#but i also feel like rt is done with him as a whole so i dont hold out too much hope
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More handwriting headcanons, but this time it’s for various Papyruses!
Obviously there are more Papyruses that exist, these are just the main ones that came to mind first :P
Font names and reasoning under the cut:
Papyrus: Papyrus (because…. c’mon. we all know why)
Stretch: bRee (he gets lowercase letters because he’s a sleepy guy, and the only reason the Ts look a little sharp is because he was probably thinking about Smart Guy Shit again)
Edge: COLORS OF AUTUMN (upper case letters because loud, and sharp like his personality)
Crooks: kindergarden (his letters are big but not all caps because he’s lost some of the spark that would’ve otherwise made him more like OG Paps, and his handwriting is a little wibbly wobbly because head trauma impairs your motor skills sometimes, making it hard to keep your hand movements, or even just regular movements, smooth and steady)
Mutt: alanis hand (he gets lower case and small because he’s another sleepy guy with no confidence)
Charm (UL Paps): Bigdey Demo (dude gets fancy halfway cursive handwriting because he’s a fancy boy. being fancy and stylish is his whole thing, and he adds little hearts in sometimes if he’s in a particularly good mood)
Jupiter (OT Paps): PIGMENTDEMO (personality wise, I just feel like he’d be very similar to OG Paps, and they probably have a lot of the same habits and things, which could easily carry over into their writing. Their handwriting is similar, but still visually different at the end of the day)
Tango (DT Paps): Rock Salt (big letters and all caps here because he’s a louder, more outgoing guy, and even if he’s not super confident 24/7, that’s still the image that he likes to display to others, so they get the impression that he’s the most confident man on the planet. His handwriting is also a bit fancy in its own way, which kinda reflects his whole thing with dancing)
Phantom (DT Paps): Coffee House (ominous looking, sharp, and all caps, because he is literally the creepy dude who tells Dust to maim people and be homicidal. Sometimes he uses lower case, but when he’s especially worked up about something, he goes back to his all caps ways)
Cider (FT Paps): A Hundred Miles (his letters aren’t the biggest, but he still uses all caps. It’s nice looking, if a little on the messy side sometimes because he does so much with his hands on the farm, and they’re probably sore by the time he finishes)
Grim (RT Paps): Silent Reaction (all caps cursive is a nightmare to look at, and he’s been around long enough that he’s painfully aware of that, so he’s brought it down a few notches and uses proper capitalization. He’s had centuries to make his handwriting nice and neat, and while he does like making it look nice, he’s often more concerned about getting all of his work done. Little bonus is that he unintentionally makes the dot above the i look kinda like a candle flame)
#handwriting headcanon#undertale#undertale au#papyrus undertale#undertale papyrus#fell papyrus#edge papyrus#swap papyrus#stretch papyrus#fellswap red papyrus#mutt papyrus#horror papyrus#crooks papyrus#lust papyrus#charm papyrus#dance papyrus#tango papyrus#outer papyrus#Jupiter papyrus#farm papyrus#farmer papyrus#cider papyrus#phantom papyrus#reaper papyrus#grim papyrus
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just realized i never posted my rescue team character redesigns oops
ninetales: shiloh (they/them)
-reworked to be a snowdrift (alolan) ninetales because it makes more sense with the climate they live in and spike chunsoft are COWARDS for not including the regional variants of pokemon in gens 1-3 that got one.
-actually only has 8 tails (lost one in the havoc encounter).
-@ all of the ties that bind heads out there: does their design remind you of anyone in particular? :3c
gengar: havoc (he/him)
-his real (human) name was alphard. he discarded this name and adopted havoc instead after his transformation, as he was hoping that it would make others want to avoid him entirely, as he felt like he didn't deserve any kindness or decency after what he had done. unfortunately for him, medicham and adder (ekans) are stupid and like him. he starts using alphard again after tureis is saved.
-he has a permanent frostbite scar on his right hand from when he grabbed shiloh.
-team meanies fully disbands after tureis' rescue and gengar decides to spend his time giving back to the community in pokemon square for forgiving him. he pretty much becomes team fable's biggest fan and hypes up mayar and turies after she joins (newlin.....exists), not that he will ever admit it.
-after the tureis rescue, mayar tells alphard that regardless of what he's done in the past he's still deserving of love and compassion and that he's not a bad pokemon. alphard becomes smitten with her after that (<- guy that is desparate for companionship). mayar thinks that he's funny and forgives him for the whole "sending a violent mob after her and newlin" thing, and they hookup eventually. everybody in town (especially newlin) hates it but they're still supportive.
-other than newlin he becomes the most active participant in team fable's research into mega evolution when their focus shifts over to that.
gardevoir: tureis (she/her)
-joins team fable for a few years before eventually joining team charm after meeting lopunny. the switch from rescuing to exploring excites her, especially since she's been unable to go anywhere for years. mayar and newlin are very supportive of this. medicham also joins in hopes of getting stronger by travelling to make up for fainting in wish cave.
-being trapped took a heavy toll on her physical body that left her very ill for a long time. she couldn't do much without getting weak and winded, and was severely underweight upon being freed. everyone was supportive of her just doing what she can while part of the team (though she was barred from partaking in mega evolution research due to being a massive strain on the body and could be lethal in her condition). she's much healthier as of joining team charm, which is her main motivation for getting out there and travelling.
-there is a 30ish year gap between rt and explorers in my lore, so by the time she appears in explorers she's in her late 50s/early 60s. still kicking it!
-first image is her appearance in rt, second image is her appearance in explorers
-never recovers her memories of alphard but, for reasons she can't describe, she feels a strong kinship with him. the two become good friends.
#pokemon#pkmnart#pkmn#pmd#pokemon mystery dungeon#ninetales#alolan ninetales#oc: shiloh#gengar#oc: alphard#gardevoir#oc: tureis#these will be up on toyhouse one day. can't say when but eventually they will be
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My Complete Thoughts on RvB: Restoration
Major spoilers for the entire season below the cut!
I think the biggest sin of this season was not clarifying when it takes place, as it cheapened a lot of the twists by genuinely confusing me or contrasting information that we had already been given in S15-S18. Keep this in mind for the rest of the review.
Maybe the allusion to Caboose’s voice being “misremembered” was confirmation that it was in fact a simulation post-S13, but it still wasn’t super clear to me. Especially since Dylan was talking about the Reds and Blues (even though I know they met post-S10), which kinda made it feel like Restoration could be post-S18 (unless that was the point). There was just enough ambiguity that it really could have gone either way for most of the movie.
I feel like the humor was a bit off?? Maybe it was a generational gap since the show was going back to someone who hasn’t written for it in a while and is older than the current writers (case in point: he used tropes that Gen Z makes fun of a lot, e.g. he’s right behind me isn’t he). The Zoom call bit also went on WAY too long. The metacommentary about the changing attitudes toward RT also felt a bit tone deaf. In general, a lot of the trademark RvB banter just felt stale, it was the more general dialogue that was stronger (though Church telling Caboose to shut up when Simmons was talking did make me laugh).
Also, Grif was so angry all the time at the beginning?? Felt out of character and took me out of those early scenes. Maybe it was a setup for the whole discharge subplot but it just felt… off
The writing was just a bit clunky at the beginning, felt very direct and exposition-y, but that might be because they had so much to cover in so little time. It resolved itself later, anyway (except for the rapid fire ending, there was so much to unpack there).
Alright enough complaining about the general format, here are my more detailed thoughts.
Sheila!!! That is all.
I can excuse Caboose secretly speaking Spanish the whole time because there was a bit in S16 (maybe 17? can’t remember) where he understands something that Lopez said.
I initially completely missed the fact that the Meta’s color scheme was an allusion to Felix, that is so fucked up. Tucker dressed in the colors of the man he hates the most about to kill his closest friends? Jesus.
The Director being Epsilon’s therapist in the YouTube video made me laugh really hard.
Speaking of therapists, Wash was patient 619-B and I think that was the Counselor’s voice. Is the implication that he survived in this timeline?? Because he died before Epsilon fractured himself, so that much should at least be set in stone. Not really clear on that.
The “Great Destroyer” thing felt a bit retcon-y, but I can get behind it well enough.
I got so excited when 479er showed up, glad that we got confirmation that she made it out of Recovery okay. Wish we could’ve seen her and Wash (and Carolina) interact though.
I wish they had done Sarge’s death a bit differently. Kinda wish he hadn’t been all “that worked out well!” only to be stabbed, it felt very “he’s right behind me isn’t he” and made the fact that he was about to be stabbed obvious from a million miles away. There’s definitely something to be said about him sacrificing himself for a blue, and the deathbed interactions he had with the others were really good, but it kinda just felt like shock value?? Like there wasn’t enough build up to the payoff, it just kinda seemed like he decided to save Caboose last minute without any major character motivations or development behind the decision.
Which is another thing, it felt like it relied a LOT on Red vs. Blue dynamics in the beginning, and I was fucking flabbergasted when they actually left Caboose behind. The same people who broke time to save Wash would just leave Caboose to die like that? No way.
Meta!Tucker felt like it wasn’t explored enough, mostly just “no I won’t do your bidding” and “yes you will” back and forth with no real depth. However, credit where credit is due, I LOVED how this gave us a new perspective to Maine’s descent into madness. That ten-years-of-torture-in-a-few-seconds thing? So fucked up. Can you imagine being tortured by the remnants of your best friend, who have zero regard for your well-being? If they did all of that to Tucker in the short time they were together, just imagine what they did to Maine to get him to the point he was at at the end of S10/by Recollection.
Bonus points for the fact that the fragments tortured Tucker without a second thought when they themselves are a result of torture. They seemed to spare no empathy for Tucker despite having been through this themselves. Then again, I suppose they are they are copies of the original Leonard Church, who had no such qualms.
Didn’t realize that Meta!Tucker was voiced by Miles Luna (aka Felix’s voice actor) until the credits, that was an extra layer of fucked up and I loved it.
I really enjoyed Wash’s plot for the most part. I was definitely super intrigued the whole time since so much of his subplot didn’t add up from his perspective. I mean, I think he deserved something more for a send-off since most of his arc wasn’t really related to his character as a whole (besides the freelancer thing at the end). However, I still enjoyed it for what it was worth.
Additionally, if this is post-S13, I wish they’d clarified because I assumed that Wash was suffering from cerebral hypoxia and not some other injury. They kept alluding to something that happened on Chorus, but I wasn’t clear on the fact that it was a separate timeline of events. The Doc plot twist threw me off a lot more as a result.
I could tell he was gonna launch himself off the cliff and it still made me laugh hysterically.
I’m glad that the final battle was in Blood Gulch. It’s cliché, but it felt full-circle. Plus, it was the best resting place for Sarge in canon and a good set-up for a “why were we here” moment.
