#but even then. i look at whales and think “why did they evolve like this?” | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

legendary-alliance-stance · 2 years

Text

Drakkar - A Corrupted Spirit of the Wild?

Hello hello! This is something I’ve been meaning to do for a long while now, at least a couple years even. I’ve mentioned it a couple times on my blog about how I wanted to go into on here, but never had the time/energy to do so.

Until now! With the topic of Norn and SotW on my mind, and with @bjoras showing interest in this theory, I’m finally sitting down to go into it.

WARNING: This post is very image heavy, and will contain spoilers for Icebrood Saga, as well as the image of an animal corpse. Proceed with caution!

So we begin with Drakkar. Jormag’s Champion in the Bjora Marches, through which they whispered to Svanir, and later the Commander and their companions.

We only know so little about Drakkar, or why its existence allowed Jormag to whisper in the way that they did. We know Drakkar has existed frozen in the lake of Bjora Marches since before GW1, and lore posits the idea that it’s been a Champion of Jormag since the previous Dragonrise.

However, I’m not entirely sure about that. Ever since some a piece of dialogue during the episode Jormag Rising, I’ve been convinced that Drakkar wasn’t always a dragon champion, and instead was possibly a Spirit of the Wild that was corrupted by Jormag.

To begin with, we’ll cover Drakkar’s design in GW2. It got one hell of a makeover between GW1 and GW2, but I’m willing to chalk the difference up to “Anet didn’t have much of a plan for Drakkar during GW1 and expanded more of its potential lore when they revisited it in GW2″

PART 1: DESIGN

[Full Image]

As you can see, the design is explicitly inspired by the rotting corpses of beached whales, particularly the head and the “fur”.

Even outside the concept art note, Drakkar’s similarity to a whale can be seen with the silhouette of it swimming through the ice.

[Full Image]

“But what about Drakkar’s feet?” you ask, “Whales don’t have feet, Ellis!”

No, but they do have finger bones nonetheless.

[Full Image]

With this diagram of a whale skeleton, you can see that despite having fins, whales do in fact have finger bones! This is because whales actually evolved from four-legged, land-dwelling animals!

And comparing this diagram to this image of Drakkar, you can truly see how similar the head shape is to a whale skull.

[Full Image]

The main difference is that Drakkar has back legs as well, but given Jormag’s ability to drastically change a creature’s anatomy with their corruption, even before receiving Zhaitan’s influence over undeath (Example: the Really Fucked Up Versions of Icebrood Norn. Yes, that was a Norn.) I think it’s possible to explain it away as “Jormag did some fucked up shit to this thing”

In fact, when a Pact NPC mentions the different between Drakkar during Jora’s days and the current version, a Kodan NPC replies that Jormag changes things to fit [their] purposes.

Vigil Crusader: The stories made it seem like Drakkar was trapped in the ice. And that it looked...different then.

Kodan Guard: That was hundreds of years ago. The whole time, Jormag's power seeped into the beast. Molding. Changing.

Vigil Crusader: So you're saying those pictures the old explorers drew...they're still accurate?

Kodan Guard: Were accurate. Ice fills any shape. Becomes any form. The dragon's magic changed Drakkar to suit its purposes.

[Source]

It is also worth noting that the original design of Drakkar also had four limbs, for whatever that’s worth.

PART 2: NEW SPIRIT OF THE WILD?

When Shadow in the Ice, the chapter that we dealt with Drakkar during, came out, we also got a new item in the Black Lion Statuette “shop”: The Whale Spirit Glider.

This item is interesting to me, because while a Glider skin based on Spirits of the Wild are not new (Raven’s Spirit Glider), there’s never been any mention of a Whale Spirit of the Wild! But we do know that all animals in Tyria have a Spirit of the Wild associated with them, so logic stands that there is a Whale Spirit out there somewhere.

Unfortunately the Glider skin is all there is to this potential Spirit, at least when it comes to concrete lore. But I do think it’s still worth noting, especially as it was released during the same chapter as Drakkar itself.

PART 3: CONTROL THE UNCONTROLLABLE

Fast forward a little bit to Jormag Rising. During the sequence in One Charr, One Dragon, One Champion, where we are attempting to free the four main Spirits of the Wild from Jormag’s clutches, this piece of dialogue happens between Braham and Bangar.

Braham Eirsson: What are you doing to the Spirits of the Wild?

Bangar Ruinbringer: What Jormag did to Drakkar. Use its power to control the uncontrollable.

Bangar Ruinbringer: Elder Dragons want only magic. And the Spirits are nothing but. So I'll convince them to share it wi—

[Source]

Emphasis mine.

Now this bit of dialogue raises a lot of questions, doesn’t it? “What Jormag did to Drakkar” all but states that Drakkar wasn’t always Jormag’s Champion, and that Jormag took control of it at some point in the past.

So what was Drakkar originally?

There’s a lot of things that Drakkar could have been, Tyria is full of fantastic creatures of all kinds, but the specific comparison between Drakkar and Jormag’s attempt to corrupt the Spirits makes me think that Drakkar may have been a Spirit of the Wild in the distant past.

And given the rest of the evidence I’ve given in this post, I believe that Drakkar may have been the Whale Spirit of the Wild before Jormag corrupted it. It appears that it was so long ago that even the Norn themselves don’t recognize it, or talk about a Whale Spirit in the first place. We don’t know how long the Spirits of the Wild have existed in Tyria, but if I recall correctly, it’s implied/stated that they’ve been around even before the Norn existed.

It’s very likely, if one subscribes to this theory, that the Whale Spirit was corrupted into Drakkar long before most of the current races in Tyria existed, which would tie into the canon theory that Drakkar has been around since the previous Dragonrise, albeit not necessarily as a Dragon Champion the entire time.

-----

And there you have it, folks! This post has been a long time coming, but it’s a theory I’ve been very fond of since Jormag Rising, and I’m delighted to have finally written it down on here!

If you have any additional thoughts about this theory, please do add onto this post! I’d love to hear peoples’ take on this.

#Guild Wars 2 #Drakkar #Norn #GW2 Norn #long post

44 notes · View notes

queenlucythevaliant · 1 year

Note

🧬🦕

Is it cool if I get a little personal? Let me tell you about one of the coolest things I've ever gotten to do: two summers ago, I got to see the Archaeopteryx fossil at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, which is also the only specimen on display in North America.

Trust me when I say that the stock clip art that I chose to obscure myself is 100% representative of the face I'm making here. If anything, the smile isn't big or goofy enough.

Here's a close-up and a diagram to show up-close what I'm actually looking at. Note the impressions of wing and tail plumage!

Diagram source

You've probably at least heard of Archaeopteryx: it's a transitional genus dating to the late Jurassic and the earliest example of what we could consider a "bird" which retains many ancestral "reptilian/dinosaur" characteristics.

Now, "bird" and "reptile" are kind of arbitrary words here because reptiles are a paraphyletic group. DNA tree-building models and sequence alignment evidence demonstrate that there's simply no way to define "reptiles" which does not also include birds; the definition of a "reptile" is a sauropsid that is not a bird. Thus, we know that all birds have a reptilian common ancestor because they arose as a branch within the sauropsid clade. Archaeopteryx is an ancient sauropsid with both avian and reptilian features; this is what we mean when we call it a transitional genus.

But why did this transitional fossil make me smile so big that my cheeks went numb? There are several reasons, I think:

Despite its transitional characteristics, most scientists consider Archaeopteryx the first bird in the fossil record. It was also the first direct evidence that birds evolved from reptilians (the first Archaeopteryx specimen was discovered just three years after On the Origin of Species was published). Just on a basic, fundamental level, this genus is of immense scientific and historical importance and standing next to it felt like meeting a celebrity.

The particular specimen that I got to see was super cool! Unlike most Archaeopteryx fossils, which tend to be preserved on their sides, this one is preserved on its stomach with its head in three-quarter view. Thus, it's the only specimen in which the palate bones are clearly visible, and it's tetraradiate (as in non-avian theropods) rather than triradiate (as in other avians.) The palate is one of the most important features in terms of saying, "yeah, we consider this a modern bird."

Its feet are also really well-preserved! The specimen I saw clearly demonstrates that Archaeopteryx didn't have a reversed toe, but does have a hyperextendable second toe. This means that unlike modern birds, it probably had limited ability to perch; instead, it had tearing claws like a dinosaur.

But even in contrast with other important transitional fossils - say, the Archeoceti of Wadi al Hitan in Egypt, which are amphibious ancestors of modern whales - Archaeopteryx is something special. There's a certain romance to the idea of the first bird: feathers that actually enable something like flight! (Like Buzz Lightyear, Archaeopteryxes' wings were probably used for "falling with style.") But still, there's beauty in Archeopteryx that we don’t see in other transitional fossils. In his poem "The Archeopteryx's Song," Edwin Morgan captures this glory far better than I ever could:

I am only half out of this rock of scales.

What good is armour when you want to fly?

My tail is like a stony pedestal

and not a rudder. If I sit back on it

I sniff winds, clouds, rains, fogs where

I'd be, where I'd be flying, be flying high.

Dinosaurs are spicks and

all I see when I look back

is tardy turdy bonehead swamps

whose scruples are dumb tons.

Damnable plates and plaques

can't even keep out ticks.

They think when they make the ground thunder

as they lumber for a horn-lock or a rut

that someone is afraid, that everyone is afraid,

but no one is afraid. The lords of creation

are in my mate's next egg's next egg's next egg,

stegosaur. It's feathers I need, more feathers

for the life to come. And these iron teeth

I want away, and a smooth beak

to cut the air. And these claws

on my wings, what use are they

except to drag me down, do you imagine

I am ever going to crawl again?

When I first left the crag

and flapped low and heavy over the ravine

I saw past present and future

like a dying tyrannosaur

and skimmed it with a hiss.

I will teach my sons and daughters to live

on mist and fire and fly to the stars.

And like, that’s it, right? Obviously no Archaeopteryx could possibly have any concept of bird or dinosaur. No fifteen million year-old creature could have dreamed eagles or pigeons or penguins. But God did.

