Sat. 8am-12pm.  Place a memory ornament for your loved ones  on the Town tree all month long.  Next Town Council meeting Jan 17, 2023.                                              

.                                            ASHTON RECALLS        By Ashton Hester            

SALEM MAN HAD SAME MULE FOR 40 YEARS. . .(Last week I posted a poem that Doris Rogers-Ripoll wrote in 1992 about her childhood years at Tamassee DAR School. For a number of years in the 1970s, Doris (then Doris Rogers) wrote feature stories for the Keowee Courier, including the following one that was in the January 5, 1977 Courier):. . .Slow-moving but fast-thinking Mr. Erby Bennett of the Fall Creek community above Salem, just buried the only "child" he ever had. . .Rhodie was her name and she never gave Mr. Bennett any trouble. She worked well, whatever and whenever he asked her. She loved Mr. Bennett, too. . .Sadly, Rhodie died of old age last Saturday; she was forty years old and died in the rain. . .Mr. Bennett paid Horace Hinkle $25 to bury Rhodie with a back-hoe digger. Erby's heart was breaking as they lowered his long-time friend, Rhodie the mule, into the ground near his home. . .Mr. Bennett bought his mule from Clarence Dills shortly after she was born, planning to use her for gardening and farming. He was 28 years old. Rhodie turned out to be gentle enough for children to ride. She also hauled water, dragged logs, pulled wagons, and was never stubborn or grouchy. . .Mr. Bennett and his wife, the former Carrie Dills, will both miss old Rhodie. Mrs. Bennett said, "They were two of a kind. As they got older they just pulled each other across the garden". . .Erby remarked, "It was hard, like parting with a member of the family. Giving her up really hurt."                                                    

JOCASSEE VALLEY BREWING COMPANY,(JVBC)& COFFEE SHOP13412 N Hwy 11 Open WED-Preregister for Winter Landscape Art Class with Sylvia Garza, 6pm-8pm $25 for instruction and supplies.–THURS: A Conservation Christmas with friends, Christmas Vinyl and Lasagna 6pm-9pm.  Fri– Rachel Van Slyke 6:30pm  Food: BYO.  Sat: Music: According to Taste 6:30pm  Food: Lobster Dogs. Sun. 2pm-7pm Goers&Allen  Old Time Christmas Sing  4pm. Soup Fundraiser.             Call 864-873-0048  

ADVENT SEASON:  The anticipation and excitement of the Coming of Christ is represented by lighting  candles on an Advent Wreath in church and in your own home as a tradition each of the 4 Sundays before Christmas Day. There are 4 candles, 3 purple and 1 pink that surround the center white candle of Christ. The 1st purple candle represents Hope of a Savior, a promised King to save us from evil in this world. The 2nd purple candle represents unconditional Love to all people. The 3rd pink candle represents the Joy in Mary’s heart knowing she would give birth to this promised King.  The 4th candle will be lit next Sunday representing the Peace that Christ brings to our lives in a hurting world, knowing that his presence is with us always. The Christ candle will be lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. The gift of Christmas-Hope-Love-Joy-Peace– from Christ!  

WEDDINGS AT TAMASSEE:  BRIDE-TO-BE TEA PARTY.  TOUR OUR VENUE OPTIONS.  VISIT WITH WEDDING VENDORS.  REFRESHMENTS PROVIDED.  SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 2023 3PM-5PM, SOUTH CAROLINA COTTAGE.  COST $10 BRIDE AND 1 GUEST.  REGISTER BY CALLING 864-944-1390                                            

ARE YOU IN NEED OF A COAT OR SOCKS?   Call Missy at  864-944-8732                                                        

              JOTTINGS FROM JEANNIE:  English Can Be Confusing!                                                                                                                                                              Words with the same spelling can have different meanings!                                            *Polish the Polish furniture.      *The invalid had invalid insurance.         *The buck does funny antics when does are present.         *I was too close to the door to close it.              *When she heard the shot, the dove dove into the bush.       *After a number of injections, my jaw got number.      OH! You Queens of Isaqueena, You Kings of Keowee!!!  If you grew up in an English speaking home, THANK YOUR            PARENTS!!!    Holiday Cheer to one and all!!!                                 I love YOU!!! Miz Jeannie Love, Miz Jeannie  

                                EAGLES NEST ART CENTER , 501c3, 4 Eagle Lane, Salem                                                                                                                                              Christmas Gift Idea:  Name a Seat in the Eagles Nest Auditorium is now open to the general public and community.  Single person, $200, Family or couples, $250.  Contact [email protected] or Darlene 864-710-8758.  Let ENAC hang a Memory Ornament for you on the Tree Downtown Salem for $10.    Or, give a donation to honor or in memory of a loved one.                                    STRING LESSONS?: $10 each group class. Classes will be on Saturday mornings. 9am-10am at the Eagles Nest Art Center.   [email protected] or 864-280-1258.   Give a  Gift of Music!            ENAC Special meeting Monday, December 12  at 5pm.                                        UPCOMING PERFORMANCES IN 2023:                                                              MOUNTAIN FAITH BAND:  ENAC welcomes this family Bluegrass/Gospel band from Sylvia, N.C.  On JAN.14 at 7PM TICKETS $20   Available at the Town of Salem or call 864-280-1258.                                                                            OCONEE MOUNTAIN OPRY JAN. 21 TICKETS $10.                                            WOMEN ENCOURAGING WOMEN: FEB. 21 1PM-4PM  A Love Offering will be taken.  * This is a wonderful event for our local churches to help sponsor. *

Boones Creek Baptist Church Children's Program:  261 Boone Creek, Salem SC, presents  "Back to Bethlehem"  on Sunday night December 18th  at 6 P.M.  Everyone is invited to come.                                                                         

Salem United Methodist Church Christmas Cantata:   520 Church Street, Salem SC at the 10:30pm Worship Service.  

