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kitkatopinions · 4 months

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Does Whitley have potential or is he an extra Schnee?

I think Whitley had and has a lot of potential, actually!

One of the most interesting things about Weiss is her connection to her family, which I think deserves more focus and exploring, and Whitley is obviously a big part of that. I find it fascinating how the environment Weiss and Whitley were raised in made them react in completely different ways - Whitley with putting up a mask of casual indifference (airing on cheeriness) and leaning into what was expected of him while clearly showing in volume eight that it isn't just how he naturally is, and Weiss with anger and mimicking Winter and desperately trying to get away from it. I think exploring both Weiss and Whitley as abuse victims would really speak to the fact that reactions to abuse takes all sorts of forms and are no less sympathetic.

Exploring Weiss's dynamic with Winter and Whitley more, I think, would help to expand on Weiss's character and give her a stronger arc (since she hasn't seemed to have a personal arc in volumes and even in V7 seemed to not get the attention she deserved.) Going into V10 (if we get a V10) the Schnees are going to be all of a sudden pretty much penniless, with no home, in a kingdom that should by all rights be very hesitant to accept them. If Weiss isn't concerned with helping specifically Whitley (not because he's more important to Weiss or to the narrative than Winter but because he's an auraless untrained teenage civilian) than it'd seem like a bit of a blow against her character tbh. And it could lead to some great conflicts not only surrounding Weiss and Whitley making an effort to understand each other better and get to know each other more after years of icing each other out, but might also create conflicts with the rest of Weiss's team who might perceive Weiss focusing more on her family than on important issues.

On top of that, Whitley could serve very effectively as a demonstration that not everyone needs to be a Hunter or fighter or have a semblance in order to be helpful and good. In V8, Whitley proofed to be smart, kind, and brave. He could be the sort of person to be doing things on computers while talking to Team RWBY and co over comms in their ears. Whitley could be incredibly useful in that way, and it would be so much fun to see the team acclimatizing to a new person more or less being brought in, into a new role they're not used to having around. It'd be a nice change, also something that RWBY could use.

And on top of on top of that is the fact that Oscar and Ruby both having this new friend that's more their age and is super different from both of them but could get along with both of them (and could be shipped with either of them) is a good thing too that could be good and worth exploring. And also on top of both of those things, the classic 'villains use a loved one to threaten their enemies' thing can't be easily done in this show where everybody is basically a superhero, but auraless teenage civilian Whitley provides an excellent opportunity for that.

Basically, Whitley has tons of potential as a character going forward from here, and I do hope that he stays involved and even gets more involved (so long as there's also plenty of proper focus given to the mains obviously.) Do I think that any of this potential will actually be realized? No. I think Whitley will pretty much just be treated like an extra Schnee, and the most we'll see of him if we ever get more RWBY is like two very bit parts of scenes where Willow has like a hand on his shoulder or something and that's it. The show can't have make the mains reach a quarter of their full potential, so there's very little hope for my baby boy Whitley. But I think he could be a great, amazing, involved character.

#rwde

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themattress · 1 year

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Some other interesting tidbits from Satoshi Yamamoto’s Pokspe Recollection Tweets:

- The FireRed/LeafGreen Chapter was when Yamamoto feels he fully came into his own as an artist on the manga and not just Mato’s successor, as he was actually allowed to redesign characters such as Red, Blue and Green in his own style rather than merely imitating hers.

- Mewtwo Returns inspired many elements of the FireRed/LeafGreen Chapter such as Mewtwo’s characterization, Giovanni’s characterization, and the Team Rocket helicarrier.

- Yamamoto grew very emotional about Green and Silver’s arcs, and to this day wondered if the dialogue he gave Blue to say to Silver concerning the circumstances of his parentage was sufficient enough to do justice to a complicated situation that many real kids share.

- Emerald’s character design was deliberately bad, since Yamamoto couldn’t bear the thought of putting real effort into designing an OC protagonist only for readers to criticize the design, so he pre-emptively made a design that he knew damn well was impossible not to criticize.

- Some of the angriest reader reactions ever came after the first round of the Emerald Chapter was released: “Now the main character shoots Pokemon to death with a gun!!!”

- The Diamond/Pearl Chapter is very close to Yamamoto’s heart since it was the first time he contributed with the story-making process alongside Kusaka and editors, and he really enjoys the way the main trio and their dynamic was developed. He notes that he isn’t a big fan of romance as a driving force in kids’ adventure stories, so having a pair of boys traveling alongside a girl while neither of them hold romantic interest in her was refreshing for him.

- Like with Emerald’s design, if you found Dia and Pearl’s comedy routines to be unfunny, that’s because it was intentional. Kusaka and Yamamoto wanted to express how completely out of their depth the two boys were, pursuing a career goal they lacked any real talent in.

- At first, the Diamond/Pearl Chapter received negative responses from readers who thought it was too silly, cutesy and kiddy by this manga’s standards. Again, this was an intentional creative choice since Kusaka and Yamamoto knew how darker and more perilous the arc would become later on. Once that transition happened, readers’ opinions naturally changed.

- Mars’ depiction in the manga was conceived as “emotionally retarded” - her emotions and her rational mind don’t connect, which is why she doesn’t understand why something that’s supposed to be funny is funny or why doing hurtful things that she finds entertaining is morally wrong. To convey this, the irises of her eyes are always centered and don’t move.

- Cyrus is Yamamoto’s favorite villain, being drawn mostly to induce psychological anxiety in the reader which made him effectively threatening, but toward the end of the Diamond/Pearl Chapter drawn in a way that highlights his madness which came off as tragic as it was scary. Yamamoto says even before he got Cyrus’ backstory and resolution in Vol. 40 from Kusaka, he sensed a deep sorrow in him that made him feel for him and hope for him to find peace.

- Maybe it’s just hiatus-related Stockholm Syndrome at play, but Whitley of the B2/W2 Chapter became one of Yamamoto’s favorite characters. He notes that he always took extra special care when drawing her, and that he’d like for her to make reappearances in the future (one of which has already come to pass in the X/Y Chapter’s volume-exclusive epilogue).

- The Team Flare Grunt who says “there are some things money can’t buy, but even more things that money can buy you your way out of” is quoting a real person. In high school, one of Yamamoto’s sempais caustically said this in response to the financial difficulties an underclassman was having, and for some reason or other the line stuck with Yamamoto.

- Lastly, Yamamoto has made note that child abuse by parents appears to be the line in the sand for Viz when it comes to the Western releases of the manga, as so much shockingly violent and even bloody moments are retained while moments like Crystal’s mother slapping her or Norman punching Ruby are edited out (Ghetsis’ murder attempt toward N is an exception, since N is hardly a child and as Ghetsis screams at him: “I am not your father!”)

#Pokemon #Pokemon Adventures #Satoshi Yamamoto #Analysis #Confirmation

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hollowayhqs · 1 year

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Character information

Name: James Whitley Age: 35 Gender: cis-man Pronouns: he/him Species: human/mortal (warlock) Face claim: Michael B Jordan Character Occupation: journalist Neighbourhood of residence: the lookout Affiliation: Anam Coven (formerly) / Whitley family Length of stay in Holloway: born and raised in Holloway until he went to College, returned two weeks ago

Character Summary

James was born and raised in Holloway but has spent his adult life far from the town, away from his father and the connections of his family.Born as the first and illegimiate son of Bill Whitley, a famous author, James' life was not up to a good start. To the outsiders of Holloway it might have looked like a small scandal but those residents of the town connected to the supernatural world knew right from the start that this was something far bigger.

For generations the powerful Whitley line, witches that some believe can be traced back even to the origin of the town, has resided over the Coven of Holloway, leading in times of peace and of war. Succession has always been female, being passed from mother to daughter. Until in the last generation the oldest and only daughter found an untimely and mysterious death, just months before she was to become leader of the coven, leaving her brother William 'Bill' Whitley to fill the void at the head of Anam Coven – something not all witches of the town liked to see.And now, instead of a daugther to succeed him he had a son. Another warlock, though powerful not meant to ever lead the coven.Some even feared something akin to a civil war, so it was surprise to many when Bill refused to marry the mother of his child and instead turned to a different woman.