God knew from eternity that a creature called Archaeopteryx would exist. He knew that it would have a dinosaur’s sharp teeth and bony tail and yet wings and feathers to glide with. He alone could imagine a world in which creatures sharing a close relative with Archaeopteryx would have more feathers for the life to come; that the lords of the skies would be in the next egg’s next egg’s next egg.

He knew that Jesus would tell his disciples to look at birds when they were worried; that Gerard Manley Hopkins would write a poem dedicated “To Christ our Lord” in which he extolled “My heart in hiding/ Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!” God knew that the albatross, so like and yet unlike Archaeopteryx, would live its life on the wing, flying over oceans ten thousand miles at a time, and that Samuel Taylor Coleridge (a devout Christian) would write a poem in which an albatross was Christlike, and that C.S. Lewis would write a book in which an albatross was Jesus and whispered courage to a little girl in the dark. God knew that one day, in the summer of 2021, I would stand beside this fossilized evidence that Archaeopteryx really lived, staring and squinting to see all its features, grinning like an idiot and thinking, “Do you imagine I am ever going to crawl again?”

#i'm legit tearing up #i think i've gotten well away from the concept of 'fun fact' i'll reign it in a little for the next one #i love you archeaopteryx #ask me hard questions #all truth is god's truth #dinosaurs make me happy #fossils! dun dun dun

9 notes · View notes

unisex-muffin · 1 year

Text

Splatoon Rambles: Read At Your Own Expense

Do anemones get to know their fish before they form a bond with them? Like do they go on something like fish finder dot com or is it just “This is bingus, we found each other in the tesco parking lot and he wouldn’t leave me alone, now we’re friends.”

Are there Turf War video games? Are there like professional e-sports tourneys for it? Is there a Splatoon equivalent of EA that keeps making shitty Turf War games?

Speaking of video games, I know it’s a Nintendo game and they can’t legally show other consoles (and don’t even want to allude to them at all), but I think it’d be funny if in this universe before all of humanity was wiped out Nintendo became the Disney of video games. Like historians looked into the “console wars” and saw how Nintendo prevailed and said “This is what we will model all of our tech on.”

How come birds and sea life only got to live through the aftermath of nuclear war? I understand that the sea creatures evolved but how did the birds survive and not evolve? Why not reptiles? And how come aquatic mammals got the axe as well? I dunno I just think it’d be funny if whales, dugongs, or manatees were domesticated and kept as livestock.

Are there also non-intelligent sea life specifically for eating? Or is it artificial meat? Soy meat? Hotlantis sells (presumably) soy cheese and they probably grow soy like crazy, right? Do they even know what real meat tastes like? Does this mean the population is naturally lactose intolerant?

At what point does the modern sea creature calendar start? If each game takes place during the year of its release, were they fully evolved at the point of “year zero?” What happened before that and when did they decide that the “mollusk era” started? Was there a squid Jesus? (Squesus?) Does the population even have religion? Are there arguments about the creation of sea life and if evolution should be taught in schools?

If an inkling/octoling/whatever were to go back in time and visit an aquarium, would it be considered educational or controversial?

#splatoon #ramble #my brain is running at a million miles per hour #real brainrot hours

10 notes · View notes

twinhood-2dot0 · 1 year

Text

A Shallow Dive Into: Intelligence in Other Species

Octopus

Octopodes (I use octopodes because I'm so quirky haha) are probably the most intelligent invertebrate. I mean, they look like Megamind, what do you expect?

They are capable of using tools and solving puzzles and have shown the capability to learn and remember stuff. They are exceptional in terms of intelligence because they’re invertebrates, short lived (there goes my dream of having pet cephalopods :() and mostly solitary, unlike most of the other animals who show some form of intelligence who are mammals, long-lived and social animals.

For more information:

The Insane Biology of: The Octopus

Crows

Crows. Whaaaat? They’re everywhere, what’s so interesting about them? They apparently have the intelligence of a 7 year old baby. Yeah, 7. That’s just wild to me. Scientists had them solve puzzles and it turned out it could solve puzzles 6 year olds couldn’t. You remember that kids story about that crow who dropped stones into a pot to reach the water? It’s real, apparently??? I thought it was just an anthropomorphized fictional thing.

(Talking about delayed gratification) I feel insulted.

Crows aren’t all that social either, so crows are also interesting in terms of intelligence. Anyways, I’m not really qualified to talk about this in detail, and Real Science has awesome videos on this topic, so go check them out if you wanna learn more about them:

Why Crows Are as Smart as 7 Year Old Humans

This is my favorite channel for videos that have to do with evolutionary quirks, they go into much more detail and in a way that even I can understand.

Cetaceans

Cetaceans are also some of my favorite animals. Some of them are so cute, and some are just so fascinating. We all know that dolphin real smort, but did you know orcas and sperm whales (for those who wanna know why they’re called that, it’s apparently because of the fluid in their head which whalers thought was sperm, like, why would such a huge creature carry sperm in the head??? Seems inefficient) have a language system that could rival ours? Sperm Whale biology is very fascinating and I would talk about it here were I not talking about intelligence. Instead, I’ll let, you guessed it, Real Science explain it.

The Insane Biology of: The Sperm Whale

So, sperm whales and orcas are very social creatures, and they’ve evolved a language of sorts. It’s not even an innate thing, as orcas from different parts of the world have been observed to have different languages and “cultures”. There’s also ongoing efforts to use machine learning to decode this language and possibly unlock interspecies communication, which is just wild. We might just be talking to sperm whales in a few years time.

A slight tangent, but most of what we know about the colossal squid's size comes from the beaks found in sperm whale bellies.

More Real Science:

Could ChatGPT talk to whales?

The Insane Biology Of: The Orca

Okay, that’s it from me today, hope you learned at least something >:(.

Here’s today’s song:

It's more electronic, but still, I'm in love and thought you should hear it too. The backstory is also really cool, Porter Robinson and Madeon started out making music together, and they were like friendly rivals and this is a celebration of their friendship. Madeon said that the lyrics are about his parents, so that gives it even more meaning for me. There's also the music video they made in collaboration with Crunchyroll, the biggest anime streaming service I think, so I think that's pretty cool. Haven't watched it fully though, I keep forgetting or getting distracted.

#a shallow dive into #zoology #biology #animal facts #evolution

0 notes

headspace-hotel · 2 years

Text

questions i think about

Would we know if dinosaurs domesticated other dinosaurs?

What is domestication, anyway? Just another form of symbiosis? We know who is the passive and who is the active participant in our relationship with our domesticated creatures, right? Is it about control? Is it about intent?

We have evolved lactase persistence in some populations to drink milk. Did goats or cattle domesticate us?

How strange it must be to be a coffee plant, that became so poisonous that creatures wanted to eat it even more to become poisoned.

What kinds of symbiosis will we never know about?

Which creature invented symbiosis?

Did dinosaurs love their young?

What was the first creature to have loved something?

Do plants love the sun?

Do plants worship the sun?

Is belief necessary for worship?

Which creature invented belief?

Some humans think in only pictures and some can't think in pictures at all (Aphantasia). How long has this been possible? How long ago did humans first have words in their minds?

Which creature invented seeing?

Which creature was the first to see well enough that it could go blind?

Which creature was the first to be able to think about being under the condition of blindness?

Do cats with three legs know that they have three legs? Is this knowledge in the form of "number of legs" or "difference from other cats" or "injury in the past?"

If crows have names for each other, and meerkats have names for birds of prey, do any animals have names for us?

If we sometimes believe that animals can't be evil because they can't go against their nature, do any animals believe this about us?

Who was the first to say "I love you" in whatever language was spoken first? Did they know what it meant?

What was the first metaphor? How do you develop the capacity for metaphor when you don't have it before? What happens inside you that makes you capable of understanding that something can be something else in a way that is different than being that thing?

How did we evolve artistic ability? Cruder forms of creation are less precise and more abstract. It's so much less of a leap to look at a bronze sculpture of a horse and say "horse," than to draw lines in dirt and say "horse." The lines in dirt aren't something that could be mistaken for a horse. The sensory experience of "horse" is big, beast, thundering hooves, hair, three dimensional, warm. The lines in dirt represent horse, without having much in common with horse. You can understand why a cave painting of a horse is "horse" without understanding symbols, but you have to somehow learn that you can represent things in two dimensions by using crude lines before you can create realistic art.

What colors did Precambrian organisms have?

If there was nothing that existed with color vision, did they have colors at all?

How many times has life started to evolve whatever it is that humans have, and turned back from that path?

Do blue whales know that they are the largest organism? Do they understand "largest?"

How large is an ant's concept of the world? Could a civilization of ant-sized creatures develop space travel? How much harder would it be for them to develop an understanding of the world that is that size?

It would be so much harder for a blue whale to develop space travel. Is there a size range for organisms that can do that?

If there is other life close by our Sun, how likely is it to ever develop interstellar travel? Would a single huge sapient fungus penetrating every ecosystem on its planet be interested in finding new planets, even if it was far more intelligent than us? Would sapient octopi? Is curiosity naturally part of intelligence? Is purposeless behavior naturally part of intelligence? How statistically likely is the ability to draw with a stick in the dirt and understand that you've made "horse?"

Would Earth 50,000 years ago be considered to have "intelligent life" by most standards? Would Earth 3,000 years ago? Was space travel inevitable? What if alien Sumer lasts for a million years? What if alien Sumer simply does not see anything else left to accomplish?

What if multicellular life is relatively rare? What if life on land that breathes air is relatively rare?

Why do so many creatures dream? Is it likely that aliens would understand what dreams are?

If aliens don't use sight, could we explain writing to them?

Is communication even possible between organisms that have totally different sensory worlds?

Would a sapient fungus that encompasses its entire planet in mycelium even be able to think of the idea of "communication?"

Would a sapient forest be able to think of the idea of "travel?"

Animals who have been taught some language have not been known to ask hypothetical questions. What creature invented questions?