I knew Simmons was gonna have his arm broken but I still gasped anyway. And when the shotgun was cut in half??? Bro my jaw was on the floor, it was like when John Wick’s dog was killed (probably, I’ve never seen that movie). But the way Simmons cocked the shotgun with one hand was badass as hell, good for him.
I’m glad we got something resembling a Simmons character arc? I think it relied a lot on setup from previous seasons of him becoming a leader, with little to no actual development in S19 itself, but it still felt at least decently satisfying.
“Best throw ever. Of all time” made me laugh, I love a good callback. Actually, there were a lot of fun callbacks to jokes, like the irony bit. They were greatly appreciated.
Tucker getting launched by a warthog actually made me laugh really hard, I love the “shotgun as a code word” bit so much.
The Tex plot twist was SO GOOD, I totally didn’t see it coming. Much better direction to go anyway, since we already put Church to rest in S15. So glad that Caboose was able to get his moment in the spotlight and have the smartest plan of all of them. Unless it was Church’s plan, in which case I find it so sweet that he wanted to bring Tex back instead of himself (even if it did cheapen the S9 “let her go” thing a bit). I also really loved the callback where her armor turned black because of the teleporter, that was really good.
I got so excited when they started playing Round One I’ll be honest. Also, I Say Ooh?? Was not expecting that one.
In all honesty, I didn’t love the soundtrack (kinda felt stock music-y and cliché in a lot of parts, plus it didn’t have the musical style that we’ve come to expect from RvB). It was fine, but nothing to write home about. The campfire song was good too. I know about the whole thing where Trocadero wouldn’t join on unless everyone was brought back on, and now that we know that RT is shutting down, it’s possible that this was because multiple musical artists just weren’t in the budget. That said, it’s a shame that there weren’t more original songs.
I called that Carolina was gonna be Recovery (though now I think about it, why was she doing Recovery?? was it even Recovery since Charon had been shut down??? What happened to her after Chorus???? Also her talking about how her and Wash would do everything together from now on meanwhile she left him behind in some hospital?????). Anyway, the fight with her and Tex was SO fan service-y but I ate it up anyway, good for them.
Tex winning because she was a collection of the Reds and Blues’ memories and she always won against them was so, so good, something to be said about the positive nature of the memories of your friends (I mean just look at how happy they had been when recounting everything they’d been through!)
Also if just talking about someone was enough to create a functional AI, it kinda makes the whole “torturing Alpha to make more AI” thing totally pointless and retcons the entire show but. Whatever.
TEX DESERVED THIS ENDING!! I like the S9 ending in a lot of ways, it was poetic that she was finally allowed to rest after being dragged back so many times against her will, but I think it also felt incomplete because I don’t know if being put to rest was what Tex herself would actually want. There is a significant difference between not electing to bring her back again and choosing to take her out of the fight. Tex was never allowed to make her own decisions, not even in S9. This ending was entirely on her terms, which I think was fantastic.
I loved the rockslide, it reminded me a lot of the ice fight from S8 was just generally very fun.
It’s established that Tucker became the Meta because he had several AI when just two was enough to almost kill Carolina. If this isn’t the canon timeline, then why didn’t Tucker become the Meta in that one? For a reason besides “the writers didn’t think of it”.
I hope that Burnie came up with the idea for this season by reading Meta!Tucker fan fiction.
The Doc thing was so??? Why did they do a Sixth Sense. Like I think that twist would have worked a LOT better if they made it clearer when this took place (I kept flip flopping on whether this was an alternate timeline post-S13 or main timeline post-S18 up until this point, which made the whole Doc-died-on-Chorus thing feel like it came out of nowhere since, if it was post-S18, we knew that Doc survived Chorus. It also makes Epsilon’s sacrifice to get them all out of there feel a bit cheaper since they didn’t all get out of there, but maybe that suggests that S15-S18 are the main timeline).
How did Doc heal Wash’s leg?? Was it even broken in the first place??? Did they ever clarify that????
I GASPED when the Freelancers showed up. It was camp as hell and hard to take seriously but also I don’t even care. I’m glad he got some kind of goodbye, since he was always too late to do so as a Recovery agent.
Kinda funny that Wyoming wasn’t there but Florida was, and also South was there even though Wash murdered her in cold blood. Anyway.
When One showed up I felt every emotion I think
Bro where the hell was Donut? There was no good reason for him not to at least show up, maybe on the pelican with One or something. Especially since S16 and S17 were dedicated to an entire arc about how everyone should stop disrespecting Donut, like come on.
Edit: did a little research and it might be because there’s no pink armor in the game this season was filmed in? Which is so hard to believe, since Halo has so many references to RvB. I can’t believe they would just cut out the armor colors of one of the main characters and make it impossible for him to return in the way we know him, it’s messed up.
I know time was short, but I wish we had more time to explore Tucker’s feelings post-Meta. Especially since he killed Sarge, even though it definitely wasn’t his fault. There probably wasn’t enough time to get into all that, but still, he seemed remarkably fine after everything that had happened. I guess that kind of exploration is what AO3 is for lol.
I have mixed feelings about the end for Tex and Church. On one hand, Tex calling herself Allison Church was so sweet and I loved how caring she was, it reminded me of when she said goodbye to Alpha during the Freelancer saga. Also, the fact that there was finally a Church free of the memories of his predecessors felt very satisfying. However, I kind of wish that they could have just had their happily ever after and stayed in the memory unit. I understand the decision—destroying the remaining AI was really the best way to make sure Project Freelancer was put to rest forever—but I kinda feel like she and Church deserved better than simply being put down after everything they’d been through.
One final team kill for Caboose. Ow.
The animation was really, really good!! It looked much better than that plasticky look the trailer had. I didn’t love Epsilon’s animations (they felt a bit jerky and overacted), but otherwise I think they did a really great job. I especially loved how they animated the AI on Tucker’s visor, it looked cool as hell.
I think one of the things this season suffered from was the overall tonal shift in the writing. Burnie hadn’t written for, and Matt hadn’t solely directed, a season in a LONG time. We’ve come to expect more character-focused narratives that dive into the nuisances of the characters and their relationships, and we didn’t really get that here (unless you count Sarge’s deathbed confession to Grif that he was hard on him because he wanted him to be more, which still felt a bit shallow. Actually, there are lot of things which could be considered set-ups in retrospect, but their intended payoffs didn’t feel like payoffs). I think there was a consequential whiplash as compared to what we have come to expect from RvB, and while the writing style we got wasn’t inherently bad (again, I liked a lot of it), it was definitely different.
I really, really hated that Grif left at the end. That’s literally the antithesis of his S15 arc, which felt much more complete and true to the character than this one. It’s impossible not to compare these arcs because of how inherently similar they are, and because I believe the S15 arc is superior (Grif’s exhaustion was a more subtle and believable reaction than this Grif’s raw anger, and his realization of how much he relied on his team was much more powerful than this Grif just tapping out), it makes the S19 Grif arc feel poorly thought out.
Also, he wanted to be discharged, but I don’t think they worked for the UNSC or any other military organization after Chorus since they all retired, so was any of that really necessary? Maybe retirement is just a vessel, so to speak, to represent Grif leaving adventure behind him for good. Still, I liked the way S15 handled this arc a lot more.
Vale Deah. Ow.
NO GRIMMONS??? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???
The most we got was Grif leaving and asking Simmons to come with him but like. “not scared to take risks my ass”, Burnie.
Honestly, I think this season was a victim of its format. Eighty minutes isn’t a lot of time to properly send off these characters, especially when RvB as a format is based on multi-season arcs. There just wasn’t enough time to build up tension or explore the dynamics of something as extreme as Meta!Tucker in a way that would feel satisfying. That said, I think Burnie did a pretty good job fitting as many things as he did into this format. A part of me is almost glad that Grimmons wasn’t made canon? I feel like it might’ve felt rushed to give it a satisfying arc in just 80 minutes in addition to all of the other shit going on, and I think after 21 years they deserved at least a satisfying resolution. However, they did NOT deserve an ending which implied that they would never see each other again, what the fuck.
TL;DR? 7.5/10. Far from perfect, and there were a lot of creative decisions made that I heavily disagree with. However, they did a lot right, too, and it still seems heartfelt in a way that helps me overlook some of its flaws. Overall, I enjoyed this season for what it was worth. There are some qualities of S17 that I think made for a better final goodbye to these characters, and some qualities of S19 that I think made for a better goodbye (in all honesty I never finished S18, but it wasn’t really a “goodbye” season anyway). Wrapping up a 21-year-old series is very difficult, and I have a lot of respect for Burnie and the others who worked on Restoration for what they put together. Truthfully, I’m gonna pick and choose which segments of S17 and S19 are canon in my heart (S17 is still the overall canon ending for me), but I’m happy with what we got in the end.
Anyways, I’m happy to chat more in the replies, let me know your thoughts!
#red vs blue#rvb#rvb s19#rvb restoration#RvB s19 spoilers#RvB restoration spoilers#RvB spoilers#red vs blue spoilers
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“He knows he's a slave to his own strength, aka the idea of being a hero. He realizes it when Kenny asked what he's a slave to in s3/ch69.”
OHHHH do you think he was aware of that before Kenny asked him? Like, did he consciously seek out to become a hero of sorts? Was it because of his own nature? Because that’s what Erwin/society/survey corps expected or asked of him?
Does he even feel comfortable with the idea of being perceived as such? I think his first appearance (Anime S1E4) he says something along the lines of “how annoying” when they’re riding down the street and people are (understandably) gushing over him
That Levi facts post was a blessing, thank you so much 🧎
thank youu :')
firstly i feel the need to say that it's not a bad thing to be a slave in aot, because as Kenny says, without being "enslaved" to something, no one would would have a cause to keep going.
from that same magazine issue, it's also said that at this point in the story, Levi feels obligated to be a hero. perhaps related to the fact that the SC has fought people now, not just titans, and considering like the citizens Levi (inadvertently) helped in trost, and the collective support of the populace after taking down the old government, he can't simply call titans eyesores and fight for humanity to breathe in the winds of freedom, and call that his duty. he can't deny that people look up to him now; it goes beyond his comrades.