During his father's first marriage James did not just grow close to his stepmother Audrey, the only woman he calls Mom to this day, but also to his younger sister Piper, whose birth made the witches of Holloway sigh in relief. Finally a girl in the Whitley line again.They were the only family he ever considered his, where he ever felt welcome. But since Bill Whitley, head of the Anam Coven, was always drawn into the wrong directions it did not took long until an affair of his broke that very family apart. James has never forgiven his father for that. He has never forgiven the Coven for being complicit in so many things and so many lies. Though his powers were stronger and he knew he needed the protection of the other witches he turning his back on Holloway and his father was his only dream throughout his teenage years.

Leaving Piper behind was the first hard decision James ever made in his life. Throughout their entire childhood, he had felt responsible for his little sister Pip, the heiress to their line, protecting her as well as you can expect of an 8-year-old. And though Pip is now all grown up it is not easy for him to leave that mindset behind.

After a particularly nasty fight with his father James - now a young man ready for college - packed his bags and left Holloway altogether. He spent a few years in New York, where he grew closer to fellow Holloway resident Vivian Zhou. James and Vivian fell in love pretty fast, a love that burned hot and heavy, destined to last for a heartbeat instead of an eternity. Though he was ready to lie his heart at her feet he could never muster up the courage to tell her the truth. About his father, about the Coven, and most of all not about his powers. Whenever the supernatural world called to him in New York he either ignored that call or hid it from Vivian.They were young, they lived life gloriously, and soon they were expecting. They had not planned this pregnancy and even before Maya was born it was quite obvious that they did not agree on anything. While Vivian wanted to return to Holloway, to be close to her family - and his - to have their child grow up in a city she still called home and stay there, James knew that he would never set foot in Holloway again. Not as long as Bill lived, not as long as the coven still looked at him as if he could usurp their precious throne any minute. Something he had neither thought of nor ever wanted.James understood that Viv longed for the help of her family, but he could not face his own.

He wanted to stay far away from his father and he wanted his child to do the same, to be free of the drama and the power that Bill Whitley needed more than air to breathe. For Maya was a Whitley girl and James feared what that could mean should the coven ever find out about her existence.

So eventhough it broke his heart, he told Vivian, on a day he still regrets more than any other in his life, that if she returned to Holloway she had to do it without him. When he refused to give Maya his last name - another way of his to keep her away from Bill and the coven - Vivian did what any mother would have done.She turned away from him.Again it was a fight that broke apart a young Whitley family and to this day James has wondered if in all his years trying to get away from that man, he has become more like Bill than he ever wanted to be. The first son, the heir in a different way then they ever expected.

James traveled half the world, searching for something that might fill the hole in his chest, regretting that he could not see his daughter grow up, too prideful to change something about that, too scared of the coven to even attempt it. He regularly send money and birthday cards, but he knew - from his own lived experience - that it would never be enough. Then he returned to New York, working as a journalist, ignoring the voices of doubt that told him he was doing exactly what Bill had done - writing about other people's darkness and turning it into money, all the while feeding the shadows of his own soul.

When James got the call, one late evening, that his father had died, it shook him to the core. Not because he grieved for Bill, no that man had left his world a long time ago, but because he was painfully aware what that meant for his sister, for his daughter.

James returned to Holloway, to help his sister succeed as new leader of the coven and to keep an eye on Maya, even from afar. He fears that if his daughter should have inherited his power – something that can basically be seen as fact given the strength of the Whitley magic – she could fall into the web of the coven. He knows that he should have told Vivian the truth, should have been there when his daughter first discovered that side of her. But he still stays away, keeping Maya's heritage a secret.

Whispers grow loud again, whispers that fear history will repeat itself and even dare to pitch James against Piper.

But he has no desire to stay in Holloway for long, no desire to fix the bridges he once burned, but aware that those ashes still make it hard for him to see the right path ahead. He lives close to the lake, far away from most supernatural residents of the city, scheming how he can get his hands on his fathers grimoire, the ancient tome of Whitley witches. Maybe he will find a curse, a spell, that can save Maya from all of this.

You can often find him walking through Holloway, with his dog Varus for company and too many pairs of eyes following him, searching for the remnants of a past he tried to forget for so long.

#supernatural rp #spn rp #town rp #small town rp #mature rp #relaxed rp #bio rp #oc rp #mumu rp #horror rp #tvd rp #james

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dragynkeep · 2 years

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Idk how recent this was made but I just saw a post somewhere talking about color symbolism in the show and holy shit. Least favorite takes were:

- Blake and Weiss's colors changing to purple and blue are actually cause their original colors were representing the oppressive forces in their lives (Adam/Racism and Jacques ig) and that's why they were in monochrome and not their "real colors"

-Oscar gets covered in green as time goes on to symbolize Oz taking him over, since Oscars color "is orange" (this one wouldn't be as annoying if not for the fact that Oscars last name is pine. You know, A SHADE OF GREEN??)

-Sun's blatant whitewashing change of eye color is symbolic of him seeing the real Blake instead of his idealized version of her

This just kept dealing me psyche damage-

Blake and Weiss’ colours are originally black and white. Adam’s colour is red, not black, same way that Ruby’s colour is red despite wearing a lot of black. Jacques’ colour isn’t white, because the white in his name comes from him marrying Willow and taking her name, where the white naming comes from originally.

Given how much Weiss and Whitley adopt blue when they’re home, it’s more likely that Jacques’ true colour is actually blue.

They also weren’t in monochrome ever? Weiss was in a lot of blue in Beacon, which was done wrong in the show because consistency is not a strong suit of RWBY, and Blake had purple and yellow from the beginning.

Oscar is more related to brown and green from his last name, because taking orange from Oscar requires a lot of backflipping and I guarantee no one is gonna look at Oscar and go “Oh, he’s obviously named after the fish from Shark Tale and not the actual meaning friend of deer.”

And Sun’s case is just dumb. It’s whitewashing, simple as. It’s not him finally seeing Blake for who she is because Sun already did before, and the Blake he saw in V4 was a complete regression of the girl he knew before. Also, why would his eye colour turn blue to symbolise his developed connection to Blake when Blake’s colours are black, white and purple.

So much of meta on RWBY really does try to put depth in what’s basically a puddle.

#rwby #rwde #blake belladonna #weiss schnee #oscar pine #sun wukong #answered #luke.txt

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leonacortcz · 1 year

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A town called Prose is home to LEONA CORTEZ who is a 33 year old, cis woman. They work as AN ACTRESS and live in THE LAKEHOUSES. in Prose, they’re known as the ANA DE ARMAS lookalike. ( she/her ). They were shocked and appalled by the recent news, because they were Whitley’s go-to actress for his screen adaptations.

SUMMARY

Living life surrounded by beauty can only be as fulfilling as you’re willing to accept. And for most of her life, Leona had to accept it. The daughter of a famous opera singer, Camila Cortez, her father was merely a stain on her legacy, although she never truly learned what that legacy should be. All she’s known was grand parties, long gowns, and champagne bottles. A life of superficial luxury, always pushed into the limelight. ‘Such a pretty girl’ they all mused as her mother pushed her in front of another camera, another magazine cover sold all over Cuba. She should’ve been happy. Attention, money, privilege - it all flew into her lap. However, Leona chose to fly across the Gulf of Mexico with a man called Scott Sanders. At 22, he was twelve years her senior, an established Hollywood star and known for the arm candy he dragged across Los Angeles. However, the tabloids exploded when they announced their marriage. A young Cuban actress who barely made it on the screen found herself at the side of a shining star - the media had a field day which turned into a hurricane of flashing bulbs when Scott was caught cheating only a few months later. The young Leona was left to fend for herself, a task larger than anything she had ever taken on. You see, soft women can be stronger and Leona was the softest. In love with the idea of love, always chasing validation and acceptance, her heart was open, her skin thin and all this talent bubbled within her.