#aliens #questions #creatures #life

479 notes · View notes

itsclydebitches · 3 years

Note

Something I notice about the giant Grimm is that they never seem to do anything. The Wyvern in V3 awakens from it's mountain and just sits on Beacon, the Leviathan only wades through the ocean and destroys a bell-tower and Monstro only spews out smaller Grimm. Whatever happened to Team RWBY strategizing to take down a Nevermore? These giant Grimm are just showpieces now.

I honestly think part of the problem remains the show's unwillingness to attach lasting consequences—and responsibility—to the group's choices. Because what does a giant grimm do? Destroy things and kill people, to a (presumably) larger extent than the normal grimm would. The Wyvern I give a total pass to because 1. Beacon was already overrun and being destroyed (a giant grimm was kinda overkill at that point) and 2. Since it's not needed for additional destruction/death, it serves the separate purpose of helping to introduce Ruby's eyes. Which I like. We've got to remember that back in Volume 3, no one in the fanbase knew what silver eye powers were, so having Cinder flinch in pain isn't going to explain what that power actually does—her connection to grimm via the weird bug is both unique and forgettable. So you've gotta include an actual grimm in that scene for Ruby to freeze, introducing the primary mechanic of "Silver eyes are a grimm specific weapon." Making the grimm a giant and presumably powerful Wyvern both explains why the group couldn't team up to take it down normally—which, again, was never that grimm's purpose in the first place. Some grimm exist for cool fights, others for forwarding the plot—and, frankly, it's just more entertaining to get a giant grimm for a Volume finale. Freezing it at the top of the tower likewise explains why the school isn't immediately rebuilt. We answer the, "Why are the characters going on a dangerous quest when they could just go back to school?" question by keeping the Wyvern there. So all in all, I think it functions rather well, demonstrating some of the logic threads RWBY now lacks.

The other two though... that's when we run into problems. Because unlike the Wyvern, they're not serving those specific functions of introducing a new power/explaining why Beacon isn't rebuilt. For them, yeah, we absolutely expect the group to have a cool fight and take them out in some epic, strategic, GIF—worthy manner. This is a fighting show! Problem is, in order to have a cool fight with a giant grimm, you need to include the inevitable consequence that things will be destroyed and, likely, people will be killed. These giant grimm aren't appearing in the middle of a forest like the Nevermore did (or even like the first geist did), they're turning up in populated areas. Fighting them will lead to casualties... and the problem there is that responsibility for these situations goes back to the heroes. Their choice to fight Cordovin brought the Leviathan. Their choice to run with Penny kept everyone in Atlas trapped. So if an epic battle wages and people in Argus die, or Salem's army breaks through and everyone in Atlas—including the Mantle evacuees—are overrun... that tragedy is partially on the group. And, notably, the story doesn't want the group to sit with any major consequences of their choices. So nothing bad happens. And nothing bad happens by virtue of there barely being a fight. Ruby just freezes time and sets off her eyes so they don't have to deal with the Leviathan ever reaching shore where the people are. Ironwood's army holds the line until Oscar saves the day so they don't have to deal with the grimm overrunning half the Kingdom. RWBY introduces very high stakes—here's this mega powerful super big ultra evil monster!!—and then pulls back on the follow through because to do otherwise would introduce consequences the story just doesn't want its heroes to face. Anyone remember during the Volume 7 hiatus how we were saying that Salem should absolutely decimate the Kingdom? Yeah, look at all the ways the story bent over backwards to avoid that. Salem randomly waits around to start the fight, the grimm soup only attacks the shields, the whale only spews smaller grimm, the line is never broken, her subordinates turn on her... the plot (flimsily) goes out of its way to ensure nothing horrific happens, as logic dictates it should, because the heroes were the ones to prevent most of the people from escaping. You can't have the mass murder of a Kingdom after that! So it doesn't happen. Even though it should. And when the horrific, permanent things do occur—the destruction of the Kingdom itself—it's fine now because the heroes chose it.

I 100% believe that in a story where the heroes were allowed to own up to their mistakes and grow from them, the fights would likewise have more room to play with the action in creative ways. If you're willing to really put Argus in danger and have the group own up to the choices that led to that, you can choregraph that epic fight on shore. However, all of this isn't to say that RWBY doesn't also have a problem with abandoning the strategic teamwork we started out with. The Hound is the most recent example of this. There, the story's moral stance isn't hindering the action: the Hound attacks in an empty street and then in the mansion with only three non-combat characters nearby. They heroes also haven't done anything wrong in these situations where having a destructive fight would reflect badly on them. Free rein for action! Yet Team JYR still just stands there while Oscar is captured, or take turns launching single attacks rather than trying to defeat it together (though this gets much better during their chase scene). Weiss comes out to help Blake and Ruby, only to be sent right back inside. Ruby is knocked out and Blake can't defeat the acid grimm alone, but Ruby one-shots it from behind rather than the two of them working together. Then Ruby waltzes up and also one-shots the Hound with her eyes, Whitley and Willow's contribution feeling like it hardly matters. If a suit of armor falling on it is enough to finish the Hound off, any punch from any of the fighters would have done the same job. Ruby's eyes already did all the work. Even when the story has all the space it wants for those cool fights against giant and abnormal grimm... it's holding back.

The fights have really gone downhill in the last couple of Volumes and no, it's not because the current animators aren't as talented with choreography as Monty was. It's because the fights are bending in illogical ways to serve the story, rather than the story evolving naturally out of the fights. Why can't Blake take on this grimm? Because the story wants to emphasize how crucial Ruby is to the team's spirits. Why don't we get cool combos to take out the Hound? Because the story wants to reveal the faunus' silver eyes in a shocking manner. Why was Yang taken out from a single hit by Neo? Because the story wanted to quickly established that the main group would "die" in this finale. Why did JYR just stand there and attack in useless ways? Because the story needed Oscar to get kidnapped. Why wasn't the whale established as something to fight, either with traditional combat techniques or with something the group had to come up with? Because the story wanted to introduce the shocking surprise of Ozpin's cane. Etc. etc. All of these fights fail on one level or another because they're just trying to get the viewer to the next plot point, never-mind whether the fight itself makes sense or is entertaining to watch. It's the same logic as the Wyvern—this serves a purpose other than to be a cool fight for the series—but RWBY is no longer putting in the work to get all these pieces to fit together. The Wyvern keeps to the internal logic of RWBY's world, whereas something like Yang's knock out does not. Doing that with the mega grimm that promise incredible challenges and likely destruction just makes that failure to deliver all the more noticeable.

Since the Volume 4 days, the last fight I can remember really liking—that got me super hyped and eager to re-watch it on Youtube—was Ironwood vs. Watts. Looking back, it doesn't at all surprise me that this fight a) didn't require any teamwork, b) didn't have any grimm involved, c) was between a villain and a soon to be villain in an empty space (eliminating those ethics entirely), and d) existed almost solely to just be a Cool Fight (with the minor, plot forwarding details of capturing Watts and Ironwood losing his arm). Ironwood vs. Watts had the freedom to be one of the old school RWBY fights, unencumbered by the questions that now keep tripping the writers up like, "If Team RWBY won with teamwork, why didn't you animate them working as a team?" or "Why did Ruby use her eyes when we wanted to see action and didn't use her eyes to save her own life against Cinder?" or "Why did you introduce this giant grimm, promising an epic fight, only to give the group a mostly non-combat solution? Oh, because that kind of epic fight is going to introduce a lot of other questions you don't want to tackle... Jinn randomly letting Ruby stop time, it is."

#rwde #rwby #mymetas

34 notes · View notes

secretshinigami · 3 years

Text

All Noble Things

Author: @kiranatrix For: @resilicns Pairings/Characters: Near and Gevanni Rating/Warnings: Gen, no warnings Prompt: Near reflecting on his relationship with Wammy’s and L’s reputation Author’s notes: In How to Read, it says that Gevanni’s hobby is building ships in a bottle. So I imagined a scene where Near is observing Gevanni, now in the role of Watari, building a special ship. The time period is flexible but I imagined it after the C-Kira case and before the case with Minoru. This is a loose interpretation of your prompt but I hope you enjoy it!

—

“There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you, Gevanni.” Near didn’t look up as he carefully laid out another domino on the floor, perfectly spaced from its neighbor and approximately two centimeters from chaos. Pinched fingers pulled back carefully and twisted around a strand of white hair. “Two things, really.”

Gevanni looked up from his workbench as the long but comfortable silence between them was broken. Since Roger had died and he’d taken on the role of Watari, he was usually the question-asker. Would you like lunch now? Have you heard back about this or that piece of evidence? Did you have another nightmare last night?

He’d gotten used to it, to Near. To being the bedrock that an island could rest upon. “Two questions?”

No, he was more of a species imported to Near’s world and being gradually altered by the isolation, evolving to fill his niche. But he had no complaints–it was a quiet, stable life and Near paid him well. He didn’t mind the solitude. “You’re exceeding your daily allotment. I’ll have to demand a raise if this keeps up.”

“I believe I gave you a raise just three months ago. If these demands keep up, I’ll have to find another Watari.” Near deadpanned it but his eyes flicked up briefly, and Rester knew he was joking. Another domino clinked against the terrazzo floors, this one with hand-carved scrimshaw detailing a breaching whale.

Gevanni snorted and turned back to the ship in a bottle he was working on. “Good luck finding someone else to source those pajamas with the specific blend of Pima cotton you prefer. I’ve kept that a secret. Iron-clad job security.” He grinned as he carefully reached a long wire into the bottle to pat down blue and white putty mimicking ocean waves. “So, what’s question number one?”

“Can you tie back my hair? It keeps getting in the way.” Near flicked a long strand over his shoulder but it fell again, dangling dangerously close to his creation. “Mind the–”

“Dominos? Yeah, I’m practically a ninja at this point.” Gevanni pushed his loupe glasses to the top of his head before carefully making his way over spiraling lines of set-up dominos to Near at the center. He knelt and pulled a hair-tie from his pocket, holding it between his teeth as he gathered up all the silvery strands. “Holf spill,” he murmured around the band. Near was stone-still as he made a quick and slightly messy ponytail, leaving some loose hair around the face for twirling. “Better?”