(this is much more tangible when the SC starts really fighting people after the truth is discovered.)
it doesn't ring true to me for Levi to consciously seek out becoming a hero, known for protecting others, and even being okay with the notoriety that comes with that. fighting for freedom, and protecting others from the horror of the titans seems to be what a hero would do, and the rest fell into his lap. in influencing his choice to "become a hero", Levi wouldn't have cared about what society wants from him, or even the SC atp. really all the SC had done for him was bully him lol. i think his "nature" if you mean being an Ackerman? - falls to his desire to be Erwin's "guard". Erwin did absolutely ask him to fight, but the choice Levi made to do so was all his own judgment. freedom is what he wants for himself, his friends, and as such everyone else as a whole, but i don't think Levi would've fought at all if he considered it to be impossible, and from his point of view, without Erwin it wouldn't have been. this is proven considering his choice in RtS.
to explain only in very relevant terms, during that, Levi fully embraces his title as a hero when he chooses to believe in Erwin/Armin's dream. not just freedom, but a world of peace without walls. before that, it had always been making Erwin's / the SC's dream come true for him.
but i think the difference between before and after comprehending that he's a slave is just that: accepting it.
w/ that line in the anime, i think he found it annoying in 2 different ways. it's not that he doesn't want to be a hero for sure, but yes perhaps being comprehended as one is bothersome. on one part, because Levi doesn't feel worthy of such things. he doesn't like to be called kind in blatant terms (if i can elude to another smartpass story lol), probably because it's embarrassing but mostly because he can't see himself as such unconditionally.
and it's hard to blame him for that imo; Levi has always been willing to hurt others either to survive, or to do what he sees as the right thing. he however can't appreciate his own good deeds for what they are, but which arguably is another mark of a hero.
before Levi joined the SC, i don't think he even knew what he wanted. Kenny was the one that imbued in him an obligation to survive, and along the way Levi wanted Isabel and Farlan to survive, that's it. we know Levi didn't even comprehend what was out there until he first left the walls.
tldr, as a relevant song would lead us to believe, Levi believes that what oasis people see in him, is a mirage.
#aot#levi ackerman#aot levi#snk levi#snk levi ackerman#aot levi ackerman#captain levi#captain levi ackerman#levi rivaille#rivaille ackerman#levi heichou#levi attack on titan#levi aot#attack on titan#aot meta
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Oh boy! Time to be RWDE again!
Volume 1:
Why is Glynda set up with every possible anime trope of being Ruby’s mentor, yet she gets shafted?
Who thought two minutes and forty seconds is an episode? No, that’s a clip. A short.
Speaking of episode length (or lack thereof), what is up with this pacing…
So…team RWBY aren’t going to ever speak to each other? Why not assign them to different teams?
Borrowing from Young Justice, Weiss could lead the team until Ruby is mature enough to handle the role. Why yes, I do think Weiss has the head to be a leader, or at the very least, try to be a leader and fail, teaching her how to be a better team player. Character Arcs 101.
You had Weiss having a internal dialogue (great! Do that!) and then drop it to never use it on her or any other character. That’s a staple of anime, geniuses.
-we’re not copying Soul Eater down to the school layout, we swear- Uh huh. Sure.
Why is Ruby giving Jaune advice she doesn’t know herself??? How did she learn/know that???
Also PS- While Emerald’s redemption is something RT did, it could have been pulled earlier in Volume 2 or Volume 5, but that requires actual good writing and planning.
So many points, so little time with this show fr.
1:
RWBY just hates women. Like I'm not even joking, this show hates women despite being a female-led show. Glynda was given the oppotunity to be this figure for not just Ruby, but the team as a whole, but every chance she gets is given to the male teachers for no reason.
Professor Port was the one to lecture Weiss about being a good teammate and to not allow her ego to blind her to her own shortcomings, even if that scene is dogshit in retrospect. Professor Oobleck was the one to challenge Team RWBY's ideals around being Huntresses, to the point where we got depth into his character on why he wanted to be a Huntsman.
Even when Yang had lost her arm and needed guidance, Port and Oobleck were there with Tai for that arc. Glynda never gets a chance to even talk properly with our main team, or even flesh herself out as a character to the point that the most we got is from the AA game.
2.
The reason why V1 was like 20 episodes long. The episodes were like five minutes long and would've done better just shoving the parts together. It also meant that the pacing was really slow because we'd be waiting a week for a continuation only to have another five minute long episode.
3.
Interteam relationship outside the partnerships have always been an issue tbh. It's just more egrigious now because it's been like ten years and Ruby/Blake are barely friends, let alone close enough that Blake would admire Ruby like she said she does. Classic told =/= shown.
4.
I think the whole leadership issues with Weiss and Ruby were concluded far too quickly, they could barely be counted as arcs. Weiss has justified issues with Ruby not taking Beacon or her role as their leader seriously, but rather than that being built up more and having the two actually grow together, they just get lectured at and immediately change.
5.
Unpopular opinion but I hate the inner monologue used in anime and I'm glad RWBY doesn't go into it all that much outside of that one time with Weiss. The issue rises because they don't ever let the watchers in on what these characters are thinking or feeling, and even contradict themselves over the volumes.
6.
The advice Ruby gave to Jaune is honestly bad advice? A leader isn't someone who puts the team before themselves, that just opens up for the burnout and idiolising the leader, which is exactly what happened to Ruby in the later volumes. But they didn't show that the advice she gave them was not meant to be something taken seriously.
If they even remember what Ruby told him when they can't even keep track what happen in the volume before.
7.
The whole thing with Emerald's redemption is that she really wasn't given much to flesh out. She started the show straight up ignoring Cinder's orders to go out of her way to be more evil and violent, murdering a minority who ran from an organisation she has no part of. Only for the show to try and paint her later as a lost soul who doesn't realise how bad Cinder is for her.
Nevermind the actual redemption doesn't have her face consequences for the fact that she murdered countless people without much care and only ever pulled sad faces rather than, you know, having actual character to push her redemption.
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watched tenet for the 7th time first of all Neil and the protagonist are literally boyfriends been know since first time I watched it you can’t tell me other wise the way Neil kept coming back in time in revert to save the protagonist they IN LOVE YOUR HONOUR the give doctor and river song vibes 2nd how come I’ve watched this 7 times yet I ain’t know that was Aaron as Ives or maybe I did and just forgot Aaron Taylor discography insane this to bullet train now that’s marvel actor done great now rdj too cuz he’s in Nolan movie too! back to the movie I can without a doubt
say this is Nolan greatest film I’m sorry it’s this or memento that’s just facts and prestige is 3rd best Nolan movie ofc I’m so sorry people didn’t get tenet the first time or 2nd or 3rd time it’s literally one of the greatest movies and Nolan greatest movie no doubt in my mind I’m sorry y’all dumb and couldn’t understand the nuance of the movie the storytelling and plot but that’s just seems like you problem imagine not like one of the greatest movies bc you didn’t get it so you hated and gave it bad reviews ah fcvk it was also clearly racism involved cuz wryly the one time the main lead actor is black man in Nolan movie y’all hate it an give bad reviews and rankings it’s like how y’all treat every black lead movie especially the princess/superheroes movies bc y’all believe they taking away roles from ur fav same old yt actors
it’s clear it was racism that fuelled the hatred for tenet you can’t convince me y’all would’ve ate it up if it was yt actor y’all love who did the movie like y’all already loving Oppenheimer even tho y’all haven’t even seen it and will give great rankings reviews etc call it his
best work etc bla bla give it a high RT same old same old yt privilege sh*t while we on Oppenheimer was it hints in the movie bc they talked about him and atomic so much in the movie it’s like Nolan was giving us obvious huge clues hints that it was gonna be his next movie and it is the amount of times they talked about Oppenheimer atomic b0mbs grandfather of the blax2 it’s clear he was letting us know imagine if tenet and Oppenheimer was in the same universe that would’ve been so cool cuz they can invert themselves back in time what if they somehow found
a way it would’ve been so cool I know they can’t go that far back to a time where they weren’t born but its Nolan be most have a way of doing that it would’ve been so awesome cuz the guy we never met was getting things from the future what if he made sure Oppenheimer got the idea
the future or whatever that would’ve been the most mind blowing sh*t to ever happen in film imagine if Nolan created his own multiverse like this with tenet being a way for Oppenheimer sort of? and why do I feel we getting a tenet2 plz god tell me we are plz Nolan need them back
I need the boyfriends back I need to know how they met how he recruited her how he became aware of the whole thing from Neil and the protagonist perspective this time since we only saw Neil knowing the protagonist for years they literally been bfs for years I’m gonna end it all
bc why would the protagonist feel so strongly about a man he just met unless he subconsciously knew they were more he was crying for godsake over a guy he met few days ago max a month but he also knew Kat that long yet he been villing to risk her life for the mission timex2 again
#tenet#christopher nolan#oppenheimer#memento#the prestige#robert pattinson#john david washington#cillian murphy#michael caine#robert downey jr#aaron taylor johnson#Nolan movies#neil x protagonist#protagonists x Neil#neil tenet#tenet movie#tenet 2020#the protagonist#protagoneil#neiltagonist
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Have you noticed that the Cat is basically the evil Oz the fandom was screaming he was these past few years? Cursed by the gods, manipulates and uses people for their own gains, and forcefully possesses others and takes over their body without their consent.
Honestly I hadn’t but dang it now that you mention it I cannot unsee it. The gods cursed the curious cat, left them to suffer and rinsed and repeated with Remnant. In a better written show I would almost expect their to be commentary about how fucked up the brothers are and a decision to never bring them back made but this is RT and I have a feeling that won’t happen with how Silver eyes are framed as a gift from BOL.
But also like it seems they’ve made CC an extreme version of Oz with him choosing to posses people while with Ozma it wasn’t really explained to him what was being done until it was too late. He has about as much say in the whole situation as his new host. And while Ozpin kept certain things to himself to protect people’s hope….well Curious was trying to cause harm. It is continuing this trend though that people who suffer or are hurting are doomed to turn evil and become irredeemable monsters because of their trauma.
Can CRWBY actually show some compassion to people who are hurting and let them hurt and heal properly? Why do they hate this concept so damn much?
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I just finished: LEGO: Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars!
I've been watching a LOT of star wars stuff recently, attempting to catch up with all the new TV coming out. Due to this, I watched all of the Clone Wars TV show in a very small amount of time, and it left me feeling nostalgic.
When I first played Lego Clone wars, I'm not sure if I even had watched any of the show, my only option to access it was renting so when I did it was all out of order, series 2 episodes 4-6 and all that. Even now I've see all of it I still struggle to know what's going on most of the time, which is probably why they never made another game based on a TV show instead of a film.
The game is largely nothing special, nothing most of the other LEGO games don't also do - which is fine, you know, it's just kind of a decent simple game that is mostly for kids, and I loved it when I was one. However, there were many things that eluded me about it when I played as I was younger, and like other games I felt I had to go through the whole thing to find everything I never did back then. I would say, not worth it.
Getting any game to 100% is at the best of times, a fruitless endeavor - I usually get almost to 100 and then suddenly feel I have to reevaluate my choices in life. Doing it in this was particularly a slog, and unnecessary - there really was nothing of interest to be found at the end of it. There was at least a secret ship, which is better than some other Lego games - which give you a fountain that dispenses infinite studs - kind of useless when you've already done everything.