More roles came in and so did more men. Another role was to be taken, another marriage was to be ended. She was married three times, almost four but her latest engagement fell through. But none of it ever stopped her. Naive? Perhaps. But never afraid to fail. And that was her biggest asset. Taking on new challenges and roles solidified her right to be on the movie screen and one of those opportunities changed her life forever. Being cast as the lead in one of the famous BA Whitley adaptations opened a door for Leona she’d never like to close. Becoming a recurring face in his projects, it became one of the few solids of her life. And one of her greatest losses.

When Whitley was found, Leona decided to step up. For all he was, he had offered her an opportunity, introduced her to people she holds dear, and in a way, gave her a greater purpose than just acting roles. That’s why the Documentary never sat well with her. Moving to Prose became a natural conclusion. Staying close to those who were close to him - close to her - was her greatest source of comfort. And just as she was ready to consider new options, death seemed to lash open old scars.

WANTED CONNECTIONS

Former personal assisstant

Unlikely friends

Friends in general,please, she needs affection like Tinkerball needs attention

People who can’t stand her

People she can’t stand

Fans of her work

Maybe an ex

Anything, really. I love plotting, let’s chat <3

#proseintro #I will write a whole bio eventually but today is not that day

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richardsphere · 1 year

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RWBY Catchup Slogblog V8E15

ITS THE FINAL SLOGBLOG (bad kazoo solo) The whale is so big, its still disintegrating after what must have been at least a few hours (to account for characters traveling to Schnee mannor, Reuniting at the mannor, planning, going to ironwood, traveling to the spear and getting stuff started.) ---- Winter VS Ironwood, Some fighting on the ramparts type stuff in the Central Location. Aceops try power of Friendship (its too late, the bomb meant to be the equivalent of a city-block is about to explode in the tiny space they occupy. And all im saying is, if they survive that blast but Neo’s stab one-shots Yang then that is the biggest pile of dung) --- Neo VS Ruby and Weiss, Weiss knocks Neo through a portal. (if only these portals were actually a one way ticket) Weiss hits 0HP. Ruby’s weapon goes into the void. ---- Stretch-armstrong turns his arms into a bubble. (this does not seem like something he’s been established to be able to do) Is Neo actually suprised that Cinder is betraying her? Im sorry but what part of your interactions with cinder made you think she’s capable of keeping her word. Even Salem cant keep Cinder from constant treachery and You know this about her!. In conclusion: This entire finale only goes south because Neo is unbelievably, somehow stupid enough to trust Traitors George. I know that Neo coulndt use the lamp because y’know, Mute. But if you wanted revenge on Ruby there were a thousand better ways you could’ve done it when you had the lamp. (IE: Kidnap a civilian, write out the lamps name and a question like “Whom can Neopolitan/Trivia hostage to get revenge on Ruby Rose and where can Neo find them” or some such and threaten to kill the Civy if they dont ask Jinn your exact question for you) A cord is cut and Ruby and Blake fall into the void. (if only we hadnt established that ruby KNOWS she is a teleporter at this point, and can carry way more then a single person at a time). Like i get its happening because the plot needs a darkest hour, not because character skills and abilities genuinely matter. But also, this show has been 6 consecutive seasons of Darkest Hour. and its making me excessively cranky that this is the second consecutive season to end on a Darkest Hour Cliffhanger-episode. (it feels like the show is holding these characters Ransom to the audience. Either pledge to support a next season or the Blorbo gets it) Cinders talk against weiss sounds like Cinder is suddenly meant to have a specific, off-screen gripe with the family in particular. Which is just, not established at all. Jaune joins the battle because he’s the shows second ruby. (and also, his semblance ability to amplify other semblances is the shows all-purpose get out of jail free-card at this point so we need him next season.) Is the implication behind the “she’s back” preceding the Power-theft arm that the power-theft arm is directly connected to Salems continuous presence, rather then being an independent grimm? (like i know its function as a shock-collar is connected directly to salem. But her not using this until Salem regenerated implies she couldnt use it without salem “alive”) on a side-note now that we get to the big moment. Everyone complaining about Jaune “stealing the plotlight” doesnt understand the nature of how narrative foils work. Jaune is the version of Ruby that is allowed to lose their innocence to show what ruby could become if she ever did. Claiming Jaune takes up too much screentime is like saying Ruby’s scythe takes up too much screentime. Jaune is not his own character, he’s always been an extension of Ruby’s. ----- Penny and Winter in the same Limbo where Ozma talked to light. WInter VS Fall battle. Cinder attacks Weiss as a distraction, knocks over the edge. Jaune hits 0 HP Whale Calls, Cinder flies off and destroys the central location. ------ Winter apears as a saintly herald to the refugees, Whitley Willow and Klein realise they’re one Schnee down. Cinder lies, in other news water is wet and clouds are up. Salem either buys it (which I dont), or pretends because she legitimately doesnt care about anything Cinder could ever hope to achieve. Ironwood is left in misery at his end. Watts burns (but his death is technically off screen, and in a way that a villainous “we can rebuild him” could be in play if the writers wanted to have a second villainous cyborg. Not that i think they will or that it would be a good idea). Quick question: Where is all this water coming from again? I dont remember any mentions of a large reservoir that would justify all this flooding. (I know the Atlas arc had a lot of moving parts but im fairly certain i would remember a “they are bombing the dam” plotline). unless you’re going to claim that the spear made both the island-floaty AND whatever was keeping the water out, but I dont see the set-up for that at all. ------- Long credits, S9 teaser on the beach. ---- With only seven hours remaining before the V9 season finale, im finally caught up, and i only somewhat regret doing so. (which is sort of a positive. The seasons i missed where overall generally depressing but not to the degree of the seasons that made me quit the show in the first place were). Its good to see the story is at least trying to shrink its scope by removing 2 of Salems lieutenants from the board and having Em turn tail. Im still enormously concerned that the overall trajectory of the show overall might never reach any sort of “the characters are capable of expressing Fun” state again.(note that, while S9 had moments of joy such as Bumblebee kissing, Joy and Fun are seperate feelings. Joy has a weight to it , whereas Fun is light and airy if i had to simplify that particular tonal distinction).

#rwby

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theseerasures · 3 years

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a yearning nation’s blueeyed pride

honestly there is just like. no point as of Witch (if not earlier) in thinking about Marrow and Winter as following along the same defection path, and downright facile to compare the two in terms of who is “closer” to defecting and therefore “less problematic” (even setting aside that making value judgments along those lines in fiction is...never that straightforward), when the narrative has emphasized REPEATEDLY how they are on entirely separate tracks in terms of character and role in the Atlas military.

seriously, it’s like saying “this orange is bad because you can’t eat the peel like you can eat an apple skin”

so like, yes, Marrow is the one who has verbally expressed his misgivings, and has clearly articulated scruples (as opposed to just the dial-up noise) and will blurt them out any second now as soon as he gets a word in edgewise. but also: Marrow HASN’T gotten a word in edgewise (except with Winter, fancy that), and has done approximately fuck all to actually subvert the system that he is growing to hate. both his theory and lack of praxis are tied into Marrow’s relatively low, overlooked position in the Atlas system, and feed into the fact that for Marrow the project of Atlas is not personal.