“Much. Thank you.” Near very briefly made eye contact as Gevanni went back to his workbench before looking back to his pile of dominos. He sorted through them for another scrimshaw piece. Gevanni had made a special set for him on his last birthday but he always saved them for the end.

“Mmhm.” Gevanni slid back into his chair and picked up the little ship, a model of a 19th-century whaler. “So what was the second question?”

“I was curious what you were working on.” Near let a domino tumble across his knuckles, back and forth, back and forth. “You’ve never spent that much time on just one ship before.” He caught the domino with his thumb and placed it next in line.

“Oh, so you noticed?” Gevanni held up the little whaler on his palm, clearly proud of the highly detailed craftsmanship. All the masts were down and tied with an array of strings that could be pulled up once it was in the bottle to raise them. “I guess this one’s special since it doesn’t really exist. Thought I’d challenge myself. It’s…well, it’s how I imagine the Pequod to look, the whaling ship in–“

“Moby Dick?” Near stared at the miniature vessel, head slightly cocked as he smoothed a loose strand of hair. “The ship Captain Ahab used to chase his white whale.”

Gevanni smiled. “That’s right. It’s one of my favorite books. Have you read it?”

“Years ago. I remember not liking it very much. The whale killed him in the end.” Near placed the last couple of dominos and let out a long sigh. The moments before flicking the first piece were the ones he both cherished and dreaded. The satisfaction of creation could be drawn out like a monotone note, but when it was finished, the spectacular destruction was often over too soon. So, he hesitated and stood up instead, padding to Gevanni’s workbench to watch more creation.

“I bet you’d like the book more these days. Single-minded obsession to defeat a power past human control? Throwing all caution and sense of self-preservation to the wind? The thrill of the chase?” Gevanni arched a brow. “Can’t tell me that doesn’t sound familiar.”

Near frowned slightly and hunched in on himself. “I suppose you mean L. Or do you characterize me as so foolish?”

“You’re L now.” Gevanni disliked that he had to remind Near of that even now, years after the first L had died. “But yes, it reminds me of what Matsuda told us about your predecessor’s obsession with Kira. I never met the first L, but maybe I can understand him, in a way.” He quoted Melville, "All my means are sane, my motive and my object mad.’ You’re L but you’re not him, and I’m glad for it.”

Near wasn’t sure if he was glad for it or not. So many times over the years he’d compared himself to that avatar and wondered if he could measure up. Drily, “I guess that makes me Ishmael."

"You survived, didn’t you? Lived to tell the tale and learn what he couldn’t."

Gevanni turned back to the little ship, carefully threading another string through the rear-most mast. He worked quietly for a while, cognizant of Near’s focused attention and feeling sorry for bringing up the Kira case. It wasn’t often that Near took such an interest in his own projects, or perhaps the man was merely thinking about what he’d said. “Sit down, if you want to. I’m about to get to the exciting part.”

Near pulled a chair closer and slinked into it, one leg pulled tight to his chest and the other dangling off the end. “Which is the exciting part? Stuffing it into the bottle?”

“That’s part of it. The thrilling part for me is raising the masts and sails inside the bottle.” Gevanni pointed to the flat masts and the multiple lines of string leading from them. “If anything goes wrong or a string gets tangled…or some bit of glue doesn’t hold, well–”

“You’re screwed.” Near smiled faintly and rested his chin on his knee. “Hours of planning for one moment of glory. Or disaster.” It also sounded familiar, so familiar.

“Exactly.” Gevanni chuckled and looked over at Near, pleased to see that small, rare smile. That in itself was the product of so much patience, of hours spent in understanding and the slow building of confidence and trust. “Once I get the ship in, would you like to raise the sails?”

Near’s eyes widened and he rocked slightly in the chair. That was Gevanni’s moment of glory and he deserved it after so much time and hard work. The inlaid wood, the meticulous paint, the delicately carved and articulated ship’s wheel capped in brass. The hand-sewn sails and gold script that read Pequod on the ship’s side. Each detail was evidence that someone else had built this and he would only be stealing the best part, swooping in for the end of the trick.

“You built it so you should do it.” It didn’t help that he was worried about making a mistake and ruining it at the last moment. How would it even fit? Despite the masts lying flat, it seemed impossible that the ship would make it inside the bottle. “I don’t know how.”

Gevanni sensed Near’s hesitation and uncertainty, recognizing the subtle tics of anxiety. “I can show you. You’re great at stuff like this.” He motioned to the vast lines and towers of dominos filling the room. “Plus, I trust you.”

When Near didn’t answer, he turned back to the ship, placing a small line of glue at the bottom and oh-so-carefully maneuvering it into the narrow mouth of the glass bottle and onto the ‘waves’ of translucent blue putty. It was a very tight fit and when it stuck down in the right position, he let out a sigh of relief.

“Not bad, huh?” The strings dangled from the bottle’s mouth as he held it up to show Near. “Offer still stands.”

Near wanted to do it, to try. Honestly, he wanted to ask Gevanni to show him how to build one of his own, how to trump the rigid enclosure and build something impossible inside. To raise it up not by magic but by human ingenuity and patience. A creation not to destroy but to keep.

“Alright.” His fingers moved from his hair to tentatively touch the white strings hanging from the bottle’s mouth. “All of them?”

“Just these.” Gevanni pointed out several lines connected to the three masts. “Don’t yank, just pull slowly until you feel resistance and I’ll tape them up.”

“If it works.”

Gevanni laughed quietly. “It’ll work. Stop stalling.”

Near mumbled, “I’m not stalling,” but stalled a moment more before gently tugging the strings. He made a soft noise in the back of his throat when all three masts raised in unison, perfectly aligned and straight. He smiled as Gevanni secured the strings, then slid off the chair to gaze at the bottle from the side. This floating world, this impossible thing that’s bottled the sea. “I can see why you like these so much.”

“It passes the time.” Gevanni felt warm inside since it was rare that they connected like this, despite all the time spent in each other’s company. He glued the strings to the ship with a long wire and then cut them, leaving no trace of how it had really been made. Setting it on the bench to dry, he said, “Would you like to have it? I have about a dozen. I mean, if you want it.”

“As a warning against white whales?” Near smirked and climbed back into the chair. He fingered the hem of his specially-ordered Pima cotton pajamas, the exact blend he preferred. “Or for the memory of Ahab?”

“Neither? Or…maybe both.” Gevanni knew that so much had changed for Near when Kira died. Monster or not, that moment of destruction had ultimately felt unsatisfying. He knew Near struggled with assuming the name and reputation of L, a legacy that had become so confused in the mind of a world that would never know two L’s had died and a third now had to make peace with that. It was easier to bottle ships than emotions.

Mildly, “Or maybe just because it’s something we built together.” It was odd, but somehow it would mean a lot to him for Near to have it. “How about it?”

Near found a loose string at the hem of his pants and yanked it, snapping the thread. He got up and crouched beside the winding, spiraling rows of dominos and pressed a slender finger against the first one. That catalyst set off the reaction, the staccato clack clack clack! that echoed in the high-ceilinged room. It was over in seconds and silence crept in again.

“I’d like that.”

-End-

[The title comes from a quote in Moby Dick: "A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy. All noble things are touched with that.” It reminded me of Gevanni’s rather solitary hobby as well as the occupation of solving cases as L.]

#fanfiction #death note #submission #near #gevanni #ratings: general #kiranatrix #resilicns #Near's Bday Finale 2k21

30 notes · View notes

buzzykrueger · 3 years

Text

The moment when Gon’s priorities start to change - ch. 64 and 65

While working in my meta of the separation scene (which will take some time still, sorry), I came across these chapters again: 64 and 65. Two of my favorite. As a linguistic and literature student, I’m always trying to catch hints in Togashi’s writing - we know he carefully thinks about each word used. Have a good read and keep in mind is just a thought - and the dialogues and panels chosen to be showed in here are meaningful. This is not a deep research with theory references, but just some of the various examples of how artistic and textual strategies work in Hunter x Hunter, that they are not random and how even the slightest changing of words and switching perspectives can impact the story in order to provoke a reaction, meaning something to the audience, leading us to a way.

Anyways.

The boys had just finished the Heaven’s Arena, with tons of hints of how they would bond more and more, for example, Killua wanting to evolve with Gon in the same pace regarding both the Floors and the Nen training. The scene where Killua and Gon are meditating together, Killua getting more protective of Gon, as they soon become a pair.

They take a short well deserved break: it’s time to visit Whale Island. After all, Gon came to Kukuroo Mountain, and Killua wants to recollect what is home to Gon, too. Fair enough, it’s how I understand he’s self-inviting.

When they arrive. we are introduced to the fact that Gon, someone who deeply cares about his family, hasn’t called once since he passed the Exam. Of course, he got extremely focused on rescuing Killua and then training with him in the Arena, getting distracted. Not that he doesn’t care about Mito or anything, but he’s found something that kept his focus real heard. And Mito imagines what it is.

Their dialogue and her glance right after that hint why she can’t even be angry at Gon - because she’s not looking at him, only. Every time it would make sense to show only Gon but we get to see Killua by his side, too, is a visual message to the readers. Mito could’ve only looked at Gon, ‘cause she just met Killua and he’s not related to her. But she observes the meaning of his presence, even if Gon does not say it.

The star gazing scene, one of the most important in the story and something we are very familiar with so, sorry to bring it up again - I know you all must be tired of seeing the same panels (but I adore it and I will keep using it). It starts with scenery that are important memories of Gon’s life when he was alone, now bringing a new meaning to them, someone to share with: Killua.

When Killua approached Gon’s plans from now on, and after getting his answer, he questions what he should do. Gon says that he should come with him.

