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cor-lapis · 4 months

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I decided to have a go at doing my own redesigns because these three are my favourites and I love them very much. further notes + sources under the readmore (warning: lots of text). I did my best with the research, but if there's anything I overlooked, I'd really appreciate people letting me know :)

Tighnari:

My main source for Tighnari was this excellent thread, from which I looked up each item of clothing individually. Since djellabas tend to be quite long, and Tighnari needs mobility for forest ranger activities, I figured he would cut and re-hem the lower half. He also has a lot of clothing pieces that are traditionally multicoloured, but to keep his design cohesive I decided to use the same colours across different items, but using a larger palette of colours than I would usually. I like the bright colours on him a lot though!

There are also some minor details I just changed because I wanted to. The flower on his chest is now a nilotpala lotus, because I thought it was nice to include his acension material/the material he asks you to help gather. The dirt stains/scuff marks are because rainforests are muddy and I wanted the design to emphasise Tighnari being very practical and hands-on with his work (see also, the specimen belt).

Finally, I shrunk the magnifying glass on his back (because I'm pretty sure it's meant to be his first magnifying glass toy and that thing is very large for a child to handle) and gave him an undercut because it seemed right. Also, I merged his front and back trailing cloths into a scarf type of thing that he could wrap around his nose and mouth to prevent inhaling spores from mushrooms.

Collei:

COLLEI my beloved. I had a mild nightmare trying to figure out a specific source culture for her design, but nobody seemed to know specifics and her outfit wasn't matching with any traditional dress I looked up, so in the end decided to keep the overall look the same. Just in case I assigned her something else, but then it turned out I missed her actual inspiration.

Anyway, I made her shoes simpler (no fur, heels, and open toes in the rainforest seemed reasonable to me), and gave her shorts. I liked the green colour because it's pretty unique under a dark dress, and pairs nicely with Nahida's white dress + green undersides. Amber's tie stays, but I made most of her jewellery smaller since it felt a little clunky for a trainee ranger.

Her earring and necklace(?) are allusions to the Evil Eye and the Khmissa/Hamsa, both symbols of protection. Especially considering the fact they're meant to ward off evil, and very common across multiple MENA cultures, it seemed fitting for Collei to have them. Also, she has Eleazar scars, and I used the design for her stockings as inspiration for the combination knee braces (similar to those used for arthritis, since Eleazar also causes stiff limbs and I HC that people affected would probably still need some recovery support)/knee pads (in the case of a fall). I like the idea that Kaveh would have helped make them for her (tangent but the fic Here is the House explores similar ideas; it's really really good, I heavily recommend it). Finally, she has curly hair because I thought it would be cute.

Cyno:

Here's the thread I found for Cyno. The main critique was to do with the eras from which each aspect of his clothing drew inspiration, but I admittedly wouldn't be able to do much about this without a lot of research. One thing I did try and verify was the small strip of cloth on the left of his chest, and I found a few wall murals where the people seem to be wearing similar strips of cloth? (example here; rightmost figure) Therefore, I didn't remove it, but if someone wants to explain Ancient Egyptian clothing history to me I'd be really interested to hear it 6.6

I might iterate on the design in the future, but for now the changes are mostly HC territory. Cyno wearing his hair in locs (a protective hairstyle) makes sense for someone who does a lot of hiking after rogue scholars, and I also gave him quite old and faded top surgery scars because healthcare is canonically free in Sumeru (thanks for that information, al-Haitham)(though tbf Cyno makes bank anyway). I also adjusted the colours a bit, since Genshin tends to use desaturated shades for metallic elements.

I also considered giving Cyno more scars, but figured that it could indicate Hermanubis' presence that someone you'd expect to get injured a lot is relatively scar-free (i.e. some sort of godly healing factor/resistance to damage). However, we know next to nothing about Hermanubis, so Cyno having a lot of scars also makes sense. This paragraph is mostly just a cry for help cyno story quest 2 literally any more elaboration about the nature of Hermanubis' pact and the Temple of Silence.