SAMARITAN’s PURSE:  After washing the feet of his disciples, Jesus told his disciples to “ Go and do likewise.”  Interested in going to Charlotte in January to be a volunteer to help send Christmas Boxes to children all over the world?   Call 864-280-1258                                                                                                  GOLDEN CORNER FOOD PANTRY:  Tamassee-Salem mobile food pantry.  Pick up at Salem First Baptist Church second Saturday each month.  10am-12pm .  Anyone on EBT ( food stamps) will automatically apply.  Call for more information 864-882-3610.                                                                                      

Health Tip: A reader asked what is a Nettie Pot? It is a small pot shaped device that holds a solution to irrigate your nasal passages to loosen congestion.  Boil water on the stove top and allow to cool down before using then stir in a packet of saline crystals or  buy your solution.    

[red-exo]

moonlight convenience - part 7

summary: Jaebeom had been alive a long time. He never really got the hang of humans. They confused him, always so warm and frantic and fragrant. He could barely remember being one. He mostly stuck with his handful of immortal friends, clinging to their relationships for some semblance of normalcy. Then there was you. And you… were different.

warnings: vampire au, soulmate au - eventual smut, fluff, blood is involved, some violence bc vampires, a lil exhibitionism/voyeur stuff - jaebeom can see into her apartment window.

pairing: female reader/jaebeom

note: i started writing this while tipsy so i HOPE i got all my typos and mess-ups. there is some fighting in this one just fyi.

prologue | part one | part two | part three | part four | part five | part six

_________________________

Jaebeom doesn’t see you for four days. Every second of it hurts. He doesn’t leave his apartment the entire time. He knows it’s wrong, but he watches you through his bedroom window, hoping that maybe you’ll look back and see him too.

He doesn’t try to push any boundaries other than that, that wouldn’t be fair. He doesn’t text you, doesn’t call. If you wanted to speak to him you would, he thinks, so he leaves his phone on full volume and watches it as if it carries some kind of otherworldly secret.

On the fourth day, near midnight, Jinyoung bangs on his door. He has his own key, of course, but he knocks out of spite.

He answers the door, disheveled and malnourished, having refused to drink since you had left. Jinyoung, looking as immaculate and unimpressed as he usually does, forces his way inside and closes the door behing him.

“This is not productive,” He says, giving Jaebeom a once over, “Moping will not get her back.”

Jaebeom shrugs, “Look, man, I don’t want to -”

“I literally don’t give a fuck,” Jinyoung says, “You staying healthy is my priority. You need to feed. Get dressed.”

Jaebeom pauses, digging his heels in at getting direct orders. After a moment he sighs, knowing that Jinyoung is the only one who could ever get away with it.

“Fine.”

He dresses simply, not caring very much about what goes on his body. All black, loose fitting shirt and thick winter jacket, dark jeans and comfortable shoes.

He lets Jinyoung fuss over his hair, smoothing it off his face so it doesn’t hang into his eyes. He doesn’t even bat an eyelash when he chastises him for not cutting his hair more often.

“We’re going to BamBam’s,” Jinyoung says, guiding him back towards the door, “You’re going to drink and we’ll all hang out like we normally do.” He opens the door, turning back to look at him, “Got it?”

Jaebeom nods, “Got it.”

_________________________

It’s Annie’s idea, which is how you should have known not to follow through with it. You did, though.

Dressed to the nines in a tiny red dress with a high neck and low back you step out of an Uber in front of Evening. There’s a long line tonight. You debate turning around, but you’re mad and confused. Jaebeom had either lied to you or was mentally unwell - you’re not sure what’s worse. Out of everyone, his friends would know what was going on.

It’s fucking freezing, despite the coat you have wrapped around you, and you step through the thin layer of snow on the sidewalk to approach the club.

You don’t recognize the bouncer but clearly he recgonizes you. He calls your name, waving you to the front of the line. You follow his instructions despite the dirty looks the people already waiting give you.

“You’re Jaebeom’s girl, right?” He asks.

Your heart jumps into your throat. You want to cry or vehemently disagree, but you figure you’ll get in faster if you just say yes.

“Yeah, I am.”

He opens the door for you, “Go ahead.”

You thank him and step inside. A girl with a glowing red choker takes your coat, stashing it quickly into a closet by the door.

“None of them are here yet,” She says, frowning, “Other than BamBam, he’s by the bar.”

“Thanks,” You say glancing around nervously.

“Here,” She grabs your wrist in one hand, pulling it up and stamping a bright green stamp onto the back of your hand, “They’ll leave you alone now. We missed you last time.”