And here is another example how a simple choice of words - not only the words itself, but the timing when they’re said and the position, the “breath” between then, or even their absence - can mean so much as fantastic and complex storytelling strategies. Because Gon only gets to know that Killua, actually, doesn’t have any plan AFTER he asks him to join. He’s not asking because Killua don’t have it - he didn’t know that before he asked - but because he wants him to stick together. This is why it’s important that this request was said and showed before Killua elaborates on his feelings, so we can know that it’s not because “since you have nothing to do”. And fun fact: Killua is the only friend that Gon actually insists to not leave. The chapter when Kurapika and Leorio head to their goals, Gon just said “oh, already? - okay, see you/good luck/something like that”, with a honest smile. And I know Gon says “see you around” to Killua at the separation scene, but it’s also the first time he's shown unsatisfied with this decision, not smiling at all, implying he’s not okay.

Continuing, its Gon putting Killua in a place that no other belongs. It’s a re-signification of Killua, Gon’s favorite places, his home and their future - everything starts to change and take form to the audience.

To Gon, it’s about sticking together because they like hanging out. This is the main reason for his request, since it’s the first thing he says about it - and further he adds their individual reasons, to be more convincing, but the core is what it is.

As we know, Mito overheard everything, specially the moment when they start to compliment her and Gon says she is his real mother. Then, later, we have chapter 65, now a re-signification of Gon’s relationship with Ging and Mito.

After accidentally hearing his words, we can interpret that she’s not that insecure anymore about losing Gon to his new found career. It was bittersweet when Gon left, after all “he is indeed his son”. But she realizes he’s different from Ging - he comes back, he values her, he could be in search of something he doesn’t have like news from his biological mom but instead, he chooses to embrace what he does have. Gon can’t even imagine how impactful his reassuring words were, and it’s also a opportunity for Mito to let out the resent on Ging and the Hunters, giving place to finally trust Gon.

And she tells him what the absence of Ging means to her. How she got hurt, but still wanted to have him around. And that’s when Gon takes Ging out of his place in his heart: it’s time to put him in his true place and make space for those who stay: Mito and Killua.

We don’t need to give titles and special places to those who are undeserved of it and should just perform a specific role in our lives as we let them. Mito herself craved for Ging’s attention, always running after him, seeing him only by his back, hiding/missing just for him to come to her aid. Gon realizes that it’s what he’s doing - he does not have someone to call a father, because Ging never make up to this title. He downgrades Ging to the same person Mito knew.

And now, even if he still feels the urge to prove Ging he’s not weak and undeserved of attention, company and worth, he definitely is not the same person and does not want to be. Ging is not the “dad who I want to follow the same steps” anymore. And then, we go back to Killua:

“But Bea, what does this have to do with Killua? We’re only seeing Mito and Gon there!” Actually not! We’re seeing Killua too, but not physically. We get to connect Killua to this scene by a simple line Gon said one chapter before, about Killua’s meaning to his life:

To Gon, it’s enough just to know this answer. Why? This line is VERY specific, literally the same thing he said to Killua in the previous chapter. He chose to bring it to table. It’s a soft - and literary - way to say his priority changed and to connect Killua to his objective. He reclaims Mito as his real mother, downgrades Ging AND shows what it comes first at his mind now - wanting to know if Ging had the same thing he has with Killua, stating his friend’s importance. “Look, Ging, how far I got. Who I took with me. Did you have this?”

And this could easily be sided with the end of Greed Island, when Gon says the first thing he’ll do when finding Ging is to introduce Killua. ‘Cause in his main goal now, the first things that come up to his mind aren’t being just like Ging and reunite with him anymore - it’s the “friend around my age”, it’s “Killua” and everything that refers to him. It changed. Gon was behind something he didn’t have, his father presence and some pride, and comes back with something even better he didn’t have either: a true friendship, who wants to be there and assure his worth.

And for me, that is the reason Togashi ends Mito and Gon’s conversation with a specific panel, not of them, not with a picture of Ging, not with the sky only... but with this:

Killua. A person not mentioned in their dialogue directly, and someone who’s not family and isn’t in the same room as them. But that is there, respecting his privacy with Mito. This is there for us to catch. It’s not a direct exchange between Gon and Killua, they’ll still do it in their way, because its meant for us: when two characters are not showed together in the same situation/moment, but are referred directly or indirectly, it’s a writing choice that means “it’s for you, the readers, to connect this.”

Togashi could've never put the “did he have friends his age?” line that wouldn’t make a difference - we would go with this Gon “new approach on Ging” because of how Mito feels, and would be satisfying enough. But the author, with this sentence used in the previous chapter and this panel, it’s reclaiming the audience to catch Gon’s new focus and remind us of Killua, that he’s there, relaxed, patient - and does not intend to leave.

EDIT: I truly think Mito will play a major role in the realization of Gon’s feelings. She’s, since the beginning, an important person and a cog who makes his significations move, first subconsciously, now more actively - but I’ll elaborate more on that in future posts.

Not deep, not a serious research, but something fun to elaborate that is implied in text, i’m used to catch this stuff and seeing by this perspective by dealing with literature classes on a daily basis. Does not mean I’m an expert or that I’m right, but that is something I’m quite sure its on purpose. Hope you all enjoyed!

#hxh #hunter x hunter #meta #hxh meta #killua #gon #ging freecss

315 notes · View notes

spongebob-connoisseur · 3 years

Note

What are your thoughts on the Birthday special?

I had to rewrite this because tumblr deleted my answer like 3 times. I hate this shit app but here we go aaaagain.

I really adored it because it introduced us to Slappy my beloved💗🌸💗🌸💗🌷💗🌷💕💖🌸💗🌷🌷🌸💗💕💗🌸🌷💗🌷💕💗💕🌷🌸

My heart beats for youuuuu✨

Jk jk but I do remember my initial reaction to him was basically "tf is that thing" oh how times have changed.

Spongebob's Big Birthday Blowout is easily the superior anniversary special. Truth or square kinda sucked ass (no offense to the people who enjoyed it tho) When Patchy said he hoped to see us again for the 20th anniversary special, my 9 year old self was like "you better because WHAT WAS THAT"

anyways they well delivered with this special.

I really enjoyed this episode, it was amazing because you don't see SB and friends interact wirh the human world. Yeah they've been to the human world surface for the SB movies but often times just for a mission. They never had a chance to really interact and explore with the human world which is what makes this special so enticing. The bikini bottom is a reclusive world with no contact with the outside so its their first time encountering human culture and contact. Like aliens in a way.

Its also really amusing that they're getting wrong information from the tour guide since it shows how fish folk makes sense of things they don't quite understand about the surface world. It's just guesses, even though those guesses are very wrong.

Also I've really grown to like Rube. He's AMAZING✨

It was also very cute how the tour bus trip is just Sponge and Patrick. We need more episodes of their friendship!!

I also think it takes place from the fishes's POV and the human world isn't that weird. There probably isn't a gorilla mask office meeting😔

That's just how they make sense of the hustle and bustle of the human world. Which is a bit obvious enough. Either that or this is an alternate reality where the weirdness properties of random land leaked into the human world as well.

Anyways shout out to can-o beans. A true icon.

Oh also this episode raises the morality question of if its ethical to own fish. Probably as a joke but it was unusual. I actually wanted to talk about it! In the episode Feral Friends, Neptune's moon turns the fish folk of the bikini bottom into less evolved versions of themselves which is pretty much the realistic versions of fish in the wild. In SB's Big Birthday Blowout, they end up at a place that sells pet fish, those fish also look really realistic. Which was basically like encountering a horror show for the fish in the tour bus. They recognize the fish in the tanks as their own people. Despite looking different. Patrick even has a crush on one of them. How does that work??? I have a lot of questions about that scene. I'll dig into it another time.

The Trusty Slab is the best part of the episode. They are exactly the SB characters. Tom Kenny really embodies Spongebob (which is obvious since he's been playing this character since before I was born) This is the most acceptable Humanbob out there. Nothing can top this. The energy is unmatched.

Same goes for all the characters. It's kinda funny how the voice actors all kinda look like their characters. Rodger Bumpass looks like Squidward. it's too funny to unsee.

Also Charlton (human Plankton) is adorable and the icing on the cake! Trying to rob the Trusty Slab but failing. This wouldn't be complete without Plankton. Though I wish Karen could have been there too :(

Though how would human Karen work? Why am I imagining one of those AI gf app thingies. That's a terrifying thought.

B plot for this episode is where a lot of the flaws come in. It falls pretty flat because it's just Sandy dealing with people fighting and causing a mess for the party which gets old fast. I liked seeing everyone's different ideas for the party and certainly they'd disagree but often times it feels like it's only Sandy holding this party together and dragging everyone around since they're so nonfunctional. Sandy deserved better.

I did enjoy the fact that they brought back old characters whether nonverbal or whatever. The guy from rock bottom, the whale from ripped pamts. Even princess Mindy! I wish they brought back Stanley though. There was a lot of guest stars in this episode too! Though unlike Truth or Square, they don't take much of a huge focus of the story. If you notice them then its just a fun thing to see. If you don't then you didn't really miss anything.

Spongebob's parents also wondered about Spange's huge array of friends. They barely know their own son lol

Regardless of the B plot, the episode was still really enjoyable. When spongebob came back from the trip and the end of the episode where they sing happy birthday to him was so so adorable!! They even redid the theme song just for his birthday! I love it!

Oh also! It was so satisfying to see Patchy meet spongebob. I've waited my whole life for this. But it does raise a question. Patchy is a spongebob (the tv show) super fan. Patchy actually got to visit spongebob (the character) so in universe there's both a show and the real character existing at the same time? I feel like this would fit into skin theory 🤔

This episode was such a joy to watch. They didn't reveal spongebob's age but we know it since his birthday was revealed on his drivers license. He's getting old. this episode actually aired the day before SB's actual birthday. Mainly to avoid it conflating with Bastille Day for international releases. But that also means this episode aired on Tom Kenny's birthday. Think of it as a birthday present to the irl spange. I think that's just a neat fact to share.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the special too!