Conclusion

I wasn't intending to write one when I started the explanations but this got REALLY long so if you made it this far, thank you so so much ToT please check out the links; the threads especially were a great resource, and I'm grateful that people take the time to make them <3 genshin's character design department are cowards but I'm glad I learned some new things through the redesign process

#FINALLY #IT'S DONE #I don't know why this took so long. maybe because I was trying new art style stuff #anyway I like how this came out!! my favourite guys #my main thoughts for each of them were like. tighnari <- kind of a chad. collei <- should get to wear shorts. cyno <- gap moe #<- i say having written 9 paragraphs about the development thoughts under the readmore. wahey #big shoutout to everyone who draws the archers ripped. you guys are inspirational #genshin impact #tighnari #collei #cyno #my art

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cyhaitham · 1 year

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Can you summarize the recent quest? Unable to play the game right now and I see you post about it

YA SURE BASICALLY UH. we saved nahida we prevented scaramouche's acension to godhood (he's now in a coma) got his electro gnosis and were able to see the remains of rukkadevata's memories in irimsul. essentially its learned shed cleansed irimsul of forbidden knowledge once before but failed to realize that she herself had become tainted by it; as a result in order to fully cleanse irimsul for good Nahida had to absorb her remains and erase her from the world; everyone now thinks nahida had been sumeru's archon all along and that 500 years ago she exhausted her power and cus she wasnt powerful anymore the akademiya locked her up; nobody remembers rukkhadevata except the traveler. Rukkahadevata's remaining essence also told Nahida that she was born from a branch of irimsul making her effectively rukkhadevata's reincarnation. after that the doctor showed up and put paimon and the traveler to sleep and negotiated with nahida for both her and scara's gnosis; her conditions for the electro gnosis was that the doctor erase all of his clones, which he agreed to and (presumably) did. then for hers the doctor offered to share some knowledge with her that she didnt know, supposedly forbidden knowledge i think he said? not sre. anyway he told her about the rumor that the skies of teyvat are fake, semi-canonizingthe fake teyvat theory. also nahida answered some questions for the traveler; shes shutting off the akasha for good now that the akademiyas been defeated, shes hidden scara as hes in a coma, and, the biggest bombshell: irimsul had recorded information on the traveler's sibling, leading Nahida to the conslusion that their sibling is from teyvat. im forgetting stuff probably but ya lots and lots of lore happened

#gi spoilers #forgot to answer earlier sorry

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swiss-army-fangirl · 4 years

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For the dnd asks, 16 24 27 45 for Morrigan, 11 22 26 for Eve, 44 for both

I promise I didn’t forget about this. I just got slammed with work but I’m here now

Morrigan “How Is She Not Dead Yet?” Aniborys

(16) Which does your character idealize most: happiness or success?

happiness. she just wants to be happy. she’s had so much bad shit in her life, just let her be happy.

(24) How quick is your character to trust someone else?

you’d think for someone who grew up on the street she’d be super wary of trusting people, but she’s very quick to decide who deserves her trust and who doesn’t. it only takes one or two actions before she decides, and it takes a lot for that trust to be broken, past that point.

(27) How does your character normally deal with confrontation?

she’s all bark, some bite. she’ll use her physical appearance/her wildly proficient intimidation skill to scare people into what she wants, or just try and characteristically strongarm them into a decision. if it comes to physical blows, she’s definetley...less fond of that and less likely to win.

sometimes this is a good thing. sometimes this results in her yelling at a god and almost being smited. it’s fine.

(45) What does your character believe will happen to them after they die? Does this belief scare them?

Morrigan...tries not to think about what comes after death. obviously all these souls have to go somewhere, but she doesn’t want to be there. she’d rather be here, living whatever life she’s living.

Evelynn “Give This Bitch a Break” Drinre Citadel

(11) In what situation was your character the most afraid they’ve ever been?

there’s three moments, in hindsight, that scared the absolute fuck out of her (as someone who enjoys power, though she won’t admit it, feeling powerless is A Living Nightmare)

- the night her mother died, and she, in a less than optimal emotional state, revived her. this only created more trauma for everyone involved.

- the first confrontation in the House of Lords, when she saw Ann in the afterlife, only for the other to disappear. the moment of losing someone she’d finally been able to connect with, possibly forever? not...ideal...

-the immediate before and after of the Acension. realizing what the heralds were doing, that she was dying for real, that there was no (conceivable) way back from it. all in front of her family. bad post op.

(22) What does your character like in other people?

she very much enjoys people that are on her level, or close to it; she values intelligence, integrity, and ambition. she also admires a good sense of humor, and she has a special respect for those who are compassionate, since she doesn’t think herself capable of being so.

so basically she likes all of the harbingers.

(26) How does your character behave around children?

it’s funny that you ask this bc I was thinking about this earlier

she forgets that, while they look like tiny adults, they are in fact Not and require a bit more attention and care. ie: she doesn’t modify her behavior at all.

also: you can’t threaten children, because they’ll just laugh in your face. Cass asked her to babysit her brood once and Eve learned quickly that children don’t really fear authority. to them you’re just “the crazy aunt with wings” and not “archlich, one of the last bloodmagi, harbinger of death”. what the fuck are you supposed to do. you can’t use blood magic on children.