There is however, one thing that really stands out in this one compared to other LEGO games, which is the ground battles. I had to do A LOT of them to 100% the game, and while they are kind of cool and I loved them when I was a kid, I do get why they never revisited the concept. The game mode is a kind of RTS type thing, where you have to build buildings in your bases and destroy them in your opponents to capture their bases, then build more. It seems like a really interesting mode, but then you have to remember what combat is actually like in these games, so the entirety of the levels are just slowly destroying things by mashing one button. Also, I am aware this is only something I would get annoyed about, but you get a reward of a character when you complete all of the ground battles for either the Republic or the Separatists, for the Republic it's Chancellor Palpatine - okay makes sense, but for the CIS it's Grand Moff Tarkin? This makes no sense - why not Darth Sidious? He's a minkit character, but it would have made a lot more sense to put him as the secret character and Tarkin as the minikit - it just really annoys me, for absolutely no good reason.
Anyway, yeah it was fine. I never want to play it again.
Grade: C
Significance: 1/3
#game reviews#games#reviews#videogames#lego#lego starwars#clone wars#star wars#lego clone wars#the clone wars#lego game#lego games
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Helloooo, hope you’re doing well! What’re your thoughts on the last issue of aosjk?
Hi!!! I'm kinda sick and traveling RIP but I'm resting now thanks for asking!!
About AOSJK- it had so much potential and then it all got thrown in the dumpster for Beast World. AOSJK should've been a 12 issue, or 18 issue book, not 6. I didn't get time to be fully invested in Jon's arc, his struggles, his relationship with the people in Injustice. Everything interesting happened off-panel and was told through internal dialogue.
I'm just really disappointed with the horrible pacing. The hug, okay I GET IT. I GET that Jon has chosen to not give into his anger and grief, but I seriously feel like that shouldn't apply to Jon. Anger, frustration, sadness- those are all the right emotions for him to feel in his circumstance and expressing them IS healthy(also his powers have been hyped up for MONTHS and then he just HUGS THAT ASSHOLE like no fuck you- you either make him power down, or you do a fight. I hate how AWKWARD that moment was).
I think, that Jon is a good Superman, but in being so, he's not allowed to be himself. Superman doesn't fight, doesn't let his anger and grief guide him and is always doing his best to be kind, right and objective.
Superman hugs InClarkstice and doesn't fight because violence is what started all this. But what about Jon? What's Jon supposed to do with all his valid emotions?
I think Tom Taylor gave us a good Superman story idea, and delivered on the Superman values, but failed in giving Jon a proper emotional arc OUTSIDE of Superman(and also sucked at pacing this), I liked SOKE because it did a good job of showing how burdened Jon is by Superman but it's very clear it's distinct from 'Jon Kent'. In AOSJK, Jon's not much outside of Superman.
I think, that AOSJK needed more issues, and making this about Injustice ruined Jon's story arc. I think it should've been either an Ultraman story or an Injustice Clark story. If Tom Taylor wanted to do both, he should've done it in a much longer book.
I'm so mad because the idea is GREAT. The fact that Jon got what he wanted when Ultraman was insta-killed, him realizing WHY Clark doesn't do more through Inclarkstice, him witnessing abuse taking new form in someone like InClarkstice, and having to free another world from a dictatorship.
I like that InClarkstice wasn't forgiven and Jon continues to hold him accountable. But the story potential for AOSJK got crushed by-
This being a mini-series
The writer being Tom Taylor
This ham-fisted Beast World bs
No shade to Gar but I DO NOT CAAAARE. I DON'T CAAAAAARE. I HATE that a very compelling and good setting for Jon to explore the idea of non-violence and what he must do as Superman in this situation got completely RUINED BY FUCKING. BEAST WORLD.
Jon rescuing Val Zod and RT Lois, Jon's reaction to InJaystice getting hurt BECAUSE of him, Jon antagonizing ANOTHER Justice League, him being confronted with a whole new kind of abuse from another man wearing his father's face and having it reinforced even more that 'Superman' isn't 'Clark Kent' and thus his father isn't reliable, his still-existing trauma from the volcano and his emotions about Ultraman's death, him realizing Injustice is set in a world that he can't recuse all on his own and needs a lot of work--
All of it. Unexplored.
for BEAST WORLD.
One thing I hate about TT's writing these days is that he doesn't take risks and push his characters anywhere extreme. It gets close, but then he chickens out. He keeps doing that with Jon. Oh Jon's frustrated with Clark? Dw it's resolved in one issue. JonJay are having a tough time after project blackout? Hahaha here's one line about it and that's it. Injaystice is in serious danger? Actually no it's fine his arm just broke a little Jon's fine, Jay's fine, EVERYONE's fine.
The man doesn't know to take risks anymore.
Overall I was just...disappointed.
It's time Jon gets a new writer and gets taken in a different direction. I frankly think he's the best Super now for a +18 series that actually addresses his trauma PERCHANCE??? He's the one super that needs and frankly deserves to not abide by the 'Super' way. AOSJK left me disappointed tbh.
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I think the big thing about why Attack on Titan's ending was so bad was that there was no groundwork in place that led up to the moment of Eren being radicalized enough to want to kill everyone in Marley and beyond. Any of that character development was side-stepped and we just saw him already like that.
A lot of his friends all comment that he's not the same as he was (Connie, Jean, Armin and Mikasa), but no one really talks about how he developed a radical political view for those 4 years, and even his closest friends, Armin and Mikasa, were gobsmacked by his changes but never really commented on it until the 4 years were over.
Even up to the point of "Hobo Eren" he's still not quite radical enough to be that sort of "destroyer of worlds" that he ends up being, and none of his character development adds to him being more and more radicalized to cause it to reach that fever pitch.
When you see him grow and change in the stretch of the series before the timeskip, you see how he's actually deradicalized from wanting to kill all the titans. He has a hard time putting his money where his mouth is when fighting Annie and Reiner, tearfully submits to being killed when captured by Rod Reiss, and understands very well before the RtS arc that he's not the most important person in the room, and wants to rely on his friends' judgement just as much as his own.
He even feels sorry for the mindless titans before they make it to the ocean, after knowing that they're just trapped, tortured human beings.
All of his radicalization is done offscreen and never fully explained. And in the end, he just goes, "I had to." Without any deeper meaning or motivation behind it. Which is why it makes no sense for him to have developed that way.
If he was developing into a radical more naturally, I don't think I'd have a problem with it. In fact, characters like Rod Reiss showed how someone with somewhat noble motivations in youth can be corrupted because of selfishness or fear. Gabi being radically pro-Marley also has shades of that. There is ways to make it feel more natural.
But Eren's whole development doesn't correlate to a "corrupted hero" arc.
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More dream journaling
I was living with my family again, but we were in the midst of packing everything to move. We were moving because the home we currently were in was haunted...I think. Details were vague at this point, and there were definitely other factors in play. Once everything was packed away, we were deciding what to do to kill some time because the move was happening the next day. The idea of seeing a movie is floated, and we happen to be right next to a theatre.
We go to see a movie (I think it was TMNT: Mutant Mayhem, of all things) and as we're filing into the theatre, I see a content creator whose work I used to follow (The Spoony One, if you're familiar). And it also just so happens that a group meetup for the Rooster Teeth community is happening at the same time. After the movie is over, I get recognized by someone who is documenting the whole event. They then pivot the narrative to talk about my contributions to the community, which were not numerous but were very significant. I had fundamentally changed the meta of several of the games that the community played and/or created. I created a style of sign off in a community content driven show that a lot of people ended up using. I made a bunch of animations using assets provided by Rooster Teeth and other members of their forums that a lot of people found inspirational. It is worth noting at this point that none of the things I was being cited as influencing actually exist, but it carried a very powerful feeling of being real.
And after all of this deeply moving and happy reminiscing, I then run into a former friend that I cut off some years ago. He has changed very much as a person, but along the lines of why I had to distance myself from him. He is deeply bitter about the fact that I stopped being in touch with him, and has made hating me a big part of his identity and he has a whole group of people with him dedicated to the same. He doesn't even ask why I stopped hanging out with him, but just assumes that everything was done out of malice. But as he does in real life, everything he says and does is passive. Snide remarks and heckling are all he can muster.
Not wanting to put an end to the "this is your life" style presentation the Rooster Teeth documentarion has put together, it continues despite my former friends interruptions. It then moves to the times long before I joined the RT forums, where I had done things like enter robot fighting tournaments, been tech support for a lot of people, and built my own computers and laptops, all while being in elementary school. It even goes into how I railed against and maliciously complied with disciplinary efforts made by the schools I was in at the time that were downright dystopian. All of these things were done with style and panache that I absolutely did not have as an early child, much less as an adult in real life. As none of the people who will read this will know, I did not do any of the things being showcased in this dream, apart from cutting off my friend. I don't doubt there are a few people who miss my presence on the Rooster Teeth site, but I was first and foremost a lurker, and only posted very occasionally. And it was never anything as ornate and involved as the things being remembered here. All the same, I was deeply awash in nostalgia for the early internet, and this is something that has happened a couple of times in my recent dreams.
Once the whole remembrance had wrapped, I was asked to join in on the rest of the day's events. As I did, slipping back into old behaviours felt as natural as breathing and as comfortable as a pair of perfectly sized gloves. The entire time I felt so at home and complete that I began to wonder why I had ever left. In reality, I stopped being part of the community because the staff (in ways I was never able to confirm or really even investigate beyond hearsay and second-hand accounts) had mistreated a number of my friends. I will not go into details as I don't actually know for certain that these things happened, and this was many years ago at this point.
All while this is happening, my former friend is standing at the sidelines and endlessly shittalking. At this point I take him aside and go over why I stopped being around him (he was entirely passive about everything in his life and would never take any actions to improve or change his situation and I couldn't be around someone like that even in my 20s), and why I think he needs to move on from me to start growing as a person. He finally relents and leaves to do some reevaluation of his life.
The idea that having this single conversation and fully changing someone's life is egotistical to the point of narcissism, but I won't deny that the idea of getting closure on this whole thing felt very satisfying. And around this time, I woke up.
#subconscious conversation#personal#I should point out that remembering my dreams two days in a row is rather unusual for me especially ones this involved#hell prior to me changing some of my medication in late 2022 I almost never remembered my dreams at all#sleep was (to an outside perspective as I found out later) a very strange experience#I would close my eyes and then experience what felt like a few minutes of total sensory deprivation#and then I would wake up hours later as if I simply stopped existing for a few hours
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*Looks around*
Is the volume over? Are we done here?
