24. Enby Panromantic Ace. Any pronouns. RWBY super fan. Forever mourning Penny Polendina. Supporter of all RWBY ships. Incorrect RWBY quotes and fanfiction. AO3
What are we gonna do? It just… feels like there’s a hole now. Fuck. I shouldn’t be getting this emotional over a cartoon.
Well, if there's anything the epilogue was about, it was about keeping hope in the darkest of times. So that's what I plan to do. Hope that this isn't the end, and that we'll see them again.
The things we grow to care about, that leave an indelible mark, come and go throughout our lives. When the final page of a chapter comes, take a deep breath, and carry what you gained onto the next.
Thank you, to everyone who worked on this series over the years.
I know this is NOT a popular take in the RWBY FNDM but y’all…I love Jaune Arc. He’s such a refreshing, interesting male character.
He’s Ruby’s best friend, and the two of them parallel each other in such FASCINATING ways. I’m planning a full video essay on this but as some examples:
1) They both have hero complexes, obviously.
2) Ruby is a prodigy who earns her place at beacon two years early, while Jaune cheated his way in and needs to work constantly outside of his school training to be anywhere near capable of huntsmen level combat
3) Jaune’s pain is loud and disruptive, Ruby’s pain is quiet and suppressed (examining their respective expressions of pain through the lens of gender expectations is REALLY interesting)
4) Ruby inherits silver eyes, an invaluable tool in fighting Grimm. Jaune inherited a regular sword, heavily outclassed by most of his peers.
5) Ruby made her weapon but modeled it after her mentor, Jaune had a hand-me-down
6) Ruby leads by developing plans and taking action, Jaune leads by supporting his team and bolstering their strengths with his own.
I’m sure there’s more too but those parallels are why their conflicts in vol 9 work so well for me, they are partners in narrative from literally the second episode.
I also just adore the commentary on masculinity with Jaune. From day one he was deconstructing traditional ideas of masculinity and patriarchal concepts of heroism.
The way he has to learn to reject so many of the things that blockbusters with men at the center have been pushing for decades is fantastic. He tried to pursue revenge like John Wick or Iron Man and it went HORRIBLY.
He can fight when necessary but it’s not where his true strength lies and that’s SO COOL for a male character.
I dunno y’all I just think he doesn’t deserve the hate. He doesn’t butt in on other stories nearly as much as people claim—in terms of Ruby, he actually serves her story quite a bit—and he is a character worth following in and of himself.