If These Two Ever Met I Don’t Know If They’d Get Along

(44) How easy or difficult is it for your character to say “I love you?” Can they say it without meaning it?

Morrigan will take any opportunity to let someone she cares about know she loves them. This bitch says “I love you” probably as much as she says “fuck”. She’s the kind of friend that ends every conversation with ‘love ya!’ or some variation. Love. Is Stored. in the Tiefling. she always means it when she says it.

Eve, on the other hand, would literally rather die than be emotionally vulnerable, and telling someone you love them and really meaning it is Peak Emotional Vulnerability. It took Ann dying in the House of Lords and Eve finally realizing that while death isn’t permanent for her, it still very much is everyone else, for her to say “I love you” for the first time and finally mean it. She doesn’t say it often, but every time she does, she means it with every part of her soul.

#i'm so sorry this took so long i had...so much work to do yesterday #tori talks #tesobocam #citadellion

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davitrusty · 7 years

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Black King of Scotland

I am just getting so tired and fed up with the Black supremacy shit. Did you know that Shakespeare was Black? So was King James. The dude who had the bible translated. He was also a “screaming sissy” according to some Black “leaders”. So I try to expose a part of a comment thread I came across.

The real Irish were black, Ireland is also known as hibernia which means land of the hebrews

"Hibernia" is a Latin rendering of the Greek "Iouernía" which derives from the Proto-Celtic "Iweriu" which as far as we know means "fat/abundant land". "Land of the Hebrews" would be something like "Hebracia", I think. Even if Hibernia meant land of the Hebrews, I don't know how that makes the "real Irish" black people, seeing as the Hebrews weren't black.

Black people ruled Europe from 193AD up until the 1600s before slavery in America

Why 193AD? Presumably referring to the acension of Septimius Severus?

If black people ruled Europe, and "black people" are some sort of monolithic political entity, then why would they send their subjects to Africa to buy slaves?

There was European slavery in the Americas before the 1600s, as early as 1502, and native forms of slavery long before that.

Septimius Serverus was one of the first black roman emperors

His mother was a Roman and his father was of Berber origin, I don't think that makes him black. He was born in Africa, sure, but that doesn't make someone black.

I wonder if 2000 years from now people will have internet arguments about whether or not F. W. de Klerk was black.

The original kings and queens of europe were black

You'd think the writers and artists of Europe would've noticed this at some stage.

The moors conquered spain from other blacks in spain during the 7 century and invented the spanish language

You don't "invent" languages! Well, most of the time. And if the Moors "invented" the Spanish language then why does it have more in common with Latin than it does with, say, Tamazight? If you go to Morocco today you'll see people who look pretty similar to the Spanish, so I don't think the Moors were black.

Anglo saxon means angelic sons of isaac

even schwartzenegger name means black black

If Delbert Gratz is to be trusted, "Schwarzenegger" means "person from Schwarzenegg", which can refer to two villages in Switzerland and Austria. "Schwarzenegg" means "black ridge", maybe referring to the soil.

Why do you think so many black people have Irish names?

Presumably because of Irish people involved in the slave trade? Also, if the "real Irish" were black then why do more white people have Irish names than black people?

Europe was named after a african queen from crete named europa

Europa wasn't even real! Her father was Phoenician, and neither Crete or Phoenicia are in Africa.

Iberian is the same word as barbarian

WTF?????

that word mean Hebrew

"Hebraios" means Hebrew. "Barbaros" means barbarian. Those are different words, and aren't related, and neither has anything to do with "Iberian".

Scotland is also known as Hebrides which means new hebrew land

Nobody knows was Hebrides means. It refers to a group of Scottish islands, not Scotland itself. And I'd be willing to bet my entire collection of Scottish antique coins that it doesn't mean "Hebrew land".

KENNETH THE (NIGER) RULED SCOTLAND DURING THE MIDDLE AGES

They link to Dub mac Maíl Coluim, whose name was Dub, not Kenneth. Cináed mac Duib, (Kenneth, son of Dubh), was nicknamed "An Donn", which can mean "the brown" (which given that he was a Gael would probably refer to the color of his hair), but more likely means "the powerful".

Brit is a Hebrew word which means covenant

The modern Hebrew word for covenant is transliterated "Vrt", which does sound a little like Brit! Or, alternatively, I've got this crazy theory that Brit is short for British.

England means angel

It means "Land of Angles". Who wrote this, Pope Gregory I?

Iber, eber, ebro, ebo, igbo, ibo, barber, etc is the same word which means (hebrew)

"Iber/Ebro" is the river after which Iberia was named, nobody knows what it means, Ebo/Igbo/Ibo might mean "the people" but certainly doesn't mean Hebrew, a barber is someone who cuts hair and while some barbers might be Hebrews, not all Hebrews are barbers.