Okay, 1: If that whole thing was basically a prolonged therapy session for Ruby, then they shouldn't have done that whole allegory in the first place. That was stupid as hell, and it was unnecessarily realistic to the point that I want _WBYJ to outright NEVER let Ruby out of their sight again for the rest of the next Volume out of a fear of her doing that again. At least, until they feel like they can trust her to not redo that whole thing. If they could also add a small PSA at the end of that episode with hotlines to prevent that, it would have been better. Speaking of, here's a link to the list of various hotlines in the states: http://www.suicide.org/suicide-hotlines.html And here's a link to the ones that are outside of the US: http://www.suicide.org/international-suicide-hotlines.html
Stay safe out there.
2: The Ruby therapy session was good… By RT standards, I suppose. They didn't fall into a good majority of pitfalls like "It's selfish to take your own life" and all that, so that's a good thing, but it was kinda over pretty quickly, and I feel like there could have been an extra five or ten minutes spent on it.
3: Whew. Jaune survived. That means I don't have to buy a shirt. But on the other hand, DAMMIT, jaune survived. Now he's inevitably going to steal screen time from characters who need it.
Waitaminute… Volume's over… That means I can complain about jaune again!
Okay. After Ruby pulled that whole thing that made her part of the tree, putting emotional focus on jaune was very jarring. Who gives a crap about the guy who only ended up at Beacon because he wanted the thrill of being a hero but didn't want to put in any actual work into getting to that point? Ruby had basically offed herself, but the priority is comforting jaune? Miles might be able to combat the self-insert accusations, but he's most certainly not going to combat the creator's pet accusations anytime soon.
The character pretty much said that he only protected the Paper Pleasers to feel like a hero instead of actually being a hero. He wanted the rush, and that wasn't criticized. Seriously. Jaune's whole thing about only wanting to have the rush without the work needs to be addressed. The guy basically confided them to that town just so he could play hero. That's messed up.
Him also getting his youth back was a… Weird choice to say the least. Not going to elaborate on that too much though, that's probably a post for another day. Maybe.
And with that… I think that's all the negatives out of the way. About the show anyways. Obviously, the company still needs to improve by a lot.
Onto the positives.
For starters, this volume is actually pretty good. All the character interactions and development were really great, and the action was pretty good too. I still would have much preferred the Cat to be a neutral party, with the world and Neo being the main threats, but I guess what we got was pretty good too. Betrayal being a major factor. I don't see why Lewis couldn't take the Cat with him to Remnant though, seems like a bit of an oversight.
Like I said, the character interaction is great, and on-point. Were there moments where I feel like some things could have been a bit different?- Yes. I would have preferred Yang trying to get Ruby to direct her anger at her to get her attention, and I would have preferred _WBYJ trying to stop Ruby from drinking that tea, but the show did a good job of conveying the despair that the characters felt, and it did feel like they were trying to rationalize Ruby's condition, at least for a little bit. Boy were they lucky that their rationalizations turned out to be right.
Blang being canon is also a major plus. There's something inherently funny about the idea that even the Ever After was sick and tired of them dancing around their feelings that it pushed them together.
And Neo's development from a randomly thrown-in whim to a more fleshed out character was really good. I gotta give credit where it's due, that was a really great moment of her just taking a rest to find herself.
Also: Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions.
Can you tell that I'm excited about Raven and Summer interacting?
All in all: Good Volume. There are some things that irked me, and there was definitely some questionable writing decisions, but I was overall satisfied with the improvements to the writing, action, and character development.
Now if only the company could do the same.
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If you haven't already read this.
I suggest you do. Like now. Cause this! Cause this WHOLE thing—is such a mess that all I could do was laugh while reading it. Seriously.
In the meantime I'm gonna show you my "favorite" things from it
First off I wanna say is that we right. We right with some the theories, like Treekyo being the villain but they scrapped it and I BET MY SWEET ASS HAG RT FOUGHT HARD SO TREEKYO WASN'T THE VILLAIN. THEY WANTED AN EXCUSE FOR KIKYO TO BE DRAMA AGAIN NOT JUST FOR INUKAG BUT SAUCERIB TOO. Can you imagine how much more hate Kikyo would've gotten and that was really her? Working with pedomaru and all.
Number 2)
I remember mentioning this a couple of times in my discord. Another thing that was scrapped. Can you imagine how much a certain fandom would seethe if Towa didn't stay with her "biological family" in the feudal era?
Number 3
This shit was such a hot indecisive mess that even Rumiko was fighting people at shitrise. Still the old hag let them violate her own work in the end. Just by reading this, you can tell they didn't know what to do and I think it was highly possible that good things even including a different mother for the twins was there but it was scrapped thanks to Pedosawa pushing and pushing this shit, saying everyone would like it till they all just relented to shut him up. But ofc it blew up in their face. That original very early leak that said things like Setsuna staying with Kohaku and Rin would take her of Moroha is getting more credibility by the day. It was possible that this was the original pitch but they shitted all over it.
Also yes, by "Rumiko's feelings" they mean of RT making sure Saucerib stayed 6ft apart alright 🤡
Number 4
Imagine taking a demon lord that's very ace aromatic asexual or demi whichever you desire to call it, who's true calling mostly is the battlefield and also technically a dad to a little girl (as stated by the author herself) and suddenly turn him OOC...
They really said that a bored Sessh tried what having kids would feel like as an experiment (remember what Narita said), Rin was sadly right there... Then have him say: "0/10 would not recommend" and in the meantime he bounced hoping everyone would die in the fire.
💀
A demon lord that in og had clear issues with his parents (remember the way he speaks to his mom?), Who wanted to surpass his father... Being a deadbeat is such contradiction to his growth. What were they smoking?
And then finally
Are they really trying to say (or excuse) that Kirinmaru being a loving dad and aswell as being there for his daughter is bad parenting here? But Deadbeatmaru was 10/10 parenting done right?????
Honestly I just want to say that if you want die on the hill that you like this thing despite everything. It's cool, you do you I say and accept whatever consequences come from it, but this is literally the worst sequel in anime history. If this interview doesn't convince you I dunno what will. It's undefendable...
#I'm just taking Moroha and Kirin#and that's it#bye#i'm wheezing#this is so ridiculous#i cant#just cant#peace outs#anti sunrise#anti yashahime#anti rinsess#antisessrin#anti sessrin#never let pedosawa touch inuyasha again please#anti katsuyuki sumisawa
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You know, someone mentioned that RWBY would have worked much better as a video game and honestly... I can see it. Large cast of characters, a main character without much depth, and a simple motivation, that is pretty much there for the sake of the players. A lot of possible side missions, a very simple main mission that forces the player to interact with the rest of the world/characters (and is also isolated by geography). Not to mention how fun it'd probably be with the weapons/powers/classes.
Omg, anon, I’ve thought about this a lot and I wholeheartedly agree. Some random ideas I’ve had on this very topic:
As you say, there’s very large cast of potential, playable characters. Maybe you have to complete the campaign with Team RWBY first and then that unlocks new options like Team JNPR, the Ozluminati, etc.
Maybe a Genshin Impact-esque system where you can switch between members of your team, prioritizing certain characters depending on the situation.
Various endings to unlock depending on how you go about things. If you just mainline the campaign then yeah, you’ll beat Salem, but take the time to explore the world, learn the lore, and you’ll figure out that the Gods were behind her creation to begin with. Oh look, now you get to fight them too. (Yes, I’m still playing around with Hollow Knight.)
Some player choice so that no fan has to just accept RT’s narrow view of a situation. Don’t like Ozpin? Kick him out of your party. Want to take a peaceful approach to dealing with the White Fang? That’s an option. Want to RP as Blake and date Yang? Lots of romance options are available! Obviously, this wouldn’t stop fandom discourse about the ‘correct’ way to go about things (nothing will), but it would allow every fan to have their own, personalized version of the RWBY world.
Lots of achievements that equalize the choices and encourage fans to re-play for different outcomes. Savior: Successfully save the Kingdom of Atlas. vs. Destroyer: Drop the Kingdom of Atlas.
A MacGuffin hunt for Relics becomes a lot more interesting when you’re the one traversing the world trying to reach them.
Lots and lots and LOTS of side huntsmen contracts to fulfill, allowing you to level up, collect resources, explore the world, and generally take a break from the main, ‘save the world’ story-line. Threats don’t have the same urgency in video games as they do in TV, so characters doing side quests, or just hanging out, doesn’t feel like a moral failing in the way the whole mansion situation does. I mean, at this point it’s a cultural joke that most gamers will do everything but the main story.
Maybe throw in an online mode so that friends can all do huntsmen contracts together. Lots of Rubys running around, helping out random townsfolk.
PvP too. All your Character vs. Character dreams can come true.
RT could just keep designing cool outfits for players to unlock (no micro-transactions please…). Want to play as Jaune in his armor? Done. Want to play in his bunny sweatshirt? Done. His dress from the dance? You got it.
Abilities no longer need to make sense in terms of characterization, or timing. Why is Ren’s semblance suddenly different? Because he gained enough ex to unlock the next level, that’s why.
Actually, semblances would need to be re-worked to a certain extent. You want them all to be battle-useful in some manner. In the story-world being able to hid from grimm is definitely a good thing, but that’s not a particularly fun mechanic.
We eliminate the issue of power scaling all together. Why did such-and-such win this fight? Because they’re a higher level and the player is more skilled, next question.
Getting to play around with various types of combat: your weapon, semblance, dust, cool combos with your party members, etc. Are you a player who learns the whole system and figures out precisely the best strategy for success, or are you gonna run in screaming with your hammer and pound the grimm to death? Either option (mostly) works.
Characters can remain pretty static throughout the whole game. We don’t need Ruby to go through a major character arc. She’s just here to hack-and-slash her way through bad guys.
Characterization overall comes about primarily through short interactions and generated responses to various situations. There’s no worries about Ruby’s leadership because it’s you, the player, deciding how this all goes down. There's no big Ace Ops drama because they're just the NPCs helping you through this section of the game.
Death sequence where there’s gold dust, maybe the island, all of it hinting at the ‘true’ ending involving the Gods.
Maybe characters like Pyrrha are still killed off in cut scenes, to give the story some weight, but she’s still available for all the post-campaign stuff.
Like, there could maybe be raids too. Want to finally let Pyrrha kill/trap/un-grimm/whatever Salem? Grab a bunch of buds and take her to Salem’s dungeon.
Big world map that’s slowly unlocked as the group goes on their Relic quest. Do all these environments make sense? Nah. Do they need to? Nah.
Tweaking the plot a bit could lead to some great introductions. You're traversing a new area when a boss fight with Tyrian suddenly starts. It's deliberately scaled so that you can't win. Right as your HP gets low enough Qrow arrives with that badass block, turning the tide. Congrats, you've got a new party member. +3 strength to Ruby because she loves her uncle!
Little details that maintain the vibe of early RWBY, even as the story gets a bit darker. Like, health food. Ruby loves cookies. Nora pancakes. Blake fish. Other characters can eat these things too, but it won’t provide as much of a boost.