Marrow joined the military on ideological grounds. he clearly does want personal connection, but that has been denied him at every turn, largely by his teammates, largely by his partner, all of whom use him to enforce their own struggles with the clash between political duty and personal grief. he has been alienated by the system he upholds, which started even before we meet him. this makes it much harder for him to rebel in deed, because he doesn’t have a lot of power to begin with and he knows the system will not protect him if he does; at the same time, that relative powerlessness and isolation keeps his investment in Atlas abstract, uncomplicated, and much easier to dispel. Marrow is still with Atlas because he has a job to do, because it’s his duty, because he is still clinging to the Atlas military’s illusory altruism. he wants Penny to come with them so she can save Atlas. his protestations at seeing Team FNKI, that they are “just kids,” comes from the belief that it is categorically wrong to send children into battle. what is keeping Marrow from defecting is belief, and once the belief is shattered--like, say, when his boss’ new ingenious plan is to Nuke the Poors--there is nothing keeping him around.

and once his path is set he will not waver, because Atlas, by design, has no hold on him materially or personally (outside of his own life, which he was already happy to dedicate to a cause). Marrow then, is the limit case of Atlas being hoist with its own petard: an exemplar for how it gives its people nothing while demanding everything, but also an exemplar for how quickly the entire system folds in on itself when the veil is lifted. when Marrow defects (and it IS when) it will represent Atlas as a whole defecting from itself, even if we don’t see it visually--from the civilians, to the enlisted soldiers, to perhaps even members of Marrow’s own team.

NONE of the things i just mentioned really apply to Winter, because there is nothing about Atlas that is not personal for Winter.

i have no doubt that Winter is in some ways invested in same abstract principles that swayed Marrow, but that is constantly overridden by the fact that Winter has family at all sides of this, even before everything fell to shit, and the narrative will not stop reminding her.

“what about your sister?” “would you say the same thing if it was your sister inside?” her father was gunning for a seat on the Council. the man who took her in is essentially Head of State. Penny has made herself Public Enemy Number One, and Weiss is actively abetting her. even Whitley has now thrown himself into the fray, unbeknownst to her. and another person might be better at compartmentalizing all this the way Winter clearly wants to, and stick to the party line, but Winter cannot, because the more i watch her the more i’m convinced that the current crisis in Atlas is just a microcosm of the real issue, which is to say: everything is personal in Atlas for Winter, because everything is personal for Winter.

at a moment-to-moment level, and especially when backed into a corner, Winter defaults not to ideology but her tightly coiled lattice of personal relationships. and this makes perfect sense, because Winter grew up in a household where she had to perpetually crisis respond, and then she never stopped. Marrow does what he does because he believes in the dream, in making the world a better place, and therefore it is more difficult in some respects for him to defect, because it involves taking a long hard look at and then rejecting the structures he bought into and made himself complicit in. once lines are crossed and he DOES do that, though, he’s home free. for Winter, there are no lines to cross, because all Winter wants in the end is to throw her arms around everyone she cares about and drag them to safety. to keep them there, closely held, where she can see them and make sure that they stay safe.

but what’s tricky about Winter--what’s fascinating to me, what Jacques tried to beat out of her, what James alternately capitalizes on and tries to quash, what she resents about herself--is that in times of crisis (which for Winter is again ALL THE TIME), “everyone she cares about” becomes everyone, so that suddenly she takes a shine to the General’s war machine, so that she’s risking her life to give Penny and Fria a few more seconds of time, so that she’s stepping in front of Elm’s incoming fist, so that she’s letting JYR go rescue Oscar. Marrow has ideals he values, but at her core Winter has nothing but the people, who are real the moment she sees and feels them--real enough to defend, or defend against.

Winter jealously protects her web of people, but that web will also spiral out to infinity if she lets it--so she doesn’t. she has adamantly refused to move out of the mode where she lives present-by-present, only reacting to what is right in front of her, what she has been told, weighing her own life against the people who are closest, and no more. this is unquestionably a trauma response, but it’s also reinforced by 1) her choice to become a career soldier, and 2) the fact that Winter actually HAS quite a bit of power, and she knows that. but she has never trusted herself with any of it, largely because her hypervigilant response to situations has only ever been chastised instead of rehabilitated. Winter knows the weight of her name and her position, but she constantly tries to ignore it, or run away from it, so that she is only ever the heiress, the second-in-command, and never the Queen. she cannot be a leader until she is Good (that is to say, perfect and rational), so she tries to obliterate her power the same time she obliterates that pesky personhood: remaining still for as long as possible, avoiding situations that she knows will prompt action and choice, and when absolutely pushed to think through her power, moving the pieces around with extreme caution, hoping that the world won’t be burnt black by it.

Marrow and Winter are fundamentally at opposing ends of the personal-political bleed, and the story could NOT telegraph it any more clearly than their conversation in Witch, where Marrow makes a personal plea to Winter so that she can make a call far beyond just that, and she refutes him, by reminding him of his obligation to Atlas in the form of impersonal duty.

i’ll conclude by pointing out that there is something very interesting happening with Winter right now, that exceeds her power in-universe. because even as a Schnee, as Ironwood’s protege, what Winter can do is limited (partly because she limits herself), except for how the story has resolutely centered her actions and MADE them significant. in the course of this war Winter has let herself make exactly two choices--both of them noninterventionist, easily justifiable, and not meant to take any ideological stand--and they ended up altering the entire fabric of the war with Salem. all because she loved her sisters more than her duty. all because she was shown a slim chance to save the kingdom and a fourteen-year-old boy, and she thought just for an instant, what’s the harm

(and James Ironwood will never know. that even with his plan, his bomb, all his ships, all his soldiers...he was no match for her. his loyal lieutenant. the only child he will ever have, who has only ever called him “sir.”)

it is not about what Winter COULD have chosen in those moments, if she had the ability to stop Penny and Weiss from leaving, if JYR were even Oscar’s rescuers, in the conventional sense. it is about the fact that she DID make those choices, and the story has made them reverberate, in spite of the fact that she did not mean for them to. Marrow’s story is about being neglected and overlooked by the system, the moment of recognition that it needs you more than you need it, that there are so many more of you, and together you can stop chasing the dream and make your own. Winter’s story cleaves to the heart of not just Atlas, but the RWBY monomyth, which goes something like: stars are like us. the world was created because two brothers could not get along, and sundered because a woman could not cope with her grief. just because you move closer to the elite, to the center, to the top, to the sublime, it does not mean that you move farther from the fallible. we are all, at our deepest layer, people.

but the world does not tremble any less for it.

#winter schnee #marrow amin #rwby #helen writes meta #there is something like. gallingly poetic to the point where it's just shy of kitsch #about the throughline of winter letting penny go and then penny letting emerald go #(and then emerald helping free oscar with JYR and hitching a ride on the other strand winter left trailing behind)#it's not about causation. it's not that simple #it's about the ways that penny is both winter's apotheosis and (dare i say it) mirror #as maidens so often are for each other #so that winter's desperate compromise becomes in penny's hands a transcendent mercy #winter would not have spared emerald. and penny is not there solely because of winter #but they constitute and echo each other even apart in the kingdom of creation #winter might call that being 'human' but penny would call it something else #me yesterday: teehee i think i will make a leetle joke #about how winter has done more for the war effort than ironwood by basically doing fuck all #HOURS AND A ZILLION WORDS LATER #listen. do i regret it? yes. do i wish i'd done something more productive? absolutely. do i wish i could hyperfixate on anything else? ye

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aspoonofsugar · 3 years

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Your Power...Your Theme

This post is born because of @waywardtravelerfart asking about a comparison between Semblances (Rwby) and Quirks (BNHA).

In general, I am not a hardcore BNHA fan, though, so I decided to drag other magic systems in this comparison.

So, I will be comparing...

1) Semblances:

2) Quirks:

3) Nen (HxH):

4) Abilities (BSD):

5) Magic (WHA):

Body and Soul

1) & 3)

Pyrrha: Aura is the manifestation of our soul. It bears our burdens and shields our hearts. Have you ever felt you were being watched without knowing that someone was there? With practice, our Aura can be our shield. Everyone has it, even animals.

Nen and Semblances are very similar ideas. Both have their root in the concept of aura aka life force and are trained through specific exercises that are based on martial arts.

More importantly, they are manifestations of a person’s soul.

This is why in both series they are linked to one’s individuality:

Ren: A common philosophy is that a warrior’s Semblance is a part of who they are.