There's a bit more to the comment than what I screencapped but it gets outright genocidal so I think I'll quit while I'm ahead.

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ramrodd · 6 years

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Why did Pilate agree to have Jesus crucified?

COMMENTARY:

It’s useful to remember that you are getting four different Roman perspectives on the Passion of the Christ from inside the wall of the Jerusalem Praetorium, which is in diplomatic quarantine inside of Herod’s Jerusalem Palace. In addition, the Jews consider it unclean, generally, and at this time of the Passover, especially to be avoided. Herod, being a Sovereign and above the law of the Torah and Jewish secular courts, probably avoided visiting the Roman section and accepted their prescence in His presence as a price of doing business of being a king, but there were all sorts of hoops an embassy from any provence had to go through. Universally, this was true then and one of the reasons why Donald’s visit with QEII was tres de classe.

Thomas Jefferson refused to bow to any royalty, as an expression American exceptionalism. Jefferson was living on stolen valor at this particular moment because, like Trump and most of the crypto-Nazi assholes like John Bolton, Bill O’Reilly and Richard “Dick” Cheney, America’s favorite war criminal, Jefferson had other priorities than military service but loved to talk tough in a “Revolutionary Firebrand” kind of way.

It’s worth remembering that Jefferson was in a virtual exhile in Paris while the US Constitution was being hammered out. The soldiers that had actually fought the war didn’t want his dillitante ass in the room. Anything Jefferson wrote in the Federalist Papers was as close as he would get to the actual construction of the US Constitution. If you listen, you will tend to find that southern white politicians tend to revere Jefferson above all other of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence because Jefferson didn’t sell them a pig-in-a-poke with the iron-clad nature of the US Contitution established as settle law at Appomattox, which is why Newt Gingrich has based his career message on reversing the outcome of Appomattox.

But that’s another story. The point is, if you follow anything associated with the British Royal Family, now that Sally Hemings is established as a Lady of the Realm and Consort to a Crown Prince, you are familiar with diplomatic niceties. Kings had to talk to Kings and that, in the case of Rome, Pilate represented the Empire and had absolute right of access but it was in Rome’s interests to generally let the locals run the local economy, taxes defining the essential interest. In the economics of Jesus, the tax relationship of Rome to Palestine is a stark example of the Tory Socialism of Reaganomics as it defines the relationship of the GOP Deep State to the American middle class.

And this is my way of establishing the cultural context of the four different accounts of the moment Jesus is remanded by the Jewish powers that be in Jerusalem to the desk sergeant at the entrance to the Praetorium where somewhere between 800 and 2000 Roman soldiers were in the house to defend the house and as a quick reaction force to quell any insurgency that might bubble up with the general agitation of Passover, which was not unlike Spring Break at Daytona or the Vatican for the Pope’s Easter Mass.

This particular garrison was part of the Roman order of battle in Caesarea, which collected Morning Reports from 2 legions based in the region to police the trade routes crossing the African land bridge. As Newt Gingrich would observe, a “choke point”. And this battalion reflected the garrison nature of these two legions, which is to say, they were bloated by design with people. Like the modern Army division, the legion was the smallest unit that could be designed to operate independently. In this case, Caesarea was Roman seat of government, and these two heavy legions reflected the Roman intention to stay.

In comparison, Julius Caesar stripped out all tha ash and trash, cooks, clerks and jerks out of the legions he employed in his campaigns and just kept the lean and the mean. His manpower on the hoof was as small as 4000 lances, but they were the hard core of the hard corps. The legions in Palestine were more like Ringling Brothers circus on the march because they really didn’t have to march all that far most of the time.

And, at that moment, the balance of the two legions was deployed in a seige configuration around Jerusalem as crowd control. Eventually, at Passover in 70, this exact contigency would obtain, with Jerusalem swollen with useless mouths and three legions of seriously pissed off Romans behind a wall they erected to keep those useless mouths bottled up until the Romans could break in and slaughter everything th

That’s the frame of reference of whoever wrote the four versions of what went on inside this Latin speaking military community. If you have ever been in the Navy as a Marine or soldier on a ship that become home for a couple of months, you have a fair idea of the Roman military experience inside that Praetorium. If you have ever been on a Royal Carribean cruise ship with as a training workshop as a deliberate learning community, the boundaries that exist between you and the crew doesn’t exist inside the Praetorium or the Navy ship. There is a constant 360 degree awareness of Command, no matter how distant, in the Praetorium and the Navy ship you can’t capture as a civilian.