#Ask #Princess-Unipeg #spongebob #spongebob squarepants #sb #spongebon squarepants #the spongebob connoisseur #spongebob meme

20 notes · View notes

ecoamerica · 25 days

Text

youtube

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

7K notes · View notes

ellaofoakhill · 2 years

Text

Fun Scifi/Fantasy Trick:

I’ve had a thought in my head for some time now, that my brother kinda helped my put into words, for a little trick you can do for your worldbuilding--especially soft worldbuilding--to a) immediately help ground your audience in your world; and b) weird them out as they gradually figure out that the thing grounding them isn’t grounded in the way they thought it was.

I’ll use an example from my own work, The Fairy Tales of Ella and Meline. From the first story, Frog Legs Soup, fairy horses are a thing: Coarser is a fairy horse that lives with Ella, and along with being her friend, also functions as an--entirely voluntary--means of transport.

Now, when you think of a horse, you probably think of a large, fast quadrupedal mammal with a long, flowing tail and mane, a single toe on each foot, which is usually herbivorous (I heard an account a few years ago about a man, part of Napoleon’s attempted conquest of Russia, who was eaten by a horse, and part of me refuses to believe that isn’t true; if you’ve ever met a horse who’s a complete whackadoo, or a flatout asshole, you will understand my conviction).

And here’s the thing: at least on his own world, Coarser only ticks three of those eight boxes.

Fairy horses are relatively large animals on Fey, they are certainly capable of moving very quickly, and they are herbivorous. What I don’t explicitly say in the story anywhere is that Coarser isn’t even a vertebrate, let alone a mammal. The world of Fey is a hypothetical Earth about 200 million years in our future, give or take a few hundred millennia. In that time, most mammals and birds have fallen out of the spotlight, as have flowering plants. What has replaced them, you ask? One major group is descended from mudskippers, ‘cuz who wouldn’t wanna be? And a lot of animal groups which are currently on the sidelines have moved much closer to centre stage; sea lions evolved into the whales of the future, and lots of creatures have grown considerably larger, such as penguin descendants now 30+ feet tall, crabs, spiders, and scorpions have species the size of a lion or bigger, gymnosperms have made a serious comeback, and brown algae, which you might recognize today as various kelps, have made the move onto dry land, competing with plants as we know them.

But from whom, you might ask, remembering our initial example, are fairy horses descended? The reason I used the kelps as my last example was because they weren’t the only lifeforms that rose from the waves in that time. Cephalopods did, too; in particular, the descendants of cuttlefish.

And cuttlefish have not four, but ten limbs. TEN! But before you ask, no, fairy horses do not have ten legs; well, not ten appendages that still act as legs, anyway. Two of those ten limbs act as a pair of tails, displaying mood and assisting balance. And two more, on the head, are small tentacles acting much like tongues, that taste and manipulate food before passing it into the mouth. So that leaves six limbs for locomotion, which act mostly the same as a horse’s four (I imagine with six limbs, fairy horses are not necessarily faster, but more stable when they run, and their gait is probably smoother, but I digress). They also retain the cuttlefish’s ability to change the colour of their skin, which is an extremely useful means of camouflage and communication, and is relevant to fairy horses because they have no fur; they have a layer of styrofoam-like tissue full of air pockets beneath their skin that insulates them. There’s a bit of a Wizard of Oz reference there, yes you caught it, good job.

Getting back to our initial point, you’re probably asking the question: why am I calling this colour-changing, six-legged, tentacled monster with two tails a horse? 2 reasons:

I hadn’t thought that far ahead when I first started writing tftem, and the idea of Fey being a future Earth, in contrast to Nidd being a past Earth, hadn’t occurred to me yet, but I like the parallel.

And while Coarser might not look like the blase mammalian horse you would immediately recognize--and this is the important part--he fills a very similar role in his world.

So it might be better to differentiate between a biological horse and a functional horse, in this instance: a biological horse looks like a horse, and acts like one, where a functional horse only acts like a horse. Sort of (I’ve yet to write of a fairy horse eating anyone, but who knows?).

So, once I do a bit more editing, you’re probably going to notice things about Coarser, after I’ve established him as a horse, albeit a fairy one: a casual reference to a left middle hoof here, a touch on his left tail there, perhaps something startles him and he bites his left tentacle. And the colour-changing has a lot of potential, too. But it’ll be gently worked in, slipped in here and there, spaced apart, so only gradually do you come to realize that, while Coarser acts like a horse, behaviourally and in his role in the society he’s a part of, he is not the kind of horse you would immediately recognize as one.

I chose to do this mainly for the following reason: my fey, in many ways, do not resemble the fey-like beings of folklore from across the world. In many ways, they’re quite human, at least with the story told from their perspective. But a common theme with the fey and their like in myth and folklore is that, superficially, at a quick glance, they might resemble a person, and unless you know what to look for, you might pass them by without realizing their true nature. But pay close attention, and you will start to notice things that mark them as odd, even alien, but none of it is overt, and you will start to feel a sort of mystery, or wonder, of something that is fundamentally different, or at least dramatically different from what you thought it was. Something very like this is used in horror stories a lot, actually.

And you can use this, too! You could refer to that affectionate, medium-sized domesticated animal your protagonist is accompanied by all over the place by an alien-sounding name, and so mark it as a weird dog-insert. Or you could call it a dog, and do what I did, alluding to details of its makeup that do not match what a dog looks like, to convey that there is something strange about this creature, but it is only strange to the audience.

A fascinating idea that you could use, if you have multiple viewpoint characters--at least one who’s human, and one who’s not--is to have the human foreigner refer to the creature by its alien name, and the alien call it a dog. To the alien, that’s the role this creature fills, and it conveys a comfortable part of everyday life so normal you might only occasionally make any comment on it, and it’ll help ground the reader in what might otherwise be a very weird culture and way of thinking. To the human, the creature is decidedly not a dog, though it might act very like one, and so you can have the human use the alien’s own name for the creature to underscore that difference, both to the human character, and to us. And you could really play around with both perspectives bouncing off each other, until you realize both words and both parties are referring to the same thing.

Granted, there is potential to confuse your audience, especially if you’re throwing a lot at them early on in your work, so use this technique carefully. Just a fun idea I’ve tried, and am going to work more into my future stories. Give it a try; Maybe you’ll enjoy it, too.

#writing #fantasy #scifi #tftem #alien cultures #alien creatures #is there a name for this?#I feel like there should be a name for this #fun writing tricks

5 notes · View notes

kittyprincessofcats · 3 years

Text

RWBY Volume 8, Episodes 8-12

All caught up with RWBY now! (Except for the premium only episode.)

So, two things first: 1. From now on, my blog will no longer be spoiler free for RWBY! I don’t have premium access, so no spoilers for that, but beyond that, I might now reblog spoilers for everything that’s been released to the public. Blacklist “#RWBY spoilers” if you don’t want to see them.

2. I was going to ask what the spoiler policy in this fandom in general is when it comes to premium access. From what I’ve seen, Youtubers usually wait a week before uploading their reaction videos, which I appreciate – but here on tumblr almost no one seems to hold back. I saw a spoiler for “Creation” before it was released publicly. The day episode 13 was released for premium access, I had to unfollow people for posting untagged spoilers for it. And when I went into a RWBY-related tag for one second, I saw a really big spoiler that put me in a very sour mood because it also happened to be very aggressively worded against fans of a certain character (basically, along the lines of “I’m glad X bad thing happened to Y character because I hate them and their fans”). So, that scared the shit out of me and I ended up looking up more specific spoilers about what exactly happened because I wouldn’t have been able to sleep otherwise. So, from what I’ve seen, this fandom’s spoiler policy is just “fuck anyone who doesn’t have premium access” 😒. Always nice to see people being so considerate.

With that said, let’s get into my thoughts on episodes 8-12. Under the cut, because unlike some people, I try to be considerate of others who might want to avoid spoilers.

- So, the Hound really was a person. Specifically, a person with silver eyes and that’s probably what happened to Summer. THANKS, I HATE IT. This is exactly what I feared it would be and what I didn’t want it to be. (I don’t want Ruby and Yang to have to fight and kill their grimm-ified mom, that’s too sad, okay?)

- I love that Whitley really came through and came up with a plan for evacuating everyone! He’s a good bean after all! And that he managed to press that button on the computer before running from the Hound? Amazing.

- Willow Schnee being one hell of a mama bear and summoning a thing to protect Whitley was epic. She was so close to breaking down before that, but then her child was in danger and she just jumped into action right away. Protective mom instincts ftw!

- Blake’s talk about how she looks up to Ruby and how she herself lost the youthful optimism Ruby still has was SO sweet! (Also, Ladybug is an underrated ship/friendship and I really don’t get why people say they never interact? Have you all just forgotten volume 1 and how Bumbleby’s first meeting happened because Yang was trying to wingman Ruby who was trying to befriend Blake??)

- Penny fighting the virus from the inside was amazing, she did so well! I also loved seeing Nora encourage her (and echo Blake’s earlier words back to her).

- Unrelated to these episodes specifically, but I tried to think about who my favourite RWBY charactes even are right now, and I find it super hard to narrow down because I love so many of them, but if I tried to somewhat narrow it down, then (in no specific order because don’t ask me to also come up with an order): all of Team RWBY (though Blake is a personal favourite), Ilia, Penny, Salem, Cinder. (But then again, I also love Winter and Qrow and Robyn and... you get it, it’s hard to narrow down. Oh, and of course Pyrrha, but... you know.)

- “Witch” was honestly my favourite episode of the bunch. That one was just so full of epic stuff. (And now I’m wondering if Salem being one of my favourite characters has anything to do with my love for witches. I used to be obsessed with witches as a kid. In every story I read that had a witch, the witch was always my favourite character.)

- Yang and her team sure found a way inside that whale fast! Also, really handy that Ren’s semblance evolved just in time for when they needed it. But hey, I don’t want to complain about convenient plot stuff too much. Sometimes the heroes are allowed to have a little bit of good luck.