And both Nen and Semblances grow and evolve with the person.

At the same time, both stories focus not only on the soul, but also on the body.

In HxH Gon and Killua must train their bodies just as much as their nen. No matter how much stronger their auras become, they would still be left defenseless if they forget about basic training and if they do not take care of their bodies.

Similarly, Huntsmen and Huntresses in Rwby have both Semblances and Weapons:

By baring your soul outward as a force, you can deflect harm. All of our tools and equipment are conduits for Aura. You protect yourself and your soul when fighting.

Weapons are linked to personalities just like Semblances are:

Ruby: Just weapons? They’re an extension of ourselves! They’re a part of us! Oh, they’re so cool.

It is only through the combination of weapons and semblances that one becomes strong and whole.

In order to experience humanity to its fullest, one needs both a soul:

And a body:

In short, Semblances and Nen are representative of the Soul. They are a physical projection of it. Moreover, they need to be completed by the Body to properly work.

BSD abilities are similar because they clearly symbolize characters’ coping mechanisms.

They are linked to people’s personalities and their effects are highly variegated and impossible to explain through biology alone (for example, a character is able to materialize a whole room in another dimension).

At the same time, they seem to have some physical properties.

For example, it is possible to create artificial abilities and to implant them into people. The process has yet to be properly explained, though.

This can be compared to the research on aura made in Rwby.

That said, this specific research is framed negatively by the narrative because it is an attempt to control what it should not be (a person’s soul).

Similary, in BSD, such experiments are criticized as well because they violate human rights and are an attempt to weaponize abilities, which is an ongoing topic explored by the story.

Quirks are instead framed as the result of biological evolution. This creates an interesting inversion compared to the other stories. Quirks are not simply physical representations of a character’s psychology, but they are a part of the reason why that character develops a specific coping mechanism.

Toga is attracted to blood because her Quirk is about drinking blood, so she naturally likes it.

Shigaraki’s destruction traumatizes him because it leads to his family’s death.

Touya’s weak constitution makes his power difficult to use, hence he develops self-hurting tendencies.

Finally, Magic in WHA is something that exists outside the characters.

It is not something people are born with, but an art they can master through study and dedication.

Its origin is still unknown, but it is explained that it works thanks to specific materials:

And even human blood can be used to strengthen it:

In short, Magic is a human art that makes use of specific natural resources and a specific knowledge to create several effects. In a sense, its logic is similar to both art and programming. It is similar to art because the witches need to exercise on drawing and to be creative on their approaches to things. It is similar to programming because they must use what is basically a specific language made of symbols to create different effects.

So, Magic is not linked to a person’s soul in the way other magical systems are, but a character’s personality still emerges from the kind of magic they specialize in. This is something unavoiable... after all this is how personality works in real life as well... we all have different approaches to problems and beliefs that will emerge in our art and in our jobs.

In conclusion, all these magical systems are connected in different ways to characters’ personalities, to their flaws and to their symbolic roles in the narrative.

In these metas, there are some examples of how this happens for HxH, Rwby, BSD and WHA.

Power and Privilege

3) & 5)

Nen and Magic are similar:

With enough training, both powers can be used by everyone.

However, both HxH society and WHA society choose to keep them secret because the damage that could come from sharing this knowledge is potentially devastating.

That said, both stories also show how there is hypocrisy behind this stance.

HxH does so in an indirect way.

Nen is supposed to be secret, so that dangerous people can’t use its power for wrong reasons.

However, many hunters are not really moral people. If anything many are violent and ready to kill. The exam itself encourages these tendencies since it does not punish murderers. Moreover, it turns out that very dangerous people already know about nen:

WHA explores this theme more directly:

The secret behind magic creates inequality. Magic could be used to help much more people, but it is limited by the law that imposes witches to keep the secret and forbids them from using magic to heal.

The result is an unjust society and a paradox. Isn’t there another way to use magic that it is less elitarian?

2) Similarly, quirks create inequality in BNHA. However, the mechanisms behind it are slightly different.

Not only people without quirks are discriminated, but also people with specific powers are considered less than others.

This happens either because the power is considered weak or lame or because it is considered a villain power.

In other words, BNHA society nurtures a simplicistic and black and white vision of quirks and people. This leads to some being discriminated for their quirks and to others being excused of everything because of their abilities.

4) In BSD, we have a similar yet partly opposite situation.

Ability users are mostly dehumanized and weaponized by society.

Basically the series explores how society makes use of its more vulnerable members and objectifies them.

So, in BSD having an ability is not really a synomim of privilege, but it is rather something that can set you apart and make you a victim of your country or your organization.

Because of this,the characters struggle to both accept their powers, but also not to be defined by it.

1) Finally, the case of RWBY is interesting because even if society is founded on privilege and inequity, semblances are not really a pivotal part of it.

It is much more common for people to be discriminated because of their bodies (like the Faunus) or their social status than for their semblances. Surely, cases like those exist, but they are not particularly explored by the story.

This might be because semblances are just one of many factors that determine a personal’s stance in society. Moreover, it is not even that clear how much common people know about semblances and aura. I would not say it is exactly a secret, especially because semblances can manifest themselves in a variety of situations. Still, it seems to me that they are mostly aknowledged and accepted by common people, but not exactly pursued or studied.

Symbolically, semblances are linked to an ancient magic that has been forgotten by people. This could tie with why some people, especially in Atlas, have been dismissive of them to an extent. Whitley dismisses his own and is not interested in developing it, while Watts is one of the few characters who fight without a semblance.

It might very well be that human technology and dust make so many different effects possible that a semblance, even if important for a warrior’s own strength and individuality, is not really the only factor that determines the place of a person in society.

In conclusion, all these power systems are linked to privilege in different ways. They are used to explore social inequality or parts of the society that are either repressed or not aknowledged.

Choices and limits

1) 2) & 4)

Quirks, Abilities, Semblances and their limits are not chosen. You are born with them and the most you can do is to try and overcome the limitations or to come up with clever ways to use your power.

You can train your Quirk, so that it becomes stronger.

When it comes to Abilities instead, characters usually must train to control what are potentially dangerous powers.

There are also abilities that help other people to control their powers and modify how these powers work. For example, there is a character whose ability is about summoning a fighting avatar. However, to do so, she needs to be called on a specific phone and it is actually the one calling that commands the avatar. Still, thanks to the influence of the above mentioned ability, she becomes able to summon the avatar at will and does not need the phone anymore.

Finally, in the case of Semblances, you need to meditate and to train your semblance, so that it can evolve. At the same time, though, semblance evolution can happen also because of specifical psychological conditions.

For example, Ren’s Tranquility both activates and evolves not because of physical training, but because of stress (the first time) and emotional growth (the second). This is fitting because his ability has mostly to do with emotions, so it is telling that it evolves as he grows emotionally rather than physically.

Ruby’s semblance is instead a physical one since she is super fast. So it is fitting that it mostly manifests and evolves with her training at using it.

Finally, when it comes to semblances, you do not really choose how they evolve and what new effects you gain. They are mostly an unconscious part of yourself that grows with you.

3) & 5)

The kind of magic you specialize in and the nen power you are gonna have are things one chooses.

To be more specific, they are influenced from one’s talents, but then they evolve according to a person’s choice.

For example, the protagonist Gon has an aura which is particularly good to strengthen things, so he chooses to use it to strengthen his punch. Moreover, he really likes Jankenpon, so he comes up with a power that uses this game. It is a technique that creates different effects depending on what he chooses to “play” (scissors, rock or paper).

Similarly, Coco is good at drawing straight lines and this makes her good with basic magic, that she uses in original ways because of her thinking outside the box. Her teacher Qifrey instead specializes in water magic because he used to be scared of water when he was little and wanted to overcome this fear.

At the same time, both nen users and witches must face limitations.

Nen has limitations that are self-imposed and decided by the users.