The Gospel of Mark is an intelligence report from the equivalent to the Command Sergeant Major and Chief of Staff to Pilate in Palesting to the intelligence headquarters in the Praetorian Guard in Rome and Mark 15 is almost entirely Roman content. Among other things, there isn’t much of the 1st Century, Second Temple Jewish theology N.T. Wright focuses on. My premise is that Cornelius, the centurion featured in Acts 10, is the author and that he wrote Mark immediately after his debriefing of Peter in that interview for immediate dispersal to Rome. The time-line of Mark is probably the literal sequence of events, with the various intelligence raw intelligence recorded and filed by a date-time method similar to the modern military filing system. The more you read about the Romans, the more they sound like the Old Guard at Ft. Myers going about their business.

So, that’s part of the answer to the question. The most popular current portrait of Pilate by everybody is that Pilate was a brutal monster based on the historical details and the various political and/or ideological purposes to characterize him in that manner.

The fact is, that portrait isn’t supported by the four gospel accounts, which isn’t particularly complimentary but mostly business like: as far as it goes, Pilate, from the perspective of the people around him (including his own contribution to the narratives, especially in John) is pretty standard issue Roman military governor and, based on his tenure at Palestine, a competent commander from Tiberius’s perspective.

The Gospel accounts occur in 33 CE. There is a debate between 30 and 33 in terms of the astronomy of the Passover. Gary Habermas uses 30, and I’m inclined to think it’s just a convenience for him than a conviction: the early chapters of Acts can seem a bit more likely in terms of the time spans 30 allows, while 33 compresses those developments into a time line that’s squishy, especially in terms of Paul’s transition from Saul in Araby. But Habermas’s own scholarship tends to support exactly the sort of explosive series of events between the Acension of Jesus and Chapter 10. It is really Luke’s Scientific Wild Ass Guess of what happened when. Paul is really in the wind until Barnabus begins to rehabilitate Paul’s role in the Jesus movement.

In addition, there is a blood moon lunar eclipse in 33 that is referernced in the Gospels, but, for me, the most imporant factor is that Tiberius discovered the Seganus plot in 31 and excutes what might have been a bottle neck in the intelligence coming out of Palestine about anything before 31.

We know from Tertullian’s Apology that Tiberius received an intelligence report about Jesus before 36 and proposed to the Senate to elevate Jesus to a legal deity status based on that intelligence report. The Senate rejected the proposal, but one of the things that resulted was the introduction of the category of “christians” nominated by the Roman soldiers on the ground in Palestine. This is to say that, sometime between 33 and 36, the year Tiberius died and Pilate was recalled probably because of a change of administration as opposed to dissatisfaction in his performance, the term “christian” enters the Roman idiom in Rome but it doesn’t show up in the actual Christian literature until it bubbles up in Antioch, a very cosmopolitan city similar to Tel Aviv: on the coast with considerable commerce and social intercourse with Rome.

For various reasons, the intelligence on Jesus’ resurrection would have been transmitted to Rome but it might not have been transmitted to Tiberius while Sejanus was running the Praetorian Guard, which he has extensively reforutmed and enhanced as Tiberius’ proxy in Rome. But, being dead in 33, he couldn’t interrupt the flow of intelligence, which is how the term “Christian” got to Antioch.

And the events in Palestine occur after the purge Tiberius implemented to scrub out Sejanus’ co-conspiritors. Roman politics was very much the blood politics of the American crime families of the Capone to Gotti era and Pilate was still running Palestine two years after the long knives.

I think Tiberius discovered that there was a great deal of social discontent and agitation throughout his Empire: in 40, after Tiberius had died, Philo of Alexandria conducted an embassy to Rome to present the Jewish side of the issue the Greeks had with the Jewish dispensation for worship.

I think that the initial intelligence report Tiberius received from Palestine about Jesus indicated that the residue of Jesus’ ministry, which had become super-charged by the resurrection not only among His followers, but by the Roman soldiers who were directly involved in the totally unexpected consequence of resurrection, had gone viral, number one: the story of Jesus would have gone through the Roman legions like grass through a goose. Soldiers are naturally superstitious, anyway, and here was some very big magic; and, number two, the social impact of Jesus on the social unrest in the Galilee was worth preserving as a national security issue. Which is why Tiberius took his proposal to the Senate.

But Tiberius was aware of this problem before Jesus was executed as a result of regaining control of his intelligence feed. Tiberius knew he had serious problems and the speculation in various commentaries is that he instructed Pilate to bend over backwards to accommodate the powers that be in Jerusalem. Pilate had blotted his copy book a couple of times dealing with Jewish impertinence and had to back down.