- Hazel listening to Oscar and deciding to get both him AND Emerald out of there was amazing! He really does have a soft spot for kids and wasn’t kidding about not wanting more kids to die – we love to see it! I also think it makes for an interesting parallel that Hazel decided to do this right as Ironwood was sending students to fight on the front lines and Marrow was calling it out.

- I really liked Ren telling Yang she doesn’t have to hide her fear behind jokes. Ren being able to see emotions is going to bring about so many more good moments, I just know it!

- Emerald and “Hazel’s” talk with Salem gets so much better when you know “Hazel” is actually Oscar – Emerald has gotten so much better at illusions and fooled Salem herself! That’s impressive!

- It’s really practical that Ren could sense Emerald’s fear. But also, the group really didn’t have the time to discuss if Emerald was trustworthy – they needed to get out of there asap.

- The way Salem spits out the word “semblance” when she talks to Emerald shows again that she not only underestimates these “new humans” and their powers, but also considers them inferior. It’s a nice little detail how just her tone when she says that word says so much about her worldview.

- Yang straight-up running up to Salem and blowing her up was epic. It didn’t last of course, but it was still a super bold and epic move. I’ve talked before about how cool Yang is and she just keeps getting cooler.

- Yang calling Salem out was amazing and epic, too! And when she referred to Summer Rose as “my mom” that made me tear up just a bit 😢. (I really don’t like Salem’s smile when she says “her again”, though. I don’t want grimm-ified Summer, I really don’t want it, okay? keep it far away from me where I won’t have to see it.)

- I’m a bit sad about Hazel’s death, but it was a really fitting end for his character and a really cool way to go out. The way he looked at all of those kids in danger (proving again that that’s what it’s about for him), whispered “No more Gretchens” to Oscar, punched Salem in the face as she was about to hurt Emerald, injected all of those crystals into his skin (which looked epic, by the way), told Emerald to go, fought an epic fight against Salem and then grabbed her and set himself and her on fire, burning her like a witch – it was epic stuff! RIP Hazel, you died as a hero and went out in an incredibly epic way!

- Hazel’s sacrifice must have been super tough on Emerald. He died protecting her (and JOYR) and it worked. She got away from Salem, but only because someone else, a friend, died for her. Not only must it be awful for her to lose Hazel, she probably also blames herself. (And, as I’ve seen others point out, it was probably the first time in her life an adult did something to protect her. Wow. Someone get this girl therapy, please.)

- The whale getting blown up was an absolutely epic moment. From the music to the cinematography, I loved everything about it. (That said, I will miss the whale. RIP coolest villain lair ever.)

- I loved Watts’ speech to Cinder – and I’m saying this as someone who became a huge fan of Cinder this volume. I love her, but I also love roasting her, and a lot of what Watts said was stuff she desperately needed to hear. I honestly didn’t even like Watts before that moment, but that speech might have made me like him just a tiny bit. The way he just laughed when she dangled him from a building, the way he spelled it out for her that her methods haven’t been working and threw her failures in her face, the ending with calling her “a bloody migraine” – Like I said, I’m a fan of Cinder, but that was glorious and cathartic and beautiful to witness. But what makes it really perfect is Cinder’s reaction: The fact that you’d expect her to kill him or at least scream at him, but instead she spares him and just sits down and cries. I really love what they’ve been doing with Cinder this volume and that they’re finally showing her as someone way deeper than just a power-hungry villain.

- In general, let me quickly talk about Cinder, because even without having seen the last two episodes I can already tell you that she’s my standout character / favourite character of the season. (It was Ilia for Volume 5, Salem for Volume 6, Penny for Volume 7 – and now it’s Cinder.) I said back in my post about Volume 5 that I wish they’d do more with her because after becoming rather interesting in Volume 4 they just went back to making her a pretty flat villain – and I officially have to eat my words and apologize to RoosterTeeth right now! This volume proved to me that they know what they’re doing with Cinder and explained so much about her. I’m sorry for ever doubting the writing. I now want to go back and rewatch the whole show while paying more attention to Cinder and I can’t wait to see where her arc goes from here (yes, I want an eventual redemption, and what about it?). This volume is obviously setting up something big for her – I just have no idea what it is. And at the end of the day, she’s still the Maiden of Choice. She’s the key to the Beacon relic, and that’s going to become important eventually.

- Oh, and can I mention, just by the way, that I think Cinder looks amazing? I don’t understand all the people who say they miss her red outfits when this is clearly her best look yet. The black eyepatch, the cape, the earrings, the short hair, the high boots, the shorts instead of a dress, all the black – this is her absolute best look, period.

- I’ve also noticed that the scene between her and Watts is the first time Cinder has referred to Penny by name. She’s always referred to her with phrases like “some toy” or “Polendina’s creation” before, but this time she just called her “Penny Polendina”, then “Penny” again, and asked Watts how she’s supposed to take Penny’s power “if she’s dead” (not “destroyed”, which is what Watts said, but “dead” – something you say about a person, not a machine). I think somewhere down the line, Cinder has started to see Penny as a person and respect her as the Winter Maiden. Maybe it’s because of how Penny won the fight at Amity, or maybe (though this might be wishful thinking on my part) it’s because Penny questioned why Cinder serves Salem and showed her and Emerald mercy.

- Also, side-note: While I loved Watts’ speech, it sure is bold of him to call Cinder entitled when his own villain origin story is getting overlooked for a science project.

- Neo is an amazing little troll and I love her. From stealing the lamp and skipping along the ruins of the whale happily to those texts to Cinder, all of her moments were brilliant and hilarious.

- Some characters not just forgiving Emerald is totally fair and realistic. But, as I said before (and as Oscar also points out), they don’t have to. People think a “redemption” – or let’s just call it switching sides instead of using such a loaded term – has to include everyone’s forgiveness, but it doesn’t. If Yang and Jaune never want to personally forgive Emerald, that’s okay. They don’t need to forgive her to recognize that she’s changed and work with her. And, as Oscar and Ren point out, Emerald’s abilities would be very useful to have on their side. So, personal feelings are fine and all, but right now they don’t have the luxury to dismiss a potentially very useful ally. (And same for Oz, by the way. It’s fine if they’re still mad at him, but they also need his help.)

- Also, have I already said that I’m very happy for Emerald? Because I’m very happy for Emerald for getting out of there! (Mercury’s and then Cinder’s redemption next, please!)

- F*ck Harriet for trying to get Winter in trouble for letting JYR go. I’m hating her more every second. And then she seriously said “Who cares?” about Ironwood’s plan to nuke Mantle? She’s the most unlikable of them all.

- Everyone’s reunions were so sweet! I loved Ruby and Yang hugging 😭. And Yang cupping Blake’s cheek and their forehead touch had me all 🥰 🥰 🥰.

- After he threatened to nuke Mantle, I hope we can all agree that Ironwood is a straight-up villain now. The most infuriating part is that he didn’t even have to do anything! Whitley and Weiss had figured out a way to save everyone in Mantle and the SDC ships to evacuate people were already there. All Ironwood had to do was let them evacuate everyone to Atlas, and then Penny would have opened the vault willingly and Ironwood could have used the staff to raise Atlas as planned. Problem solved! He should have just sat there and ate his food – but he was so pissed about things not going his way (or maybe he just genuinely hates Mantle that much) that he thought sabotaging the rescue plan and threatening genocide was a better option.

- I loved Marrow’s arc in these episodes and how you could tell more and more that his conscience was making him turn against Ironwood. First he questioned Winter when she was going to nuke the whale before JOYR were back, then he seemed shocked when he thought they were dead, then he tried to talk sense into the other Ace Ops after Ironwood’s ultimatum, and then he straight-up called out Ironwood himself. That last one was dangerous though, and he was lucky Winter was quick enough to jump in and pretend to arrest him, because Ironwood was going to just shoot him in the back.

- Speaking of, I wonder how long Winter has been planning to double-cross Ironwood. How long was she already disagreeing with him, but waiting for the right moment to make a move? Either way, I’m glad she was there to save Marrow.

- The Renora confession scene was so sweet and got me a little choked up 😢. I’m glad they sorted out their issues and told each other how they feel. But like I said before, I think Nora’s arc of trying to find out who she is without Ren is really good and important and Ren respecting that was really good and important as well. It was just a very wholesome scene. Also, I like that we got a little bit more backstory for Nora (her mom abandoned her? that’s awful), and Jaune awkwardly leaving the room was hilarious.

- Robyn telling Qrow he’s a better Huntsman than Clover because he chose to do the right thing was a really important moment for Qrow, imo. (And just a side-note: I’m sure most Fair Game shippers are pretty chill – and I’m a strong believer in ‘ship and let ship’ – but a certain subset of them is starting to get on my nerves with how they ignore Clover’s canon character and story (acting like he would have rebelled against Ironwood if he were alive as if the whole reason he’s dead wasn’t precisely because he cared more about Ironwood’s orders than doing the right thing) and how they make every new plot point about their ship somehow (Oscar’s semblance? Better be a time-travel thing so Clover can come back. Staff of Creation? Better be able to bring people back from the dead so Clover can come back.) It’s so annoying.)

- Yang and Ruby’s talk about their mom was really intense. Ruby’s been holding all of these feelings in for so long, so seeing her say out loud what we’re all fearing (that Summer was turned into a Grimm) and seeing both her and Yang break down over it – that was a lot. I loved seeing Yang comfort Ruby and tell her that her plan for Amity wasn’t useless. Their sisterly bond is so sweet.

- Penny asking Ruby to kill her was another really intense moment. The look on Ruby’s face in that moment really said it all. Ruby has been through so much, has lost Penny before, so hearing that request – even though they fortunately didn’t have to go through with it – must have still been a lot for her.

- I really loved Emerald’s cute “newly reformed villain” moments. (“You guys have been getting your asses kicked… some of that my fault” & “I’m just going to be super pissed if you all finally decide to give up the moment I switch sides.”) I’ve said before (in my She-Ra posts) that my favourite part of any redemption arc is the “former enemies, now awkward around each other” stuff, so this was right up my alley!