You glance down at the stamp, green ink depicting a set of fangs crossed out.

“Sure,” You nod, stepping away.

The bar is the only bright thing in the whole club, light up by white lights instead of the red LEDs illuminating the rest of the club. You navigate your way through the crowd towards the bar. There’s a single empty barstool and you hop on to it, looking around.

The girl next to you is flawlessly beautiful, with dark ebony skin and a puff of curls that surround her face. She glances over, giving you a slow smile. She gives you a once over, then glances back up at your face.

“That’s a shame.”

“Huh?” You ask, stunned by her beauty for a moment, before realizing that she was referring to the green stamp on your hand.

“Someone’s got dibs already,” She takes her drink, a dark red cocktail, and disappears into the crowd.

Almost immediately her seat is filled by BamBam, Jaebeom’s friend who owned the club.

“I was not expecting to see you here,” He says, looking at you through blue tinted sunglasses.

“I wasn’t really expecting to make it all the way here, to be honest.”

He sighs, taking off his sunglasses and hooking them onto the collar of his shirt, “What do you like to drink?”

“Gin.”

He glances at a bartender, who appears in front of him without a hint of delay, “Get her a gin and tonic. Clear.”

Clear? Gin and tonic are both clear what the hell was he talking about?

The guy steps away to make it, and you watch him spin glasses and pour things faster than you thought was possible. When he’s done he places it front of you with a little black napkin.

“How much?” You start to say, but BamBam cuts you off.

“I own this bar, you can have whatever you want.”

“What if I want information?”

He smiles, “That too.”

Across the room, someone yells, and he straightens up immediately.

“Let me deal with that and then we can go to my office.”

“Okay,” You take a sip of your drink, “Thank you.”

He nods, “Stay here.”

You don’t know what you’re really planning on asking him. Obviously the whole vampire thing is at the front of your mind, but it’s so outside your realm of comprehension that you can’t even begin to understand what the world would be like if it were true.

The staff in the club, with the glowing red necklaces, all seem to have bruising around their necks and some of them seem dazed when they come out of private booths.The patrons of the club all move in a very specific way. They’re light on their feet but intimdating at the same time. They move with purpose. They move like Jaebeom.

BamBam is gone for a long time. Long enough that you finish your drink and desperately need to go to the bathroom.

You manage to make eye contact with the bartender and he abandons the person he’s currently talking to come up to you.

“Where’s the bathroom?” You ask, pitching your voice above the music. You must have been too loud, though, because he seems surprised at your volume.

“Oh, um,” He says, “There’s just the one downstairs for staff.”

“Am I able to use it?”

“Of course! Whatever you need!” He says, pointing across the bar to where a door says Employees Only, “It’s the door at the bottom of the stairs.”

“Thanks.”

You hop off your stool and push through the crowd again. It’s all gyrating bodies and soft sighs over the music, people pressing against each other in the dim light. You make eye contact wtih a girl who has her mouth on someone’s neck.

Your brain tells you she’s just kissing them, but it looks a bit more sinister with the glow of the employee’s necklace casting a red shadow over her lips.

The Employees Only door is unlocked and it swings open easily. There’s a staircase to the left that goes up and one directly in front of you that goes down. You follow it down, your ears useless from the sudden halt of the music. You don’t even hear the door close behind you they’re ringing so bad.

You open the bathroom door and are confronted with a small but clean bathroom. It’s dark, the single lightbulb flickering when you turn it on. You close and lock the door behind you, hiking up your dress to use the toilet.

When you’re done you flush and wash your hands, surprised at the sweet smelling soap sitting on the counter.

You unlock the door and pull it open, stepping back away from the doorway as it swings inward. On the other side is a tall, broad figure. You flinch, surprised at their presence more than anything else.

You look up and it’s a man you’ve never seen before. His face is gaunt, cheeks sunken as if he hasn’t eaten in weeks. His clothes are high end, though, expensive and perfectly fitting. His buzzed blonde hair looks disheveled and sickly in the yellow light.

“I don’t care whose you are,” He says, sounding as if he’s talking around something in his mouth, “I want a fucking taste.”

_________________________

The first thing Jaebeom hears when they enter the club is you screaming. They had picked up the rest of the group, other than BamBam, on their way but he ignores all of them to follow the sound of your voice.

No one even tries to stand in his way. He can’t even imagine how he looks right now but everyone is smart enough to get out of the way.

He shoulders open the Employees Only door, leaving a hole in the wall where the handle smashes through the drywall. 

The door at the bottom of the stairs is ajar. Through the opening he can see you, furiously fighting against a vampire that has you pressed against the wall. He’s weak, though, probably hasn’t fed in a while. You’re able to put your hand on his face and push, keeping him away from your throat but his fangs knick the soft skin of your palm.

You hiss in pain and the smell of your blood floods his senses. Jaebeom is down the stairs in a fraction of second. He tears the guy away, flinging him back onto the steps.

Positioning himself in front of you Jaebeom kicks the guy in the sternum - hard. He hears something crack, and the guy cries out.

Everything seems to happen in a flurry of movement. Three bouncers clamber down the stairs to drag the guy away, and BamBam and the others stand at the top of the stairs, staring down.