Magic has limitations that are imposed by society and codified through law.

Nen works with the idea that the stronger the limitation you set, the stronger will be your power. Similarly, if you sacrifice something, you can obtain a more powerful effect.

For example, another character called Kurapika creates chains with different powers. One of his chains has the limitation to only work on the members of a specific criminal group. Moreover, if Kurapika breaks this rule, he’ll lose his life. Since the sacrifice Kurapika has decided is pretty extreme, that chain is basically impossible to break.

Of course, limitations do not need to be so extreme. The protagonist’s jankenpon is limited by the fact he says out loud the name of his technique and takes time to use it (both goes against him, since it gives his opponent time to prepare). In this way the power gets stronger.

Magic is a very dangerous force, so it is prohibited to use magic on people’s bodies. This includes the idea that you can’t heal bodies directly or that you can’t change the way you look. It also forbids people from using blood to make magic stronger and to put glyphs on a person’s skin.

These limitations challenge the characters and force them to think outside the box. For example, Coco wants to save her mom who became a stone. The best way to do so is to use magic on her, but this is prohibited hence Coco keeps brainstorming about how she can do it and even thinks about breaking the law multiple times.

In conclusion, powers are often linked to the self and the degree of control and choices characters have on them is symbolic of which part of the self we are talking about.

In the case of semblances and abilities, they mirror an unconscious part.

A Quirk is a biological factor that influences one’s self instead and that everyone can try ot develop in a way they like.

Finally, nen and magic are a conscious part of the self that still mirrors unconscious tendencies.

Not only that, but abilties have limits that come from either outside the person or inside them.

POWER SYSTEMS AND THE FIVE KINDS OF CONFLICT

In stories, there are at least five types of conflict.

1) Man vs Self

2) Man vs Society

3) Man vs Man

4) Man vs Nature

5) Man vs God

The magic systems we explored are linked to at least three of these five types.

Man vs Self

Supernatural abilities are linked to a person’s interiority and personality. Often they are representative of the character’s flaw and their limits can be overcome only by the person’s growth.

Man vs Society

Power systems end up being influenced and influence fictional societies.

They can represent privilege or some wrongdoing in society itself.

Alternatively, they can be limited by society’s rules and imposed laws.

Man vs Man

It is not uncommon to have special powers used in fights. In this case, they become symbolic ways to explore characters’ relationships, themes and different value systems.

This is something that BSD, HxH and Rwby do a lot. WHA has had less fights as for now, but it is definately something that has come up and will come up more in the future. Finally, I am not too much into BNHA to comment on the series, but I would be surprised if it is not the same there as well.

In conclusion, I do not really have much to say on the onthology of powers in different narrative worlds and tbh I do not think this is really what many writers think about when they design them. I think what writers focus on is how to make interesting powers that convey a character’s personality, can be used to explore the world and give life to entertaining fights.

#hxh #bnha #rwby #bsd #wha #waywardtravelerfart #meta #my meta #magic system

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starlightshadowsworld · 2 years

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Atlas as a whole is just fascinating, because its literally if a place could embody and symbolise hubris.

The kingdom holds itself to the stars both literally and metaphorically. Its the corner stone of technology and advancements and of all the kingdoms is the most divided.

From the other kingdoms and in itself.

It's a place that decided you can't survive if your not willing to do whatever it takes, if you aren't able to get your hands dirty than don't bother.

It's almost dystopian in the way it presents itself. What with its focus on tech, making something more than human like the huntsman bot things from the earlier volumes and Penny.

As well as the use of surveillance, that everything can be monitored and thus tampered and controlled. From the rigged election to the heating grid all being messed with by the push of buttons.

Being able to be taken advantage of easily by those who seek to bend the place to their will, those who are in positions of power out carved out of wealth and greed.

In Atlas its all about who you are, what you are and who you know, your defined by those things. Classism and racism are both themes presented to us (and one of them feels better handled than the other) and they make sense as to why they are so prevalent here.

Contrasting it to Vale where the message is anyone can be what they wish and are not defined by what they are but who they choose to be.

It's also why the Happy Huntresses work so well because not all of them are from Mantle. Mantle, the place that Atlas has thrown those that don't fit in with their criteria and have left to die.

They chose Mantle when no one chooses Mantle.

They saw through the artificial aspects of Atlas and its people and found its heart in Mantle, didn't matter who they were or what they were they chose Mantle as their home.

And Atlas is so very surface level, every interaction is so very performantive while everyone's true intentions are concealed. They are all about themselves, and preserving their images.

Like you can't tell me there aren't dozens of hotels like the one Cinder worked at or organisations like the Spiders in Atlas.

But than you've got someone like May Marigold, someone born to these exact kind of people and turns her back on them all. Her intentions are always clear and she doesn't care to pretend.

You have Weiss going back for Whitley because she truly cares for him.

And you see all of this and it makes people like Jacques Schnee and General Ironwood make sense. They are not only byproducts of this system but also benefitting from its inequalities.

Jacques has an empire built on Faunus Labour, he could control the whole kingdom way before he was ever elected. He has power, power he's gained through connections and marrying into the Schnee family and using the worth behind that name to benefit himself.

And Ironwood as well controls the city, he has 2 seats on the council but it means nothing he may as well be the sole leader. Granted his intentions were there but he's still benefiting from this, Atlas is benefitting from this.

While as usual Mantle is left to die.

It's why he's fashioned himself into such a heroic figure because in his mind he's doing what's right, for Atlas. He's preserving Atlas and its people, Mantle isn't Atlas it was made to be forgetten and no one cares of the outside world.

Watts is a disgraced scienctist but his true nature was never revealed to them, they never even knew he was still alive.

And it's absolutely beautiful and carathatic that it's destroyed by its own people but also those that were directly harmed by it, reducing it to a myth, a legend.

To Atlantis, a lost city.

#Atlas rwby #Rwby #I just love the thought that went into this #Weiss Schnee #Jacques Schnee #General Ironwood

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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If I remember correctly during the V7 commentary, the reason why Weiss didn't get any upgrades for her weapon was because she had her Summoning and "was already perfect" which I think is very telling of what these writers think character development is: Weiss isn't racist/ mean to people anymore and is now in a comfortable place in her life so she doesn't need to grown anymore. Anything new she might need to learn is just combed aside like her perfect, Whitley-esque bangs.

You know how we're often joking about how RWBY tends to give us what we've asked for, just in the worst way possible? Such commentary would fall under that umbrella for me. I approve of not giving Weiss any major upgrades, simply because she's already got too many powerful abilities, to the point where the show has had to drop a couple to try and keep things balanced (time dilation, any dust that's not ice, relies mostly on just summoning now), but she shouldn't lack that because she's "perfect." Giving her so many OP abilities was a mistake on the writers' part, a mistake they needed to manage in Volume 7, preferably with some sort of explanation as to why the Atlas born, Schnee heiress didn't a cool upgrade in her hometown alongside many teammates, which we obviously didn't see. It's not a time to try and use that lack as some sort of proof of perfection, since such perfection obviously doesn't exist. And I don't say that as a criticism of Weiss as a person in this story (there's plenty of that elsewhere on the blog lol), but rather as an acknowledgement of her function as a character. If your character is "perfect" - if the story honestly believes they have nowhere else to go, not the character working under the false belief that they have no flaws - then... why are you writing a story? Why are you writing a story that, as far as we know, will continue on for at least a few more years? People don't turn to storytelling to watch the characters remain static and never develop. Weiss has to be flawed if RWBY wants to keep her as an engaging character we're interested in following. She has to go somewhere and not just in the literal sense of Kingdom hopping.