- “The girl who fell through the world” was referenced twice now. Between that, the image of everyone falling in the opening, and the lyrics “sometimes it’s worth it all to risk the fall”, I’m going to predict that someone – most likely all of Team RWBY – will fall into that void and potentially end up in a different world.

- The group’s plan to defeat Ironwood, stop the bomb, and get to the vault was amazing all-around. I love the parts Emerald and Winter got to play in it, I love how we saw the plan’s execution before seeing how they came up with it and I love how everyone got to help, even the Schnees and Klein. I also love that the hole Oscar blasted through the ground of Atlas became relevant again.

- The design of the vault and the door are really nice and now I wonder what the other two are going to look like.

- Saving Penny like that was super risky, but they really were out of options. Just the fact that Ruby had to be quick enough to use her semblance and get to the staff before the virus kills Penny… jeesh, that was close.

- Ambrosius is a super fun character! I love that he looked at Penny and said “I’d love to meet whoever did this.” Also, the staff seems more useful than the lamp. The lamp only lets you ask three questions per century, while the staff can be used as often as you want – as long as you’re okay with whatever it previously created disappearing.

- I honestly still don’t completely understand what Penny is now. Is she meant to be human now? Or is she just a being made up of pure aura? How does this work? Ambrosius only created the copy that destroyed herself, so what’s left is Penny’s aura – but she somehow also has a body now? I guess we’ll find out more about what exactly this means later.

- Also, while I wasn’t sure how I feel about this decision re:Penny at first, now that I’ve thought about it for a bit, I think it works. It fits with the Pinocchio story, and I like that they didn’t phrase it as “she’s a real girl now”, but as “this is the girl who’s been in there all along”. Also, Penny saying “wow” after hugging Ruby and then going on a hugging spree was adorable.

- Watching “herself” self-terminate must have been really traumatic, though. Even if that copy was just a robot, it was still a disturbing scene.

- Who shut down communications in the middle of Jaune’s broadcast? I’m assuming it was Cinder, Watts and Neo.

- The whole dimension with the doorways that Ambrosius created looks amazing. (A while before watching this episode, I wondered if Raven could theoretically save Atlas by getting everyone to safety with her portals. It might not have been Raven, but I’m glad I was at least onto something.)

- “Do not fall.” So, about that… they’re all falling in the opening, (and we referenced “the girl who fell through the world” twice now), so I don’t have a good feeling about that. Also, Watts has been dangled from somewhere high twice now, so the third time has to be when he actually falls down.

- And Cinder is there to ruin the plan because of course she is.

13 notes · View notes

marithlizard · 3 years

Text

First Impressions: RWBY v8c9, “Witch”

"Witch", huh? Presumably Salem. Are we going to get more backstory lore? Because YES PLEASE.

The Atlas army vs. the whale whose teeth loom like mountains on the horizon. They look like toys. I can't help thinking these soldier mooks equal any Huntsman in courage, if not in skill. And this is the first real large-scale action any of them have seen - that anyone in the world has seen in their lifetimes.

eyy Ren has gotten over the snappishness as well as the despairing angst. Suddenly gaining control of his evolving Semblance must help a lot with the feelings of powerlessness. (And though we haven't seen him use it on Jaune or Yang, I'm thinking being able to know for certain how much your friends care about you and have your back is a source of power in itself.)

They're discussing fairy tales MY HEART

Ozpin continuing to confirm he has handed over the reins completely to Oscar. I don't like this about the accelerating merge, though. It feels like we're going to lose Oz very soon. And yet, Jinn's vision definitely showed us Oz and host coexisting in middle age. Did they not use magic in that lifetime? Or is the merge somehow not about "losing" either one of them?

Team FNKI in a line of regular soldiers! They've got to have mobilized all the students, but I wonder if we'll see any others besi- Neon. Neon you are wearing rollerskates to the apocalypse.

...well, why not?

Marrow, YOU'RE just a kid. You can't be more than a few years older, and you're not that much more seasoned. Though I understand the feeling.

So, Hazel, you're ready to rejoin fact-based reality? Or at least listen to someone who pretty much definitionally can't be lying?

(Actually...the only information we have about Jinn comes from her, and it'd be a hell of an interesting twist if she was editing facts to fit her own agenda. I don't think it's very likely for meta reasons, but it'd make a great fic premise, wouldn't it?)

Huh. He sounds much much calmer, and like he's been thinking through everything for the last few hours.

....what? He's not even going to ask??? THAT is a surprise. The existence of Jinn and knowing Oscar gave him the password in good faith were enough to deradicalize a violent extremist. (Wish it was that easy in RL.)

Oscar's little wave

(You know, now that I think of it, Ozpin has never interacted with Jinn himself. She's greeted him twice and he hasn't answered. Does he resent her for not answering his predecessor's questions more helpfully? Mistrust her? )

yes rescue Emerald good

"Just to be clear" - oh god I thought that was Salem's voice and nearly jumped out of my seat.

"I'll come back for it" crap crap crap Hazel's redemption arc is going to be short, painful, and fatal. And Salem will keep the lamp, if not have the password.

And we'll just all turn our backs on the divine artifact-entity and walk away. I guess they don't think she's enough of a person to say goodbye to?

And our eavesdropper is...the one person who CAN'T summon Jinn or ask her a question.

Oh no. No. Please don't have the fandom descend into "Jinn is ablist" discourse. (ETA: upon thinking further I take it back, the gods suck and providing a Relic that not everyone can use is in its way a tiny symbol of their callous attitude to people. )

RJY working smoothly together, nice.

Robyn said people are always suspicious of her, and her truthsense ability has a clearly visible limiting condition. But Ren can apparently read the emotions of everyone around him all the time without them knowing. Surely that would make a lot of people uncomfortable. (Although I expect the writers to ignore this, and will be pleasantly surprised if they explore it at all.)

That's always the way isn't it, you roll a 4 on your concentration check right when a demonic jellyfish is floating by.

Huh, they separated from Oscar? And Hazel is worried about him? I'm still dizzy from the speed of this 180.

uh...hi, Salem. Nice...weather outside the whale today? Seen any good dismemberments lately?

Hazel, you are a terrible liar and you can't bluff. Admittedly the stakes are a lot higher here than in the weekly WTCH poker game.

Salem NYOOM

No one can accuse Yang of not understanding the core competencies.

"Juan"??? I did hear that correctly, yes? Marrow not remembering Jaune's name is hilarious. And I was about to say understandable, but no, they worked with the Ace Ops for weeks! Did you just have him mentally filed as "the blond himbo tank"?

O-kayyyyyy. I can't blame Emerald, but this could go so horribly wrong so fast.

Isn't Hazel-disguised-as-Oscar way too heavy to pick up like tha- OHHHHHHHHH. Now things make much more sense. Oscar was the one worried about Hazel earlier, and failing utterly to bluff. Infinitely more in character.

Awkward Semblance is also extremely convenient in short-cutting negotiations. Nice.

I do not, in fact, have any doubt that Winter would blow up her sister. And in this situation I can't say it's the wrong thing to do. As far as they know their bomb is the only hope.

Wow. I really did not think we’d go to toe to toe with Salem herself at this point in the plot. It's so traditional to save the final boss fight for, well, the final boss. She's terrifying and unstoppable, but not actually more terrifying than the giant whale.

Her regen is just like the Hound's body morphing, but far smoother and faster with a thousand "deaths" of practice.

She sounds more normal right now, oddly. Her voice is lacking both the measured slowness and the resonance it has when she's making speeches. I like the idea of that falling away when she's surprised and exasperated.

Our heroes are very very lucky that RWBY is not a darker show, or those Grimmhand restraints would be doing a lot of gross agonizing damage with their nails. There's no reason she'd want to be gentle at this point.

Yeah, there's the sonorous voice again. Although it wavers again with that "Why do you Keep. Coming. Back?" Does she not know? How can she not know, Jinn's vision said Ozma told her everything. Perhaps she means: why do you keep fighting me instead of hiding like the hermit.

Yang, don't give her information, gah! "Her again." She sounds pleased. I think we are going to find out Summer's fate this volume after all. Salem will reveal it to break Ruby’s spirit. Prediction: it will work.

(EDIT: I completely missed the significance of Yang calling Summer “my mom”. Wow.)

She definitely intends to turn Emerald into something like the Hound.

"No more Gretchens." Oh, of course that's what Oscar said he needed before they could leave, the cane.

Hazel's life expectancy is minutes long but at least it included a satisfying KAPOW. And every single sparkly crystal he owns. Somehow he seems smaller here, less bulky than he did at Haven. Less a titan and more a man.

yigh he's pounding her into mush. Which he has several times before, apparently. This is all to buy you time, Emerald, why are you not running. (I know, I know. She's never had someone actually help her and care about her, only scraps of affection to establish control. At this moment Cinder's hold on her is breaking forever.)

(Neo, on the other hand. Will she bring the lamp to Cinder, who frankly has been a totally crap partner and deserves no loyalty? Is she still after revenge? My bet is still firmly on her planning to backstab Cinder as soon as Ruby is gone. But beyond that, we don't know her thoughts at all. She might join the heroes, or disappear like Raven to hide while the apocalypse works itself out.)

That's true, Oscar, but what can you do to stop her?

Hah! Clever, Hazel. And she's actually screaming in pain from the fire, whereas she didn't make a sound when being pulverized.

What does the cane DO? It's impressive as heck, but I can't tell. Channeling his magic, certainly. Are we going to lose Oz right now? With no chance to talk to Ruby or Qrow or anyone, to reconcile? It seems all too likely, and such a waste.

Which makes me think, in turn, that perhaps we will lose Oscar too in a way. Unexpected - I have always thought the merge would end with Oscar holding all the memories. But maybe he won't be quite either of them anymore, even if he remembers both and the others still call him Oscar. And that thought also makes me sad.

Anyway, good episode, though now the title doesn’t seem particularly relevant. Hazel was much more the focus.

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby v8 spoilers #rwby volume 8 spoilers

13 notes · View notes