Behind him, he hears you panting and crying. Turning around, you’re slumped against the wall nearly hyperventilating and holding your bloody hand to your chest.

Jaebeom isn’t good at this. He’s not good at being in love, at showing everything he is and everything he’ll never be. All he really knows is that he’ll be wherever you need him to be, forever.

You make eye contact with him. He feels a bit like he’ll vomit, but he doesn’t.

He holds out a hand to you, “Come here.”

You look hesitant for a second, but then you take a few shaky steps forward and fall face-first against his chest.

_________________________

You end up in BamBam’s office in the end. He sits you down on a cushy leather couch, pressed up against the wall. Jaebeom refuses to leave your side, sitting on the arm of the couch beside you and draping his arm over your shoulders. He tugs you in against his side.

One of the guys, who you think is named Mark, kneels in front of you with a bandage.

“It’s not too bad,” He says, voice smooth and deep, “You okay?”

You nod slowly. Despite everyone apparently being friends Jaebeom does not relax until Mark has finished bandaging the cut on your hand and steps away.

“You’re kind of bad luck,” BamBam says, perching on the egde of his desk, “Shit always goes down when you’re here.”

“She’s an unclaimed human of course shit goes down,” Jinyoung snorts, leaning against the wall beside Jaebeom. He’s the only one that seems to be able to be within a foot of you without Jaebeom tensing up.

The six of them start talking, Jaebeom remaining silent next to you.

All you could see in your mind’s eye was that man coming towards you. His teeth morphed into fangs and he was stronger than anyone you had ever met. It felt like his bones were titanium, his mucles cords of metal, completely immovable.

You glance up at Jaebeom to find him staring down at you.

He raises an eyebrow. It’s a million questions wrapped in to one expression and you’re somehow able to understand that he simultaneously means “are you okay?” and “do you believe me now?”

You nod.

“I’m going to take her home.”

The room falls immediately silent. They all defer to him, you realize. Everything from their body language to their behaviour tells you that Jaebeom is in charge of this little ragtag group.

They all surround you, escorting you safely out of the club and out the back door you had been taken out of the first time you were here. Somehow, BamBam had retrieved your jacket and he drapes it over your shoulders as you get outside.

Jaebeom’s car is parked there again, all dark leather and matte black paint.

You barely remember getting into the car, much less the drive home. You’re exhausted and scared, your whole body trembling.

Jaebeom takes you to his apartment, bundling you up in his big jacket over your coat since you’re shivering so much, and holds you under his chin as you ride the elevator up to his floor.

Once you’re inside his apartment he carefully helps you unzip your dress and gives you a big t-shirt of his. It hangs off one shoulder but clings to your hips and butt, you tug on the fabric until it fits more comfortably.

Everything feels foggy, as if you’d just woken up from a fever induced nap. You know it’s not because you’re injured - the little cut on your hand barely hurts anymore. It’s because the things you thought were true suddenly... aren’t.

Luckily, Jaebeom’s bed is supremely comfortable. Everything smells like him and you burrow into the pillow beneath your head until you fall asleep.

_________________________

Jaebeom doesn’t even try to sleep. He drinks a pack of blood from the fridge around two in the morning, his only break from anxiously pacing the hallway outside the bedroom.

He knows that you’re physically fine. Any venom from the knick on your palm was clearly out of your system, if it was there in the first place. The venom in a vampire’s bite is meant to subdue and calm a victim, almost like drugging them. 

Even knowing that you were okay is not much comfort, though. You had been terrified last night, completely silent from the time he found you to when he got you safely into bed. It’s a lot to take in, knowing suddenly that vampires exist, much less supernatural beings as a whole.

He finally convinces himself that it would be okay to sit next to you. He reclines against the headboard with his headphones on, listening to music and idly scrolling through his phone.

You sleep soundly, tucked up on your side facing him, arms pulled tight in against your body. He takes a moment to smooth some hair from your face, hoping it helps you sleep better.

It’s nearly 9 when you wake up, sun streaming aggressively through the window. He notices the change in your heartbeat first, then your breath, and then you’re opening your eyes.

He takes his headphones out, putting his phone on the side table, “Morning.”

You slowly sit up, the shoulder of his shirt draping down your arm and revealing the long expanse of your collarbone and throat. He wants to kiss you, but it’s definitely not the time for that.

“How long have you been up?” You ask, voice hoarse as you blink slowly at him.

“All night,” He laughs a bit, running a hand through his hair.

You look concerned, rubbing at your face, “Why didn’t you sleep?”

“I don’t really... need to,” He says and you go still, slowly nodding, “It’s not really necessary for, uh,” He clears his throat, “For vampires.”

“Oh,” You say, “Okay.”

“Look,” He says, suddenly terrified that you’ll think he’s presumptuous for bringing you to his home, to his bed, “I can walk you home if you like. Last night it was just easier to bring you here.”

“No, no,” You sit up straighter, shaking your head. Your hair falls down across your face.

Without thinking, Jaebeom reaches across the bed and pushes it back, behind your ear. You’re still half asleep, moving on what looks like instinct, but you turn your head and rest your cheek on his palm.