And, of course, she is flawed. She is struggling. She does have a wealth of things to work through... the show just doesn't seem to realize that. I've occasionally seen complaints that our Atlas arc had Penny as the focus rather than Weiss and honestly, I don't think we've discussed that enough; how huge a mistake that was (and not just because Penny was killed at the end of it all). I think your own phrasing is significant in terms of framing the writers' (presumed) perspective: Weiss "is now in a comfortable place in her life..." Sure, Weiss is more comfortable with her place and herself than she was at the start of the series - growth! - but that's really only in regards to her place on the team and her abilities as a huntress. Her family and status as a Schnee remain a treasure trove of difficulties she's barely touched. Prior to the Atlas arc, Weiss' setup included:

Being kidnapped by her father and separated from said team

Losing her inheritance to the company/family name, the one she claims to be interested in rehabilitating

Kidnapped by bandits and rescued by a teammate she's had incredibly little interaction with

Learning she has to return to Atlas, the place the just ran away from

Arriving to find her Kingdom in a state of lockdown, suffering from systematic problems and a war she's one of the few who knows about

Hearing that two teammates killed a faunus in self-defense who bore the SDC logo

That's a lot. So Weiss grapples with all of this during the arc taking place in her home, with her family, her leader, and populated by the minority her family has exploited, right? Of course not! She never has to deal with her father, her disinheritance, the faunus, her new connection with Yang... Weiss' "growth" occurs in random, confusing bursts that are meaningless given how convoluted the story has become. Oh, we're humorously arresting Jacques now. Oh, she no longer cares about Winter and is happy to leave her behind. Oh, she's suddenly announced to Marrow that she's patriotic for the place she keeps running away from. Oh, she's saved Whitley's life after ignoring and threatening him, so I guess they're loving siblings now? Weiss is as much of a mess as the rest of the cast at this point, made even worse by Volume 8's ending. The Kingdom of Atlas is destroyed. The unclear nature of Weiss' feelings aside, the entirety of her home wasn't merely attacked, but completely obliterated. The girl who should be dealing with complicated feelings regarding her family and home has just lost the ability to ever return to that home! And that loss was on her own leader's orders. And her sister is now a Maiden. And the father she apparently wanted to rescue got blown up by Ironwood. Even though Weiss hasn't had the chance to delve into the latter two yet - she doesn't know about Jacques, barely spotted Winter as a Maiden before she fell - surely she'll have something to say about her Kingdom falling, that core part of her identity destroyed through one, thoughtless wish?

Nah, the one line about that goes to Robyn 🤦‍♀️

#rwby #mymetas #long post

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schnees-and-schnugs · 2 years

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@canonseeker I'm sorry but I can't reply directly to you so I have to make a separate post. I don't like getting into discourse so I'll probably clarify what I meant and move on, but please reblog the post with your reply if you want to continue this discussion.

To your first question, what I said was:

I admit, I phrased that badly. It wasn't my intention to imply that Willow knew Weiss was going to be there. I do think it was a coincidence, and that's the problem I have. My point was that Weiss got everything she needed with a minimal amount of work through a series of coincidences that were never foreshadowed in the story. Willow just happened to have cameras in the manor that we never knew about, Willow just happened to catch Jacques' meeting with Watts, Willow just happened to sit on it for who knows how long, Willow just happened to be in Jacques' office (implied to be trying to look through his computer since she mentioned that he has it locked) when Weiss got there, and Weiss just happened to get everything she needed from Willow without doing any sort of investigative work.

It's a lot of coincidences that would have worked if we had a connection to a previous scene to make us go "oh! That caused all the dominoes to fall!" Which is why I threw out three options off the top of my head. Two of which wouldn't have changed the office scene at all beyond a line or two. AND it would have made the "don't forget your brother" line even more impactful!

And don't get me wrong, I like that scene. It's one of my favorites in the show. And I really like willow's reasoning for the cameras, which I think really speaks to her feelings of powerlessness. I'm not arguing to get rid of it. I just think there could have been tweaks done here and there to connect it better to the rest of the volume so it doesn't seem so out of nowhere.

To your second question pertaining to Whitley selling out Jacques. My answer is: well it would make it interesting, wouldn't it?

Whitley's problem is that he idolizes his father. And I never said that he had to readily sell him out. Whitley has a conscience, as we see in v8. Also in v8, we see that he's willing to forgo his father if it means that he gets to do the right thing. And there's only a day between the brat Whitley we knew in v7 and the good boy we get to know in v8. You don't become a different person in a day, Whitley was always a good person. He just needed the opportunity to show that side of him.

Whitley could have had that struggle in v7 to sufficiently start his turn in v8 rather than him suddenly not caring for his father because his sister waved a weapon in his face and told him to get over it. And, again, it doesnt need to change much. If you're opposed to Whitley outright giving Weiss the information (which I agree is a little bit too out of character for him), then he could have approached Willow with it out of desperation, which is how she knew to look at the camera feed.

He wouldn't even need to agree with her that anything needs to be done. He has that conflict: loyalty to his father and his fear of abandonment vs the right thing to do when you know your father has done something unforgivable.

But at the end of the day, this only relies on Whitley having known any of this went on. Which, despite looking suspicious, it seems like he just never thought about it ever again. So this is really all just speculation of what could have been to flesh out the schnee interrelationship more.

Have a good day!

#discourse

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fandoms-are-my-friends-1321 · 3 years

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Holy Matrimony

This is my first time writing for the Prodigal Son fandom, but I’m still excited either way. This was requested by @jiejie-eonni-onee-sama, and the idea is so adorable and funny. Gif and characters are not mine. Hope you guys enjoy it!!!

Description: Malcolm plans to propose to his girlfriend during their date at a fancy restaurant, but some of the team and his family arrive to make sure he doesn’t blow it. An unexpected quest also makes an appearance

Warnings: just some mild swearing, spoilers for season one, and a brief description of a crime scene, but otherwise none

“I know this is a big night for us, but you didn’t have to rent out one of the fanciest restaurants in town. I’m perfectly fine with a night in at home.”

Malcolm turned to look at his girlfriend of eight months as he continued to button up his white dress shirt. “Come on, Y/N. It’s going to be wonderful I promise. Besides, I would do anything for you.”

That was very true. This was the longest relationship that Malcolm had ever been in, and Y/N was different. He was worried after what happened with Eve, love would never return into his life. It did, however, and he was grateful to Y/N for all she had done for him so far. Tonight was the night he was going to show how much he loved her.

“Our cabs here,” Y/n said as she straightened her outfit. “You ready for go?”

“Yeah, just a few more minutes. You can go ahead down stairs, and I will catch up with you in a minute,” Malcolm responded. While Y/N was a little suspicious as to why Malcolm needed to stay back, she shrugged it off and walked out the door of the apartment. Once Malcolm was certain that she was gone, he opened a drawer that was located discretely under the bar.

He pulled out a small velvet box, and inside was the ring that he planned to propose to Y/N with. His family and friends were all supportive of this move, and yet he was still a little worried. He took a deep breath and placed the box in his suit jacket. “It’s okay,” Malcolm whispered to himself. “Nothing could possibly go wrong.”

Sunshine tweeted happily. “Thanks, Sunshine. The next time you see the two of us, you’ll have a new mom to look after you.” With that, Malcolm opened the door and dashed down the stairs to the cab. The giddy energy he felt fueling his steps.

——————————————————————————

The couple sat in a rented out section of the restaurant. Malcolm didn’t want to raise any extra attention when he proposed to Y/N, and while renting an entire room might have been much, he didn’t want to risk it. His family already had to much attention focused on them because of his father, and he didn’t want anymore.

“Excuse me, but I’m going to go use the restroom before our food gets here,” Y/N said as she stood up from the table.

“Sure, that sounds great! I’ll be waiting here doing nothing in particular,” Malcolm stuttered as he fidgeted in his seat. Y/N smiled at him as she walked out of the room. He’s a lot jumpier than normal, she thought, Perhaps he has a recent case on his mind. In fact, the only thing Malcolm had on his mind was her, and he mentally screamed as he placed his head in his hands.

“Oh my god he’s going to blow it. My son needs to get it together.”