So, the short answer to the question is that Pilate didn’t agree to crucify Jesus: he was backed into a corner by orders from Rome to accomodate the Jews, the insistence of the Jews for Jesus’ crucifixion and the leverage the Jews had on his gonads, personally, as an individual.

It is also useful to remember that, not only are these largely Roman accounts of what happened inside the walls of the Praetorian, but they are recalled in the spiritual residue of the reality of the resurrection, itself. The Romans didn’t have any idea what they were dealing with: Cornelius had a relationship with the Capernaum synagogue and knew as much about Judaism as anyone in Pilate’s command and he, Cornelius, had the personal experience of petitioning Jesus, successfully, on behalf of one of his household, but it was a relationship conducted at the distance of his foreskin and a tourist’s understanding of the myteries and traditions of the Jewish cultural tapestry. He was the Roman expert on the Jews, but he had never been to a Seder and the whole Apocalypse context didn’t add up, before the fact, to somebody getting the crap kicked out of them, nailed to a tree, stabbed in the side and left for dead running for king of the world three days later.

Christianity exists because of the Roman soldiers who killed Him, fair and square, and then tried to understand what happened as a valuable military asset. One of my favorite moments in the Gospels is Mark 15:39

And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.

It is useful to recognize that much of what is said in the Bible is an interpolation of an emotional response to events in the manner of the Romantic Ideal expressed by Coleridge of moments of great emotion recalled in tranquility.

That’s the case of the centurion’s recorded thoughts, but his initial reponse, the one that his Pucker Factor expressed, was “Oops!”

In the profession of arms as practiced by the Romans at the time, where dying by the sword was the only compensation for fucking up in a military manner, killing God was somewhat fraught. The version we have of Pilate’s complicity in the crucifixion of Jesus could be purely CYA.

#transformingamericafirst

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calliecat93 · 6 years

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RWBY V5, CH5 Review: Necessary Sacrifice

(Repost Form My Now Defunct Review Blog)

I have fallen SO BEHIND. Sorry guys, November was a crazy month. Along with holiday stuff, my dad had a seizure and while he is fine now, that… kind of killed a lot of my resolve since I had to shift to taking care of him. But things are better now and on the upside, the delay gave me more time to look over the recent episodes. This one in particular… doesn’t have a lot of fans due to it’s slower pace and being exposition. But does that really make it bad? Well lets find out.

Overview

We start in Menagerie where Blake and Sun are attempting to gather recruits for the Haven Defense. But… they aren’t getting many results. It’s not hard to see why either. They are asking these citizens to essentially enter a war that doesn’t actively involve them for a side that has oppressed them. As Blake explains later, the Faunus who weren’t born on Menagerie came to the island to get away from the oppression. Why would they risk their necks for a species who only made their lives harder? Even not taking that into account, most of them are likely untrained in combat, have families, and don’t want to die. This would scare anyone. It’s easy for Blake, who has faced the oppression and knows that the White Fang will cause the Faunus problems regardless, and Sun who probably hasn’t faced as much oppression as the Menagerie Faunus and even if he did, doesn't’ agree with the WF’s extremism.

During their one on one though, Sun asks Blake about Adam. He does retract when he sees that it makes her uncomfortable, which I’ll go into later, but the catgirl is willing to talk about him. She mentions about defining a person by one word and uses her teammates as examples. For Ruby, when she first met her, she viewed her as the embodiment of purity due to her idealistic, but good-natured intentions on helping people by becoming a Huntress. For Weiss, Blake grew to see her as defiance, most likely due to wanting to break away from her family’s negative influence and to make the Schnee name better regardless of what gets in her way. And for Yang, Blake defines her as strength, both due to her fighting abilities and her emotional strength, which she came to see after Yang opened up about her own childhood and about Raven. It was really interesting to see how she views the girls and, while she’s still contemplating on it, she describe Sun as earnest. Given how far he went to help Blake both when they first met and now, I think that’s pretty fitting.

With Adam however, Blake’s definition changed several times. First she saw him as justice, likely admiring his resolve to better the Faunus. Then she saw him as passion due to her feelings for him. But now? Adam is spite. This speaks loud and clear on how Blake feels about her former partner. She saw him become filled with hate and is now no better than what he fought against. If he gets his way, then regardless of where the Faunus each stand, it’s going to make things worst. His level of hate is contagious and he’s sorea dit over the rest of the White Fang, including Ilia. Blake opens up about her, having admired her for choosing to fight for the Faunus even though she could easily pass for human. It even led to Blake deciding to remain in the White Fang after her parents pulled out. She had Adam and Ilia after all. I still want to know what happened that got Blake to finally realize that things were going too far, something that I don’t think we’ll get until we see what caused Adam to turn into an extremist One thing at a time, I guess.