Meeting you has made him unsure of his own biology. It feels like his heart is racing despite the impossibility of that statement.

You open your eyes slowly, “I’m sorry.” You reach your hand up and wrap your fingers around his wrist, thumb slowly smoothing over his skin.

“What?” He says, stuttering, “What for?”

“Calling you a liar.”

Jaebeom laughs softly, “That was a very rational response. I don’t blame you.”

“So, uh,” You drop your hand, lifting your face from his palm, “Do you have coffee?”

He doesn’t. He doesn’t actually have any food. At all.

“Uh, no,” He quickly stands up, trying to smooth out the wrinkles that formed in his shirt overnight, “I’ll go get you some. Right now.”

You laugh, “No, it’s fine. I’ll take whatever you have.”

“I don’t... eat.” He said, and you look up at him slowly, “I can drink coffee and stuff but I don’t really keep it on hand.”

“Right,” You sigh, “I guess that makes sense.”

“Just... stay in bed,” He says, “I’ll get you coffee and breakfast and bring it back. Okay?”

You look at him pensively. He wishes he could read your mind, could know what you were thinking while you stared at him like that. 

“Okay.”

He throws his coat on and grabs his wallet. He pauses in the doorway of the bedroom.

“Please don’t leave again.”

You lock your eyes with his and Jaebeom feels everything he felt the very first time he ever saw you. You glow, soft and warm with your beating heart, the morning sun illuminating every curve and arch of your body.

“I’ll be here when you get back.”

#jaebeom #jaebum #vampire!jaebeom #vampire!jaebum #got7 #got7 smut #got7 imagine #jaebeom x reader #jaebum x reader #vampire!jaebeom x reader #vampire!jaebum x reader #got7 x reader #mine

[chlothequeen]

Okay one last vent

Something that bothers me about volume 8 is that Creation and The Final Word seem to completely invalidate the scene where Ruby and Jaune save Penny in Risk. Penny spends that scene asking Ruby to kill her, saying that she can make sure the maiden power goes to Ruby, and Ruby gets Jaune to amp her aura to fight the hack.

The thing is: this is fiction. They could’ve just had Penny’s soul fight off the hack in Creation after she opened the vault. But they chose to make her human. I assumed that was for a narrative reason, or to symbolize her having her strings cut. But it seems like it was just so she could be killed by normal means. So what was the point of establishing that her soul could fight the hack at all, or emphasizing that her soul is who she is?

Also, it really bothers me that Jaune, who actively helped save Penny after she asked Ruby to kill her, was the one to assist in her death in The Final Word. It feels like the narrative basically validated Penny being suicidal. Even Friend’s lyrics talk about a sacrifice that Penny made as a human, but it just felt so unnecessary.

And despite Penny stating that she could make sure the power goes to Ruby, she just... thinks of Winter suddenly. (To be fair, Ruby had already fallen, but that certainly wouldn’t stop Penny from being able to think of her, and Winter wasn’t around either). Penny’s relationship with Winter was definitely emphasized in volume 7, but volume 8 really focused on Penny and Ruby’s relationship. And that isn’t to say that Ruby should’ve become the maiden, it just felt like making Winter the maiden was a step backwards. (And that’s not even going into the fact that Winter had this ‘destiny’ chosen for her by Ironwood in the first place).

If they were going to kill Penny and make Winter the maiden anyway, they could’ve just... prolonged Fria’s death. Made Fria a more important character whose death would carry more weight, I guess. Because right now it just feels like they used Penny for the sole purpose of prolonging Winter becoming a maiden, and for giving Ruby and Jaune conflict and angst.

TLDR:

I just don’t get why they had her back at all unless there’s some kind of payoff to her arc later that isn’t just Winter becoming the maiden to defeat Ironwood.

This summarizes my feelings at this point, tbh

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby8 #rwby8 spoilers #rwby crit #penny polendina #suicide tw #suicide mention #<- and that’s honestly the part of Penny’s arc that *really* doesn’t sit well with me #I really wish it didn’t feel like the narrative validated Penny’s whole self sacrifice problem #this post is mostly just elaboration on some points from my last vent but maybe it’s more coherent? #idk #this is all based on the assumption that she’s not coming back to be fair #but after that I’m honestly not optimistic

[whatdoesshedotothem]