Outside of the restaurant, Jessica Whitley was standing outside with a pair of binoculars, her daughter Ainsley by her side. They were leaning against the brick wall of the building across the street. The pair was trying to spy on Malcolm and make sure that he didn’t mess this up.

“Well, you know how my brother can be,” Ainsley replied as she examined her fingernails.

“Your daughters right,” Gil chimed in as him and the rest of the team walked up to Jessica and Ainsley. “Malcolm Bright does whatever Malcolm Bright wants to do. We can’t control him.”

“I’m his mother for crying out loud, so I have more control than you think. What are you guys doing here?”

“Coming to see how Malcolm will manage to pull off this proposal. Same as you guys,” JT stated.

“I think you guys are being to hard on him,” Dani commented, “As much as Malcolm loves Y/N, he will know exactly what to say.”

“That’s right! From my statistical analysis, their love for each other is 100% legit,” Edrisa added in as she appeared from behind Gil, Dani, and JT. “Also, it’s a pleasure to see you again, Mrs. Whitley.”

“Likewise,” Jessica said with a smile. “Well, looks like the gangs all here.” The group waited and watched as Y/N returned to her seat at the table. The couple had begun eating, but the group that they didn’t know was waiting outside began to twist with anticipation.

“That’s it! I cant take this anymore. I’m going in,” Jessica declared as she shoved the binoculars she was using over to Ainsley. With determination, Jessica strides across the street. All the while Ainsley and Gil were trying to drag her back, but it was to no avail, and they began to follow her too. The rest of the team was close behind. However, another lone figure was lurking in the shadows.

“Holy crap, this pasta is the best I’ve ever had. No offense to your cooking of course,” Y/N said through a bite full of her food.

“None taken,” Malcolm replied with a chuckle. “I know how much you love Italian cuisine.”

“You know what I love more than pasta?”

“Day time television?”

“No, silly. It’s you! Ever since we first met at that crime scene, I just felt a connection with you.”

Malcolm couldn’t help but grin at the memory. Y/N was also part of the team, and the two had met during a case at a Bakery. At first Malcolm didn’t understand how Y/N was able to eat pastries while a man’s guts were strewn across the floor. Then he soon realized that she had witnessed a lot of crime scenes in her day.

This had to be the right moment. Somewhere deep inside, Malcolm knew that it was time to pop the question. Malcolm took a bite of his pasta, and tried to begin his proposal. However, when he saw his mom walk through the entrance of the room, he nearly choked.

“Mom! What are you doing here?! How’d you even know we were in here,” Malcolm questioned as he whiped his mouth with a napkin.

“Oh please dear, finding you wasn’t that hard. I came in because you need to stop stalling and do what you came here to do,” Jessica replied.

“Well I was going to say it, but-,”

“Jessica please, come back outside and let the kid do his thing,” Gil insisted as him and Ainsley enterted the room as well.

“Gil?! You’re here too? Let me guess the whole rest of the team is here,” Malcolm added with a wave of his hand. The rest of the team slowly made their way into the room, and Malcolm let out an exasperated sigh. “Well, now that everyone is here. May I please finish?”

Everyone nodded eagerly, and so Malcolm turned back to his girlfriend, who was still in shock by all the people who had just shown up out of the blue. It was a lot, but Y/N didn’t mind. Malcolm grabbed her hand, and Y/N’s E/C eyes met his icy blue ones. “Ever since I met you Y/N, my life has changed for the better. When I’m with you, the darkness in the world fades away. Now while I wasn’t expecting so many people to be here for this, I’m still certain that this is the right-.”

“Now hold on, my boy. Before you say those oh so famous words, aren’t you forgetting the one person that’s not here?”

The entire party froze as Malcom’s father, Dr. Martin Whitley, emerged from a dark corner of the room. Gil, Dani, and JT all pulled their guns from their holsters. “Holy shit,” JT said, “I thought this dude was in prison?”

“Yes,” Jessica snarled. “That’s exactly where he should be.”

Martin simply rolled his eyes at his wife and the others. “Oh come on now, you can’t expect me to miss the biggest day of my son’s life do you? I promise I will go back as soon as everything is done. Gil will make sure of that I’m sure.”

“Damn right I will, but for now I’m reluctantly allowing this to happen. No funny stuff though,” Gil said. Martin simply nodded as he gestured for Malcolm to continue.

Malcolm took a deep breath and focused his attention back on Y/N. “Well, as you can see my life is pretty crazy. I have a serial killer for a father, a mother who can sometimes be just as crazy.”

“Hey, that’s not very nice,” Jessica said as she pretended to be hurt, but her smile gave it away. Malcolm shook his head as he continued. “All of these people support us, and I plan to support you until the day I die, which hopefully will be a long time from now. So, without further ado,” Malcolm got down on one knee, and opened the velvet box. The central diamond in the ring sparkled due to the chandelier light from above, and Y/N let out a gasp. “Y/N L/N, will you marry me?”

“Of course I will!! Now come here my soon to be husband,” Y/N pulled Malcolm up by the lapels of his jacket and kissed him on the lips. At first her boldness caught Malcolm off guard, but he relaxed into the kiss. All the while cheers filled the room, and Martin even gave a few claps himself.

“So, will I be invited to the wedding,” Martin asked with a raised brow.

“Unless you happen to escape again, I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” Gil retorted as the cuffs snapped on Martin’s wrists. However, Martin only laughed at this. If he escaped once, he could easily do it again, and nothing was going to stop him from seeing another big moment in his son’s life.

#malcolm bright #malcolm whitly #malcolm bright x reader #malcolm whitly x reader #tom payne #prodigal son #Dani #JT #Gil #jessica whitly #ainsley whitly #x reader #fluff #fanfic #I’m sorry this fic is a lot of dialogue #but like it’s about the conversations that are going on #hope that works!

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dragynkeep · 2 years

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" Welp.

As if people needed another reason to hate Weiss and Whitley’s first interaction in Volume 8, the commentary outright says that they thought Weiss was 100% in the right for treating Whitley like trash because it was some kind of epic character moment for her to "stand up" to someone who "represents what the Schnee name used to be.” Also they call Whitley a spoiled rich kid who deserved it.

https://files.catbox.moe/pcp69f.webm "

god, i really hoped that mkek would’ve taken on board the meaningful criticism from not only the abuse justifying fan comic made that was endorsed by them but then also the response to the actual episode. just as a reminder, what they call “completely justified” of weiss having a girlboss moment “standing up” to the last of her corrupted name is in fact weiss repeating the abusive behaviours of their mutual abuser on her defenseless brother who was abandoned yet again, all while pointing a loaded weapon in his face.

whitley was not a spoiled rich kid in that moment. he was a terrified little boy who had just lost the only family ever present in his life, even if jacques was abusive, was further abandoned by his pathetic drunkard of a mother & then further abused by his uppity sister who swanned into the home she disowned herself from to play the boss of him. as if she’d ever been there or ever even tried to connect to him. as if she’d ever even cared about him.

& that whole tripe about weiss “standing up to what the schnee name used to be” makes no goddamn sense considering this is what the schnee name has always been. jacques just took a imperialist company that built it’s bones on a colonist regime & featured some child slavery in it. the core of the sdc & the schnee name is rotten, it is built on the blood of faunus & of other kingdoms like vacuo. weiss can’t just comfortably “distance” herself from what the name is to reclaim what she feels like all while abusing whitley when he was the only goddamn one to do anything worth while in the manor in v8.

honestly this all just fills me with so much more dread about how mkek are going to not only handle the bloody legacy of the schnee name now that weiss is a “martyr” for it, but the colonization that vacuo underwent. i do not trust these american, mostly white fucks in handling a topic their country still perpetuates every day against middle eastern countries because shit like this shows that they still don’t understand the painful scope of current day colonization & how much it ruins lives, countries, cultures.

#rwby #rwde #whitley schnee #weiss schnee #weiss schnee critical #mkek critical #owl.txt #answered #q

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remnantoforario · 4 years

Text

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

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