Regardless, Blake doesn’t want to give up on Ilia yet. She believes that her former friend can still change. How does she intend to do that? Well she decides to use Sun’s example. Despite how angrily Blake treated Sun, the monkey boy still never gave up on her. He knew that Blake needed someone and he chose to go after her due to it. It annoys me when people call Sun a stalker, he isn’t. Yeah Blake didn’t want his help, but it’s what she needed to pull herself back. And Sun did so because he cares about Blake. It doesn’t matter if you view it through a platonic or romantic glass, Sun saw a friend in a bad place and decided to help, even if he knew that she may not accept it. So Blake wants to follow that and try to help Ilia, even if she doesn’t want it. It’s something that the chameleon girl needs before she does something unforgivable, and Blake plans on being that something.

But that’ll be for another day. For now, we cut over to Mistral where Oscar is wrapping up training. Ruby comes to fetch him for dinner, complimenting his improvement over such little time. Up to now, Oscar’s only real combat experience had been against the occasional small Grimm, nothing like what he’s gong to have to face soon. Ruby tells him that at this rate, it won’t be long before he’s combat ready… and that of course makes her sad, a reminder of Penny. She gets ready to head back to the kitchen, but she is stopped when Oscar asks her something hat honestly, the fandom itself has wanted to know.. How is Ruby able to handle all of this? For Oscar, he’s already overwhelmed. Yeah he wanted to be something beyond a farmhand, but sharing a soul and being dragged into a secret war… well, that’s something that no one would ask for. Ruby tries to make him feel better, telling him that while all of them went to Beacon to help others, they didn’t sign up for this war either. But regardless, they have accepted it and have to move forward/

That… doesn’t help. It only causes Oscar to snap. He’s terrified, yet Ruby is standing there completely calm and assured. How is she able to be that way? How is she not scared? How is she not fazed at all by all that’s happened so far? Once Oscar calms down, Ruby reveals why. And for the first time since V3, the hooded Huntress speaks of Penny and Pyrrha. Two good-hearted girls who Ruby didn’t knwo for long, but she knew that they were good people and they die under terrible circumstances. For Pyrrha, she was so desperate to help others that she went into a fight that she knew she couldn’t win, just to try and do something to save others. As a result,s he was killed. Penny got ripped apart, just so Cinder could make a statement. Salem doesn’t care who she kills or how, as long as it gets her what she wants. Ruby knows that she has to be stopped, so she’s going to fight.

Is Ruby scared? Yes. Of course she is. But she’s keeping it in. She’s taking her grief and using it to move forward, not be held back. She knows that if had been her who had died, then despite the pain, Pyrrha and Penny would have kept fighting. So Ruby has to do the same. As she leaves, she tells Oscar that the fact that he is where he is, trying despite his fears, says a lot about him. Once Ruby is gone, Ozpin points out to Oscar that while Ruby is a good Huntress in several ways, in others she is lacking. Ruby is like anyone, she has her quirks but she also has her faults. What she does possess is a spark, one that can incite hope into others, even in the darkest of times. But even so, it is hard on her. Will we see more of that later on? Well, only time will tell.

For now though, we cut back to Menagerie, but this time to the Albane Twins. Its from Adam, having given the Menagerie branch new orders. The brothers have summoned Ilia, confirming to her that Sienna has been killed as planned. So yes, the Albane’s and Ilia are in the know about this, Ilia even calling it a necessary sacrifice, even if she doesn’t exactly seem to be happy about it going off her body language. But regardless, Adam has taken over and the brothers tell Ilia the new orders, to kill the Belladonna family. You see, while the Menagerie citizens don’t know of Adam’s acension yet, once they do it’ll confirm what Ghira had said before and chances are, they’ll side with him. So in order to prevent that, he and Kali have to be killed. But Ilia’s job sin’t to pull the trigger, it’s to keep Blake away. You see, Adam doesn’t want Blake dead, he wants her brought straight to him. So while Ilia draws Blake away from the Belladonna home, the WF will make their move and assassinate the two.

Ilia is clearly shocked by the order, not wanting to hurt Blake. She also brings up that the people won’t exactly take their chieftain being murdered well. However the Albane’s assure her that the Faunus will come to understand and will be fine without a leader until Adam’s ascension is complete. It’s a necessary sacrifice after all, for what’s best for the Faunus. Ilia seems to accept it as she leaves, but going off her expressions, she’s not happy about it. Once she’s gone, Fennec does address that Ghira becoming a martyr could indeed cause problems. Bot Corsic says it’s a risk that has to be made as he replays Adam’s message. It’s clear that the extremist is becoming more unhinged, having to stop during the message to calm himself down. It’s something that the Albane’s notice and Fennec even questions if it’s really a good idea to follow him. But for now, Adam’s doing what they need, so they are willing to do so. The episode comes to an end as a Bat Faunus, Yuma, enters and confirms to the brothers that Ghira’s messenger to Mistral has been killed.