Tuesday 18 September 1838

5 55

12

fine but dullish morning at 7 am at which hour F61° clearer at 5 than at 5am said Josephine – breakfast at 7 10 till then ¼ hour reading the torn remains of a volume lent me (received by Charles yesterday morning) by the ex-maire d’Estêré [Esterre], the berger who took care of my horse on Sunday – volume begins at p. 309 – the 4 pp. wanting after p. 316 and what more I know not – the last p. I have is p. 432, but I see it is a fragment of Ramonds’ work on the Pyrénées – vide p. 223 Mt. Buet en Swisse only 60+ higher than the pic du midi de Bigorre – breakfast and reading Ramond  till 8 25 – off at 8 35 Charles following us on the little mule we had before and Pierre walking alone before till we soon came up with Henri Charles’ frère and [Markett] Pierres’ beau frère to help to get A- up to the top of the pic on the little mule – sowing rye (le bled) a little way from Barèges – sowing it on barley stubble (Estōōrăh) and then ploughing in the seed with a little plough drawn by 2 beaufs – champs perpetual about Luz parcequ’il n’y a pas d’eau – but about Barèges where they have water they change from Champs to près and from près to champs every 5 or 6 or 7 years – on turning the près into champs 1st barley sown in April or in May dans les hauteurs – 2nd bled (seiglle [seigle], rye) sown in September as here and in high places and in October in the plain – 3rd Sarracène [Sarracénie] or barley, at ainsi de Suite – they mow and gather the iris-stalks for winter fodder for the sheep – at 10 turn (left) up the montagne de Tou to the 2 cabanes de Tou – at the lac d’Oncet at 11 10 and frightened by a few drops of rain – alighted – A- put on her cloak and I my cape – then remounted – doubted whether to go to the cabane – it cleared a little – the guides ate their breakfast and I determined to to have our horses with the shepherd boy that we had called to us, and to the brêche de cinq Ours – we had passed a gentleman on horseback with one guide just before our reaching the lake – he said he had returned because he could see nothing (the guide said he had not gone to the top on account of the brouillard) and Markett advised us to retrograder – a little brouillard in the brêche de cinq ours and over the summit of Neouvielle (i.e. the old snow neou nivis, snow and vielle, veuts, old) – we had just before had a good view of the Neouvielle from here (plateau d’Oncet) close to the lake, but above it – not at the flat stone at its waters’ edge where the duchess de Berri breakfasted and which Chaussenque [Chausenque] mentions as the common breakfast (table) the plateau d’Oncet and de Tou (Too as pronounced) and in fact the whole montagne de Tou covered (tapissés) with trifolium alpestre +

+ no! reglisse

- it must be one sheet of reddish pink in spring – here and there among the rocks on the pente between the 2 plateaux little low bushes of Mezereon as yesterday but saw no red berries – diminutive begloss and purple, or lightish blue pansies, little campanulae, yellow potentilla and other subalpine? plants, still in flower on the pente among the grass – surrounded rocks and boulders – off again in 25 minutes at .. 11 35 the men having breakfasted A- on the mule with my saddle and I on foot – at the brêche de cinq ours at 11 50 the rain had come on again five or six minutes before – and the brêche was full of brouillard – we took shelter under a rock ¼ hour till it was fair, and en route again at 12 5 – as we passed the gorge d’Esponne and the great cleft in the rock, above it we passed the brouillard quite close at our feet – it seemed abutting against the rock as if impeded and not able to rise above it – at 12 40 the rain came on again almost immediately succeeded by hail which accompanied us to the top with wind from the west but not strong enough to make my umbrella unmanageable till 5 or 6 minutes from the tour, hutte, or colonne as Charles calls it - .. at the top at 1 13 – A- rode round the colonne but did not alight – too cold and haily and windy – brouillard all round – the men ate a morsel – I crept into the hutte, and tore down and brought away a newspaper-shred, dated 27 August, a quotation from a speech made by Lord John Russell on the 18th March 1824, contrasting our ancient greatness with [one] then littleness – the word contrasts more lamentably true now than ever – A- starved – began .. the descent at 1 18 – in about ¼ hour it began to clear a little and at 1 ¾ was fair and fine (a little sun)au dessus la laquette (what Chaussenque [Chausenque] calls the plan d’Aube) where we stood ¼ hour looking about us – seeing a little of Neouvielle, and seeing very well and instructively the pics of Caubère, Ereslitz and Ayré and bits of the St. Sauveur mountains -  .. off again at 2 (Charles afraid of the storm again – said now was coming to us from the valle d’Obiste) and back at the brêche des 5 ours at 2 16 and had got the horses and paid the boy (5 minutes job) and .. was off from the cabane d’Oncet at 2 40 – at the Pas des ours at 3 5 – stopt on the Tourmalet road at 3 ¼ - changed the saddles – A- mounted her horse, and I mine and Charles the little mule, which had carried A- every inch of the way from the lac d’Oncet up to, and round the colonne on the summit of the pic, and all down again to here! – one gentleman sometime ago did the same thing for a wager, but no other person except himself or A- has done the like – Charles would have this ‘mis sur les journaux pour encourager les étrangers’!  En route again in ten minutes at 3 25 – gave Charles 16/. (sixteen francs) 1/. paid to the shepherd boy for taking care of the horses 5/. each for Henri and Markett and 5/. between them extra to drink A-‘s health on being the 1st lady who had ridden all the way up and down from the pic – In returning talked over the Neouvielle with Charles and Markett – the latter has mounted the pic culminant – not difficult – but advises going by the valle de Lienz (not Bōl-lŏ) to the lac de Portett [Pourtet] – thinks that after so hot a summer we may have very little glacier to pass – no great difficulty – shall be at the top in 5 or 6 hours but must be off by 6 am – fixed to go to the pic d’Ayre [Ayré] tomorrow at 10 am A- can ride all but a petit ¼ d’heure – shall be at the top in 3 hours – good view of Vignemale and shall see the route we shall have to take to the Neouvielle on Thursday if fine enough – had had a few light drops of rain just before and on stopping at 3 ¼ on the Tourmalet road, but they blew off and the sun came out a little and the brouillard rose higher up over our heads and left all the valley clear – I had put my cloak on soon after leaving the cabane d’Oncet on account of the brouillard being so near us that I felt it damp - .. home at 4 40 – changed my dress –read Ramond (vide line 2 of the last p.) – dinner at 6 ¼ to 7 25 – sat with A- till 8 25 – had Josephine – wrote all the above of today till 10 25