Cool insta-kill combos that have a chance to run and inevitably someone creates a mod that increases the percentage like whoa because the animations are that much fun to watch.
Okay, I’ll stop here, but yeah as someone who both loves games and critiques RWBY, I think about this a lot.
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Her Second Return
Just like all of you, and especially my fellow Penny fans, I am absolutely devastated by the Volume 8 finale. I had been in quite a state these last few days, utterly heartbroken, and actually nauseous at times. It feels strange to me to be legitimately grieving a fictional character, but it’s not a bad thing to feel this way. To me, this just shows that CRWBY loves her just as much as us to have written her so well that we connect so completely with her, that it feels like we lost an actual piece of ourselves when she’s gone.
But as you can probably tell by the title, this mega post isn’t gonna be about accepting this end, not in the slightest! Today I want to share canon evidence that can point towards another return of our beloved quirky red headed cinnamon bun! I’m here to spread this hope that I and others in the Nuts & Dolts dolts Discord server have!
I have this separated into many different sections to keep these thoughts organized. With that said, here goes…
A Father’s Words:
In Episode 7 of Volume 7, ‘Worst Case Scenario’ we learn the origins of Penny’s aura, and thus her soul. We also learn that it takes more aura each time she’s brought back. This leaves open an option that could be used at a later point.
Many people theorized that Pietro could indeed revive Penny one more time, which he would absolutely do. But there also lies the possibility that someone else could donate some of theirs, I’m not sure about this as I feel like it’s akin to blood donation where compatibility matters or there's a high risk of altering her, but the possibility is definitely there.
Now, the conversation in Chapter 5 of Volume 8, ‘Amity’ that Pietro and Penny have is an important moment for both Father and Daughter. It was there to show how her death in PvP all that time ago really did have a heavy impact on him and is still affecting him to this day.
Instead of continuing to pretend that everything is A-okay, like he had done for most of Volume 7, he finally lets his true feelings about how it come out to Penny for what is quite likely the first time. Even going so far as to say "Are you asking me to go through that again?" when she offers to take the risk of trying to lift Amity with her power. He wants Penny to be able to live her life.
This entire scene with Pietro established “this is what will likely happen” even if circumstances are much different now, it doesn’t negate the fact that this is a key part of Penny’s story. Scenes like these have a purpose beyond simply making an eventual death all the more heart wrenching. Her never actually getting to live her life makes those scenes basically moot. It makes them effectively pointless from narrative point of view. Unless there's more to it.
Building Relationship:
The build up between Ruby and Penny the last two volumes has been absolutely phenomenal with a definite destination in mind, and this doesn’t feel like that destination. So much of the arc of this season was to help Penny. This girl that our main protagonist absolutely adores and treasures, it would just be awful to throw all of that out for what amounts to an avoidable end. Why use so much of their precious and very limited runtime on deliberately building up this relationship only to end it abruptly, and permanently, when they’re separated?
In my opinion, RT is definitely smarter now than to intentionally set up what was really looking like a budding gay relationship only to kill one of them for good. If N&D wasn't actually going in a romantic direction, why would they leave in all of the romance-adjacent stuff that they got, that's not how ‘just friends’ act. And that is not something you use such valuable time building up for absolutely no pay off whatsoever...
Representation of Hope:
At its core, RWBY has always been about hope. It’s not at the forefront the whole time, but there's been an underlying theme of hopefulness that has persisted since it began. Some describe the show as a Hopepunk, I personally find this to describe RWBY really well. This genre of storytelling is about caring for things deeply and the courage and strength it takes to do so. It’s about never submitting or accepting the way things are. Fighting for what you believe in and standing up for others. RWBY fits all of this extremely well. How does this relate to Penny? She has been shown to be a sign of hope for everyone, but especially for Ruby, the main main protagonist. A prerequisite for a Hopepunk story is the hope.
Her first death in V3 was something that fundamentally changed Ruby. For the first time in the series, we see our main character all but broken by this event. With the loss of Penny, immediately afterwards, Ruby’s hope followed. She made up for it through determination and force of will. We see it affect her multiple times throughout the journey to Volume 7. But upon her return in V7, Hope reached a high point for everyone, the sheer relief on Ruby’s face is plain to see!
In V8 chapter 5 ‘Amity’, Penny literally raises hope by lifting the arena into the sky so Ruby could spread her message. And when she falls, and Amity with her, the connection is lost and hope plummets again. From there things take a very negative turn with the hack begins to take Penny’s agency.
In chapter 11 ’Risk’ is the point in the arc where everyone is reunited for the moment, so two separate hero stories are no longer a thing at that point in time. For the time being focus seemed to be shifted to care about the characters and how they’re going to solve the current problems. This is also where Ruby reaches her lowest emotional point in the season.
It’s not huge, but it’s interesting how connected this is. Before Ruby and Yang share a good cry over learning the possible fate of Summer, Yang brings up restoring optimism and hope to Ruby after the younger sister storms out of the room in frustration. This is where Penny’s scenes take up the rest of the episode. Getting Penny back in control of her own body and safe again is what makes the ending of the episode much brighter, when just 5 minutes before Ruby had been distraught and scared. This then spills over into the group coming up with the plan to use the staff, putting the main group in a much better mood. Of all the things to go right, it’s interesting that it’s Penny.
Things go wrong with the plan in the end and Penny dies. I find it interesting that once again, Penny got them hopeful in their chances of doing something right. Given said plan succeeded but at the cost of Penny of all people, Penny is shown to be the beginning and end of hope for them
The highest and lowest points for hope seem to directly correlate to when Penny’s around. When she comes back again, hope will return too, just like it had before. And because she’ll likely be back for good this time, the second return will probably be close to when Ruby is nearing the complete abandonment of hope. This would be pretty par for the course of the show honestly.
A little aside, but in a sense, Penny also represents Unity. The CCT in Vale fell after her first death, knocking out global communications and the unifying connection it gave. When it was restored for the briefest moment, she was there. Her body connected so she could allow for its launch, her soul lighting the night to hold up Amity with every ounce of her strength. So of course when the Hack succeeds and she falls, she takes global comms down again with her. At a smaller scale - even at the Hack's second last attempt to control her, she draws everyone in the Schnee Manor together. At the start of the volume, Yang states the one thing that they all agree on is not surrendering Penny.
Unity seems appropriate for one whose first song and wish was for but one friend, who would go on to find so many more in the process, and permit for a moment the possibility of all Remnant becoming friends once more. Where she first died, the name of the episode devoted to her story - Amity, "friendship", from the Latin root amicus, "friend" - she almost lives and dies with the very possibility of a united Remnant. It's no wonder she's a priority target for Salem, the great divider, and it seems natural that her next restoration may very well allow the next bid to bring the world together.
The Void Screams:
Moments after Penny's death, we hear a weird scream in the void space. It was a guttural, pained, angry scream, almost like the void space itself was crying out. All the portals shuddered and flickered when it happened.
Some think that this scream was Salem returning, but that happens earlier than Penny’s death, her return is signaled with cinder's arm acting up. We know this because after the arm finished flailing uncontrollably, Cinder said triumphantly "she's back." If it were Salem screaming, it would have happened after she fixed herself, but it didn't.
And I doubt Cinder would have been surprised or unsettled by it considering she was happy Salem returned not long before it. And why would a Salem scream affect the portals anyway, she has no connection to the staff or it's magic.
Another thing to consider is the fact sound is not transmitted through the portals. Otherwise, they would've heard Oscar and the rest calling for them, or the screams of the citizens of Mantle and Atlas. This lowers the possibility of that scream being from Salem even further.
The sound really seems to be coming from something else entirely within the void, and that something is not at all happy. There’s also the fact that Penny was the only person who died in the void space, everyone else was just thrown out of it like Ruby and Co. The only logical cause to me is Penny. Her body was a product (or byproduct) of the same creation magic that made the void space, her blood seems to have been a trigger.
Now I can't be sure about it, but this makes me feel like Penny is almost a part of creation itself? For whatever this thing is to be so angry, that is the only explanation I can think of currently. But all of this could possibly relate to the Narnia allusion of 'the willing victim killed in a traitor's stead' that others have brought up, which will be covered next.
Narnia Parallels:
Atlas has several parallels and references to fictional places (putting aside real world ones like the United States). One of those is that of Narnia, both on the surface and on a deeper level. It is a land of winter year round, where people struggle to survive and there is a present divide between those loyal to the current Monarch and those who are not. James is a parallel to Jadis, the White Witch, a ruler whose thoughts and cares aren’t exactly centered around the actual well being of the people. The hologram table in Ironwood’s office is designed to look like stone, like the Stone Table which features prominently in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. He has a handpicked cadre of special agents/secret police, like how Maugrim and his wolves served Jadis. Another key parallel is how Jadis’s winter sets in to oppress and kill everyone in Narnia, but the Witch provides aid and protection to her loyal followers. She has all the power to spare harm to others, and uses it only for the loyal. As soon as Mantle splits from James and Atlas, no care is taken to protect them from the cold of Solitas even though he has every ability to turn the heating grid back on. His protection is only for the loyal.
Now that the parallel is established, let's look into the details. Starting with how James plays the role of Jadis.
"I had forgotten that you are only a common boy. How should you understand reasons of State? You must learn, child, that what would be wrong for you or for any of the common people is not wrong in a great Queen such as I. The weight of the world is on our shoulders. We must be freed from all rules. Ours is a high and lonely destiny." These are the words Jadis says in the Magician’s Nephew to justify the blood civil war she and her sister had waged for rulership of Charn, before she came to Narnia. She won that war, technically, but only after the last battle had been lost and her sister had marched right up to her so that they were face to face. Jadis’s troops were dead, her followers had surrendered, and the capital was under full control of her sister. But, she still had one card, one ultimate play to win and prove the throne of Charn was rightfully her. The Deplorable Word, a piece of old magic that killed everyone and everything except for her on Charn. It was monstrous, senseless, cruel beyond measure. But it got her that hollow victory. This mindset, the disregard for the people except as tools for her own will, the ultimate ‘aoe’ destructive move that no one had even considered her using, the unwillingness to stop even when by all practical measures the war is over, is a shocking parallel to James. In many ways, he is Jadis in mindset and deed.