SH:7/ML/E/22/0022

fine afternoon and evening from about 3 20 to 8 when heavy rain for about an hour – we had the mauvais temps from 11 10 am vide line 18 p. 34 and the rest of the day

From Barèges to the lac d’Oncet from 8 35 to 11 10 = 2 hours 35 minutes

.. Lac d’O- to brêche de 5 ours   11 35 to 11 50 = 0.15                                   Rest = 0 hours. 25 minutes

.. Brêche to the summit   12 5 to 1 13                    = 1.8                                              0.15

                                                                                        3.58                         at the top = 0.5

                                                                                                                                                0.45

Descent

From the top to near the laquette                       1.18 to 1 ¾ =    0.27

.. near the laquette to the brêche                          2 to 2 16 = 0.16                 rest= 0.15

.. the brêche to the cabane d’Oncet                     2 16 to 2 35 = 0.19

.. from the cabane d’O- to the Pas de Ours        2 40 to 3 5 = 0.25                        = 0.5

.. from the Pas des O- to the Tourmalet road     3 5 to 3 ¼ = 0.10

.. Tourmalet road to home                                      3 25 to 4 40 =1. 15                 = 0.10

                                                                                                            2.52                    0.30

going 3 58

returning 2 52

rest 1.15

8.5 = the time of absence from 8 35 to 4 40 .:. allowing 55 minutes more or one hour for remaining on the top we can do the pic du midi in 9 hours

had just written the above at 10 55 pm – then making a few notes of words en patois etc. till 11 ¼ pm – then till 11 ½ skimming over todays’ paper

[conspirwbytheorist-inactive]

Not wanting to do hard analysis til we see what happens tomorrow, so have my predictions/bucket list for the finale (some shitposty, some not)

1. Cinder and RWB fall into the THERAPIT Y'all have no idea 1. How much i want this and 2. How many puns I have waiting for if it does.

2. Salem comes in out of left field. Weiss kicks her into the void. No one else sees. Weiss now has a Salem summon and a team of people too scared to question it.

3. RWB has Penny take the staff and close the portals so they can save the remaining survivors. They realize someone needs to hold Cinder/Salem/Grimm horde/bomb blast (lord knows) off and choose to do it together, having full faith the rest of their team can carry on without them.

4. "Because love is worth the risk" Or some equally cheesey yet still somehow tear-jerking callback to Yang's talk on risk before falling into the void. I see it in response to Cinder asking "why are you doing this?" or Penny's worries.

5. Ironwood dies because of his pride. Bonus if it's refusing to take Winter's hand and choosing to fall (just like Oscar did last volume) as a result. Purely for the melodrama at this point.

6. Summer Maiden desert rescue spectacular!

7. Blake does NOT break down with grief and instead resolves to keep the team together, like Yang would have done. Pulling back to notice Cinder's tactics, calling out to Weiss, to Ruby, making sure they don't fall apart. Blake has been consumed by grief before. Now she's gonna use it to be MVP.

8. Ilia diffuses the bomb out of NOWHERE. Fully materializes out of thin air with wires in her hand. We cut to Menagerie's air fleet reaching Atlas. Next volume is Qrow, Robyn, Winter and the Ace Ops working with them in Atlas.

9. Neo escapes to Vacuo. Makes sure to tip her hat before she does. Looks like Aladdin will get the chance to chase the lamp in the desert after all.

And finally, because I have to stay on brand:

10. RAVEN BRANWEN END CREDITS SCENE YOU COWARDS if you're gonna mirror V5, you gotta bring back birb woman. Those are the rules! This is far and away the least likely but let a man dream! T.T

#rwby spoilers #rwby vol 8 spoilers #it's a conspirwby! #rambles

[victoria-rostu]

Since Volume 7 put her right at the center of the main plot, I've been thinking about the role Penny's played in the story so far. There was an instant friendship between her and Ruby because they have so much in common. She's always been a kind of foil for Ruby, in the sense that a lot of plot beats for Ruby are highlighted or foreshadowed by similar beats for Penny.

This ended up getting super long so the rest is under the cut.

Right from the start, the very first scene Ruby and Penny have together starts with Ruby comparing herself to Penny. This line exists to highlight Ruby’s development: Ruby started out saying she prefers weapons to people, and tried to impress Weiss with her combat skills in the forest, because she figures that's what people value about her. By the end of Volume 1 when this scene happens, Ruby’s developed beyond that, then Penny shows up.

And we find out she's even worse at dealing with people because she's never been allowed any friends. Her "combat ready" line has echoes of Ruby telling Weiss she's not just a kid, she’s ready to be a huntress. And she literally is a weapon - Ironwood really does only value only for her combat skills.

In Volume 2, we find out that Penny was built to "save the world". It's obviously foreshadowing for the real plot - as far as Ruby knows at this point, the biggest threat to the world is Roman Torchwick. But we also know (through genre conventions if nothing else) that the saving the world is probably Ruby's job. She's the hero of the show. And sure enough that's exactly what we find out later - that Ruby also been destined to fight Salem since birth because of her silver eyes and connection via Summer.

Ruby didn't want to be the chosen one - she just wanted to be a "normal girl with normal knees", but her silver eyes make that impossible. Nor did Penny choose to be the savior of Atlas - she really just wants to make friends and explore the world, and she considers running away and staying at Beacon. Penny's own death for her is equivalent to Pyrrha's death for Ruby - the traumatic event that proves she needs to follow her destiny.

In Volume 7, Penny no longer disobeys Ironwood or shows any signs of wanting to leave. And amusingly, the biggest change to her new body is her rocket legs. It’s likely just a coincidence, but you could could say she literally lost her normal knees!

Volume 7 is also where we see Ruby starting to suffer under the huge burden she's carrying. She's definitively the leader of the whole group now, after the events of Volume 6. She makes the decision to hide the truth from Ironwood by herself, and we see it eating at her throughout the season. But she puts on a brave face and keeps fighting - she's back on her feet within minutes of Salem getting in her head by mentioning Summer's death - because she's the leader. She doesn't have time to not be okay.

And a lot of that has direct parallels in Penny's situation. Penny has been given a huge burden too - she’s the official protector of the entire city of Mantle. And she’s also deceiving the people who should be her allies, and she's uncomfortable with it - her reaction when Robyn calls her out on it shows us that. At this point we’re supposed to trust that Ironwood’s making the right decision. The show uses Penny lying to Robyn for the greater good to sell us on Ruby lying to Ironwood for the greater good.

(And if you want to get in really deep on this point, "Mantle" can mean "burden" or "responsibility", and Atlas itself is named after the mythological character who holds up the world on his shoulders - this entire arc is alluding to a story about crushing responsibility. And Penny becomes the Maiden, making her the key to the Vault and the Staff which holds up the city. So while Volume 7 is busy setting up Ruby to have the weight of the world on her shoulders, Penny ends up literally being the one keeping Atlas aloft).

It's easy to make these kind of comparisons because it's something the characters themselves talk about. Starting with Ruby comparing her social awkwardness to Penny's in Volume 1, then with a couple of other moments throughout the early volumes: Penny's "if I were you..." line later in Volume 1 and the conversation about their respective teammates in Volume 3 come to mind.

The scene in the truck in V7C5 stands out too. Penny says she wishes she had time to have friends and do her job - of course, she isn't human to Ironwood, so he doesn't give her any time off. Ruby theoretically has more freedom than Penny, but she's still obliged to work and train 24/7. Ruby's "as normal as it gets" line makes sure we know this scene is just as much about Ruby's feelings as it is about Penny's.

Moving on to some speculation, I wonder if the way Penny's Volume 7 arc ended might give us some clues about what's next for Ruby.

Penny becomes the maiden to protect Winter. Both literally to save her from Cinder in the moment, but also because she knows Salem will come for whoever has the powers. That moment seems like the one that's easiest to link to Ruby, because it's an act of heroic self-sacrifice.

That's relevant because Volume 7 was full of references to Summer's self-sacrifice and how Ruby is now walking the same path. It's something that's been foreshadowed since Red Like Roses II, but this volume we saw Salem herself telling Ruby as much. We had Nora suggesting to Ruby that maybe only she can stop Salem. We had Qrow telling Ruby that Summer would've pressed on despite knowing that victory was impossible. And as a bonus, Ruby's new costume is inspired by Pyrrha's, whose own self-sacrifice is still weighing on her. Add that all up and it's easy to get worried about where Ruby's heading.

But Penny's "personal feelings" moment comes first, and it's actually a more important moment for her character than getting the maiden powers. It's when she breaks free of Ironwood's control. Everything that happens after that is Penny's decision. She fights Cinder, saves Winter and accepts the maiden powers because it's what she wants to do. She ends the Volume leaving Atlas with the others, and (for a moment, at least) she escapes her destiny.

The logical conclusion of Ruby following Summer's path is that she makes the same sacrifice. She goes off to face Salem alone, leaving her team in the dark to protect them. That's not going to happen: It'd be a really unsatisfying ending, for one thing, but (if you accept Red Like Roses lyrics as canon) we also know Qrow was wrong about Summer. She regretted her decision and hoped Ruby didn't do the same thing. Ruby was always going to succeed where Summer didn't.

So maybe Ruby needs a "personal feelings" moment where she escapes her destiny too. She needs to realize she's worth more than what she can give to other people - which is a line I stole from She-Ra, because I think there's some similarities between where Ruby's heading and Adora's hero complex. So much so that I drew that comic about it.

Anyway, this post is long enough now. Whatever happens next, Ruby and Penny's friendship is going to continue to be very important, and I'm curious to see if these parallels continue in Volume 8.

#rwby #ruby rose #penny polendina #nuts and dolts #not really a shipping focused post but relevant enough to tag it as that i think #long post #spop spoilers #too because of the comparison at the end #my stuff tag #this is a laser guided post for the like 3 people who egged me on to write this