Then there is the shared desire for A Thing that both James and Jadis have. For James it’s the Winter Maiden and control over her. For Jadis it’s the Silver Apples from the Tree of Youth. And funnily enough, the Maiden Powers parallel the Apples quiet well. These apples grant power and a life of eternal beauty, but should not be taken or eaten on one’s own initiative. They must be given, a gift granted by another, or only suffering will come from obtaining them. "For the fruit always works — it must work — but it does not work happily for any who pluck it at their own will. If any Narnian, unbidden, had stolen an apple and planted it here to protect Narnia, it would have protected Narnia. But it would have done so by making Narnia into another strong and cruel empire like Charn, not the kindly land I mean it to be.” Jadis’s immortality, and some of her power, come from the fact that she ate an Apple of her own will after stealing her way into the garden where the Tree of Youth had been planted. She gained the eternal life she had wanted and the power along with it, but she did so by taking it and was cursed because of it. Her skin turned pale and her lips blackened as if she were a frozen corpse given life. She will be trapped in a life of misery and hate according to Aslan- oh hey Cinder, how’s having stolen the Power you always wanted working out for you? Cinder had the power she wanted, but she only got hungrier, eager to claim more and increase her might. But in her pursuit she was defeated and humiliated by Raven, had to steal her way out of Mistral, and then suffered defeat after defeat while in Atlas. Only in the end, when she didn’t keep pursuing the Maiden Power, did she get any kind of victory.
The reason these parallels to Narnia are so important is one of the most famous events of the series. The cracking of the Stone Table and the rebirth of Aslan after his death. ‘When a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.’ Well, the ‘Stone Table’ in James’s office has cracked, and Penny strikes me as a pretty willing victim. She has never actually committed any actual treachery or harm, as she was the Protector of Mantle, and fought for its and Atlas’s people until the very end. And because of her death, the actual traitor, Winter, who loyally served James until he had gone too far, was saved. Through Penny’s self sacrifice, Winter was saved. So now Death itself will start working backward.
(Major props to my friend @catontheweb for writing this section, I was getting nowhere with it, if they weren't there this part wouldn't exist!)
Norse Mythology:
The tree we see in the post credit scene gives off some serious Yggdrasil vibes. Also called the World Tree, it is essentially all of creation in Norse Mythology. It connects all nine realms, including the God realms of Asgard, the human realm of Midgard, and the underworld of Hel.
Humans are born from the branches of Yggdrasil. The web of Wyrd is woven for every person once they're born, and their path is set from there regardless of how many times the souls cycle over. But at the end, they're destined to end up in one of the worlds, for a myriad of reasons.
I believe Penny landed closest to this giant tree. She was on the center platform in the void space, so if that space is directly above the island(?) the tree is on, it makes sense for her to fall by the center nearest to the tree. This would not only open up all kinds of possibilities for the volume in general, but it would also create options for Penny.
The whole of Yggdrasil’s representations fit well into Penny’s story. Birth, growth, death and rebirth. We can count Penny’s appearance in V7 as birth for now, her growth is all her development in leaving =the military and becoming a Maiden, her death just happened, and her rebirth would be her revival. And this is a cycle she’s gone through before.
The Norse god Odin and Yggdrasil have quite a connection. In one story, Odin cut out one of his own eyes to gain knowledge from a pool underneath Yggdrasil. The only one that fell whose eyes alone are incredibly significant to the story was Ruby. So, they could choose to have her allude to Odin by having Ruby make some kind of deal with whatever entity likely rules over this magical place. An eye for Penny’s life.
There’s another story about Odin, Yggdrasil and the pursuit of knowledge. Odin so loved knowledge, that he sacrificed himself in a quest to learn the deeper magic of runes. It was believed one could only learn the magic spells from runes in death. So, Odin hung himself on Yggdrasil for nine days as an offering, and teetered between life and death. After he mastered the last spell on the ninth night, he ritually died and all light was extinguished from the world. Odin’s death lasted until midnight, when he was reborn and light returned to the world.
This story doesn’t fit Penny perfectly, but allusions often don’t. So If she really did land near the tree, she could be another loose representation of Odin’s story here. What she did wasn’t for knowledge, but to save her friends and keep Cinder from getting the Winter Maiden power. She believed it necessary that she sacrifice herself to achieve this end. As we established, Penny represents Hope, so her death means the loss of hope. This parallels Odin’s story of his death meaning the loss of light itself. So if this theory holds up, it would make this death temporary, until her rebirth and the return of Hope with her once again.
Alternatively, Ruby has the potential of loosely representing Odin in this story as well. Odin later uses the knowledge of the runes to do many things, but the most relevant one right now is awakening the dead. Both of these stories are about making a personal sacrifice to gain something that is desired. Ruby would absolutely make such sacrifices if it meant saving Penny.
It is said that Odin lived “according to his highest will unconditionally, accepting whatever hardships arise from that pursuit, and allowing nothing, not even death, to stand between him and the attainment of his goals." This sounds like Penny's arc of accepting the WM powers. This is more just a general connection between Penny and Odin, but I found it interesting.
Side Note: I encourage anyone who’s interested to look into RWBY connections to Norse Myth, there’s a surprising amount of things that feel eerily similar to the show. Likely just coincidental, but it’s fun to think about!
(If I got any of this wrong, I sincerely apologize by the way. I researched as best I could, but I admit it could have been lacking.)
Ambrosius and the Staff:
Ruby told Ambrosius "we kinda wanna keep her around longer than that" as part of her very specific instructions. Then Penny died about ten to fifteen minutes, at the absolute most thirty minutes later in-universe. I don’t know about you, but to me that seems very short to be considered ‘longer than that’. Technically it is, but when writing a story and a character says something like that, you typically don’t just kill the character they were referring to basically right away. It makes sense for a week-by-week watch, but in a volume binge, which many viewers do, it becomes ironic how fast Penny dies after being removed from her robotic body.
The first time we see the staff of creation being used, it's to save Penny. Using the staff of creation to help Penny is a sign of how incredibly important she is.
They’ve even got this entire transformation sequence for her, so it wouldn’t make sense for them to throw all that away two episodes later. In a meta context, it’s a massive waste of time and budget considering the asset creation for Penny.
Penny is a character who has already hopped bodies two times. And now we're supposed to just believe that this time it really is a final death? Just two episodes after we were explicitly told her body isn't what matters, that "Her soul is who she is" and that "the mechanical parts are just extra"? From a writing perspective, it feels strange, like your breaking a promise right after making it. And frankly, CRWBY is better than that, which makes me think this is not the actual end for her.
A possible connection between Penny, Ruby, and the Staff (thus Creation) can be seen in the intro. As Ruby is falling and being dragged down into the darkness, she is shown reaching for the staff. In the void space, Penny is the one with the relic. So with Penny having this strong connection to Creation, and the lyrics “fight for every life” playing as Ruby reaches for the staff, it’s a safe assumption to make, with the knowledge we now have, that the Staff of Creation represents Penny in this particular moment. Which could mean that V9 will be about, at least partially, fighting for Penny’s life.
Musical Hints:
In terms of music, Friend, as a song for Penny, is very dissonant from the episode itself. The song is oddly cheerful for Penny’s recent untimely death, and it overall highlights the wrong parts of death. It’s simply too happy to be a song about losing one of the most, if not the most joyous characters in the entire show. The song also abruptly ends. There’s no outro, and while this could symbolize the fact that Penny died young, it could be that the song itself is unfinished in a story sense.
What do we hear just before the song finishes, though? A progression of notes that sounds eerily similar to the last line of the opening of Volume 8. The notes for “Fight for ev’ry life” and “Who fin’lly felt alive'' share a similar melodic structure, they aren’t perfect clones of each other, but they are incredibly similar, to the point where it seems intentional. Penny may very well be the life that the opening song is fighting for. It is also worth noting that the line “Fight for every life” comes just after “Sometimes it’s worth it all to risk the fall,” which is the exact wording used for the description in the Volume 8 finale. Team RWBY risked the fall, yet, strangely the opposite of fighting for every life happened with Penny’s sacrifice. Perhaps the time to fight for every life has yet to happen, and we will see it come Volume 9.
For another thing, the lyrics for Friend are entirely centered on Penny’s feelings for Ruby, to the point where they read very much like a bittersweet love song. The music itself is incredibly cheerful, as mentioned previously, creating a mood whiplash with the end of the volume. Why would we hear a song about Penny’s feelings for Ruby, sounding like a love song, if her death is supposed to be a tragic sacrifice akin to Pyrrha’s? The song may very well be giving a clue into its future use in the show proper.
If this was meant to be a good bye song, why make it so cheerful and romantic sounding? There's only one part about her dying and even then, it's just too accepting and goes right back into cheerfulness. The song is also pretty hopeful, telling Penny's story in a fairly chronological order. And the part where she talks about sacrifice is quite pointedly followed up by one about feeling alive. It also ends with the super cheerful chorus, the word "alive" being the last... (Remember the episode title: The Final Word)
(I want to thank my friend @shadow-0f-x for writing the majority of this section! I was struggling to choose how to tackle it as I am not well versed in music theory.)
What We Didn’t See:
It is likely that Penny understood Jaune's semblance better than him and figured something out about it’s abilities in the same way that she understood Ruby's semblance better than her. She had plenty of time to observe his semblance up close as he boosted her aura to stave off the virus. Because of that intentionally timed cutaway in the finale, we don’t get to hear her explain herself after her strained “Trust me.” All of that seems really suspicious to me.
Pyrrha Parallel:
Pyrrha and Penny both sacrificed themselves to stop or stall Cinder. Jaune tried to convince the both of them to stop. With Pyrrha, he failed, while with Penny he actively helped her sacrifice herself. Doesn’t make sense for the guy who was determined not to let anyone else do what Pyrrha did, unless of course Penny assured him she’d be alright.
The Moment:
RT including the suicide hotline in the description shows that they're aware that Penny basically committed assisted suicide, seeing it as a noble sacrifice worth doing to save her friends. They're aware, and I believe they're smart enough to condemn that decision to hell and back.
The best way to do that in my opinion is to pull her back into the land of the living and let her witness first hand the consequences of throwing her life away so freely. This would show Penny how her actions affected others so maybe she could learn to truly value herself. To not think herself expendable. It would be bold and unwise to portray this choice as something good, unless it was going to be called upon later and be pointed out for how horrible it really is.
On top of this, Penny was way too content with her death, happy even. There's no way team RWBY is letting her stay content with it. It’s almost as though we're supposed to join Ruby and Co. in calling bullshit on what Penny is saying and doing because no, Penny, this is not how things are meant to work. It's as if Penny was basically saying "I want to die for my friends" because most of the volume had been about everyone else making sure she didn't die. She knows it will hurt them. She knows.
At the peak of it all, a choice like this will totally destroy Ruby. It may very well be her breaking point for Volume 9. Curiously, the moment itself is written like it’s the first choice Penny’s ever made, yet the entire Volume shows this isn’t the case. However, this is the first choice that Penny’s made solely independently and it’s rather pertinent that the choice she makes is a mistake. Outside of giving Winter the Maiden gift and saving the day temporarily, this sacrifice will not have any lasting positive effects. Jaune will be saddled with the grief of killing Penny. Ruby will have to live with losing her best friend and not being able to protect her a second time, and Winter now has the burden of the Winter Maiden abilities, making her a target of Cinder. This is a bad thing, and Penny needs to see the long term consequences.
Transfer of Power:
As we all know, colors in RWBY are really important and get a lot of focus in the show. That means the yellow we see as Penny gives Winter the Maiden Powers was intentional and likely important, no matter how insignificant it may seem. It’s possible that the transfer effect being yellow could have something to do with Jaune’s semblance. When Fria gave the power to Penny, the effect was very much blue, so this transfer should have been green since she was the one giving it this time. The weirdness of this transfer and the focus on color in RWBY really makes it look like something’s up with how that went down.
A little off topic, but Penny saying "I won't be gone, I'll be part of you." makes me think... Winter is smart, so when she gets time to think about what Penny said, maybe she'll arrive at the same question many in the audience came to; if she's literally part of Winter, can they be separated again? If Winter starts questioning that, the possibility of Penny coming back just skyrockets.
Fria actually tells Penny "I'll be gone" before giving her powers up, which is an interesting contrast to Penny telling Winter "I won't be gone". She may have gotten that line from Winter be all philosophical in V7, saying Fria was now a part of Penny, but it hits differently coming from an actual Maiden. S5o it’s possible that Maidens usually actually will be gone, but Jaune's semblance did something to change that.
This could go well with the theory that they won't need to find an aura transfer machine, or build another one, because Jaune will have a semblance evolution allowing him to do the transfer instead. It might actually be that this evolution already happened and the golden light we saw was Jaune transferring penny's aura to Winter in some way?
An observation that I find interesting is when Penny gives winter the powers, not only is the aura yellow but penny completely glows yellow too, and she obviously starts to disappear, but she doesn’t seem to fully disappear, she just glows.
It's possibly a fading out effect and she does fully fade but animation makes bright light easier, and so we don't actually see her disappear because she's dead and not gone. But it does once again emphasize the color yellow here!
And the color is coming from Penny, it does go up Winter's arm a bit, but Penny is clearly the source. This transfer is so weird and I’m not really sure how to interpret it. There's just actually no reason that we are aware of to make the effect yellow here is the thing. Unless it has something to do with either Jaune or Ambrosius, or potentially a combination of both...
Jaune’s Aura:
The way we see Jaune's aura break in the finale is strange. His aura shouldn't be breaking here. It had been long enough since he was boosting Penny, he's had time to recharge, and it didn't look like it was a strain on him at all. Plus, we know he has a lot of aura, so there probably wasn't too much to recharge in the first place.
He has a massive amount of aura, it has never broken before as far as I remember. Even if it has though, that doesn’t make this occurrence any less odd. It should absolutely never be a one-hit KO. We didn't see anything that would've drained it, that should not have been enough to break his aura. Unless he did something - something that would require a huge amount of aura - that we just didn't see. That amount of aura drain is far more than just an attempt at healing would do, Jaune absolutely did something with his semblance that took up almost all of his aura.
Pinocchio Allusion:
As any Penny fan knows, her character allusion is Pinocchio, the puppet who became a real boy. Penny deviates from the allusion by having always been a real girl, as Ruby is quick to point out, but she shares many story beats with her original story including multiple deaths. In the original story, Pinocchio dies from being hung by his own strings due to his poor decision making and he dies. Sounds a little familiar, does it not? This is where his tale originally ended. Readers were unsatisfied with this ending however, so the author decided to change the story by reviving Pinocchio and teaching him to be more careful.
Unlike Pinocchio making all the wrong decisions, Penny often makes the right ones, or ones she thinks is right, when concerning others. While usually a good thing, this has meant Penny almost giving herself up multiple times during V8, her last attempt being successful. This is where Penny and Pinocchio begin to share similarities again. They are both very reckless when it concerns themselves. This carelessness comes from different places, but it ends with the same result of them endangering their lives and even sometimes losing them.
In the Disney movie, Pinocchio dies by drowning after going to rescue Geppetto and washes up on the shore (like the beach in V8’s post credit scene). His father is devastated and takes him home to grieve, but as a reward for his selflessness in rescuing his father, the Blue Fairy returns and brings him back to life, as well as granting him humanity. Penny sacrificed her life as well, and it stands to reason that she should be rewarded for it, much like her allusion was.
Penny got her maiden powers from someone with blue aura and then gave her powers to someone with blue aura. So it could be that not only Ambrosius, but Fria and Winter as well represent the Blue Fairy. It could be set up for Winter helping to bring Penny back to life once more. It’s an out there theory I admit, but it’s not outright impossible either. The Blue Fairy in Pinocchio saved him three times that I know of, so RWBY having three representations does make sense.
Geppetto wished for him to live as a real boy, but it depended on what path Pinocchio took. This is very reminiscent of Penny and Pietro. Pietro wants to see her live her life, and surely with him absent in V8C14 that didn't work, despite Penny choosing. Her father did not see her happy enough to live her life, and will only be able to learn her death through others. But Pinocchio's themes were life and being alive. So the likelihood that this is not her end yet is quite high!
A Girl That Fell Through the World:
Penny could be the girl who fell through the world. The girl in the story fled the consequences of a choice. The only person who chose her ultimate fate was Penny. The others were pushed into the void, but she chose to die. The consequence of her choice is Ruby’s grief first and foremost, which Penny won’t see. The girl who fell through the world does come back though, and the world will be changed severely with Penny’s absence. Alternatively, it could also be Penny coming back to Wonderland or wherever they currently are, as long as it’s unrecognizable to her.
What Returning Brings:
Others might say another return would have no story relevant purpose, but I wholeheartedly disagree. Penny gives a profoundly youthful, joyous, and wondrous outlook on the world and story that we hadn't seen since Ruby in Volumes 1-3(not the end), Penny returning would bring a much needed levity back in after the despair they will undoubtedly be going through. While not necessarily a huge thing in most other shows, for RWBY, a show largely about keeping up hope, an ounce of such relief is a necessity.
As much as I hate saying it, Penny’s death does actually make some narrative sense because she had to pass on the Maiden powers. (They could have done this in a number of ways, and I personally think they chose rather poorly, but I digress.) Throughout this whole volume, we can see Penny seemingly being set up to join the main cast, but would have been too strong with the powers. This also accomplishes ridding her of the burden of responsibility that comes with being a Maiden and lets her obtain the freedom that’s so important to her character.
Once she returns, seeing this grief that her actions caused, particularly to Ruby, will get her to realize more that her actions can have serious repercussions. She made a choice, but that choice hurt the people she loves. She must have known that it would but I’m not sure she ever realized just how much.
I didn’t want this post to be heavy in the shipping department, so I largely left it out, but I am going to say this one thing that could have an impact. If Nuts & Dolts is on its way to being canon, which this volume makes it feel highly likely, this could be a catalyst.
It could prompt an arc for the both of them in which Penny learns to live her life fighting for her loved ones, rather than sacrificing it for them. A relationship could potentially start from there. And Ruby seeing Penny learn these things may also help her to stop doing the occasional but very dangerous and reckless things she does. Ruby witnessing Penny coming to terms with what she did to the people that care about her would actually make her stop to think “wait, is this how everyone else would feel if I got myself killed?” That would be a very important moment of character growth for her.
I’m certain there are other significant things that Penny returning can bring to the show. And there are definitely more sections I could add to this. At this point though, assuming anyone even made it this far, I think I’ve been going long enough already. So let’s just roll into the outro!
As painful and hopeless as it seems, I'm choosing to trust them with this because there is absolutely no way they didn't see backlash coming. The way this finale went makes me think that they calculated for backlash and aren’t jumping into something they don’t have a plan to recover from. Whether this trust is unfounded or not remains to be seen, but I don’t think it is currently. I do think, however, that the cause of this backlash was a major misstep. Now that it has happened though, they have a chance to do something good with it.
I know for a lot of you, trust in CRWBY has been damaged, some even irreparably so. And for those that feel this way, I don’t blame you. My trust in them took a hit too, but isn’t broken completely yet. There are many ways that they can bring her back that would make sense with the narrative, they have the ability to make it right, and after going over all of the hints and general weirdness of things many times, I think they will.
I'm feeling pretty confident now and I really didn't expect that to happen at all to be honest. But discussing and theorizing with the discord server seriously helped get my hopes back up surprisingly fast! It’s actually thanks to all of them that this gigantic post even happened! So thanks a ton my fellow Dolts! And a special thanks to!!
@arcana-amicus
@catontheweb
@cosmokyrin
@gaydontmesswithme224
@jammatown919
@shadow-0f-x
They really helped get this thing across the finish line!
And thank YOU for reading all~ of this! I sincerely wish it gave you some of the hope and confidence that I now have!
#RWBY#rwby vol8#rwby v8#rwby spoilers#Penny Polendina#nuts and dolts#mechanical rose#a little#Essay#more like dissertation#I haven't written this much in#probably ever actually#Have HOPE people!
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RT just tweeted about Kikyo and she said Kikyo had more impact on Kagome than Inuyasha and Kagome became more mature due to interacting with her. Which makes sense as Kikyo stated to Kaede that Kagome was opening up Inuyasha the way Kikyo wished she had done herself.
No worries your first message was clear (at least to me) and like I said in the other post, if I don't want to answer a message I just won't lol!
I saw the tweet and honestly I thought it was weird? I completely agree that Kagome had to "grow up" and learn to deal with the negative emotions that arose in her whenever Kikyo showed up... but to say that Inuyasha "didn't change" because of resurrected!Kikyo?
I mean like you said Inuyasha did not change positively because of her, but her resurrection definitely affected him negatively?? I mean, if Kikyo had never been resurrected, Inuyasha would have learned the truth about Naraku, would have killed him eventually, and would have had the satisfaction of feeling like he avenged Kikyo. But in the story, he failed to protect Kikyo twice from Naraku (on Mt Hakurei and then her final death) which only made his guilt so much worse than it was after her first (real) death. Also the whole trying to drag him to hell and claiming his life? He literally said he feels like he doesn't deserve be happy and live because of that 🤨
Maybe I'm just not understanding this correctly or maybe she really just meant "change" as in "maturing" and it that case yeah I guess he did not. Like you said, despite what Sunrise tries to add in their filler episodes, Kikyo herself knows that Kagome has made more progress in her relationship with Inuyasha (in only 78 chapters!) than she ever did with him when she was alive:
Also the fact that one of the main things Rumiko has to say about Kikyo is that she loved exploring the negative emotions that she caused in Kagome... it explains a lot. I personally wish she would have let their relationship grow and move past that. It would have been really nice to see them start to work together and understand each other more, especially after the scene where Kagome saved Kikyo from the pool of miasma. That's my main complaint about the series and if I could be in charge of a IY reboot I would definitely give them positive interactions that aren't about Inuyasha 🤷♀️
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