Review

This episode has received a lot of mixed reception. It’s this way because this episode has a lot of talking and not a lot of progress on the plot. Compare it to the previous four which have been fast paced and have been moving the story forward in different ways. Add to it feel like there was repeated info, like on Ilia, and yeah it’s clear why some were frustrated with this one, However that doesn’t make a bad episode in my opinion. This is a character development and reflection episode. Yeah these are slow and can feel kind of filler-y, but the are necessary. It lets us see where the characters are at this point in their development and get to see what’s coming at them next. I mean yeah it wouldn’t be a shock if the White Fang ambushed Blake and attached the Belladonnas, but their scene shows us that while they have control, there are issues like Adam’s growing instability and Ilia’s hesitance shows us more of her character. Blake talking lets us see where her head is at and as such, we understand her stance more and care more about her. Fight scenes and fast pacing are not all that makes a show You need a breath of fresh air once in a while, especially after an intense episode like last week’s. These episode set up the plot for the next beat, so no things DO happen, just as a set up so that we can get a payoff. So calling this episode bad because it was slower and exposition heavy is a reason to not have this one a favorite, but it’s not a bad episode due to it.

Okay, lets actually talk about things now. I’m not surprised that Blake and Sun are failing, again the Faunus are begin asked to risk their lives for a species who gave them Hell.. But it’s good to see that they are trying. Their talk was also really nice and lets us see how Blake has changed since the last volume. She’s not closed up or angry anymore She’s calm, friendly, and understanding of why the Faunus are reluctant to sign up. She’s also opening up finally, talking about her views of her teammates, Adam, and Ilia. It’s good to see that Sun’s words form the last volume have indeed helped her and that the difficulties, such as Ilia’s outburst two chapters ago, aren’t making her stress liek back in Volume 2. I’m gonna be honest, while I think that Miles and Kerry were right to write Blake how they did last volume under the circumstances, I did NOT like her in it. She was angry, hostile, ignoring the issue around her, and her running away felt like a degrading of her development. But again, I see why that was necessary and now that she finally understands that she doesn’t have to be alone and how she was selfish in hindsight, she’s calmed down and is mroe like her late V2/early V3 self again. Which I’m very happy about and it makes her likable again. It was necessary to let us see where she is as a character now and to see her using what Sun taught her to try with Ilia. So.. yeah I liked the Menagerie scenes.

Speaking of Menagerie, lets talk about the ending. As I said, the setup is necessary to both not come out of nowhere and to let us see where the bad guys are standing. Adam is becoming unhinged, but that’s not the point here. First, there’s Ilia. It’s clear to me that she’s not happy with where she is. She isn’t happy that Sienna had to be murdered. She isn’t happy about hurting Blake and her family. But regardless, she’s accepting it. She wants to help the Faunus. The greater good. And the greater good demands sacrifice and doing things that you don’t want to do. Think of how Pyrrha decided to become the Fall Maiden, despite what it would do to her, ultimately to save other people. But unlike Pyrrha, Ilia’s on a path of misguidance. She hates humanity. She wants them to suffer. She wants to make the Faunus’ position better, even if it’s through fear and bloodshed. If that means killing the Belladonna’s and hurting Blake, then it doesn’t matter how she herself feels. It’ll be done, for the Faunus. Now, can Ilia be redeemed? It’s possible. The fact that she has regret and is hesitant shows that she hasn’t lot her humanity yet. If Blake can get her to see that fear will do nothing for the Faunus, there’s a chance. But right now, Ilia is deep in the WF’s cult mindset and her own hatred, so it’s going to take q LOT of work. We can only hope for the best.

As for the orders, I’m not surprised. The Belladonna’s speak for equality and can cause Menagerie, the sanctuary of the Faunus, to turn on Adam. Add that to his hatred of Blake and his promise to destroy everything that she loves, and it’s no surprise at all. But even the Albane’s recognize that this is both risky and that Adam is becoming more and more unstable. They’re willing to go with it, but we do see that they aren’t blindly loyal. If it comes to a point where Adam becomes a liability, chances are they’ll turn on him. Whether that’ll amount to anything I can’t say, but it shows that Adam isn’t as in control as he thinks he is, For now though,t he odds are against Blake as the Albane’s have control of everything and they’ve ensued that neither Mistral nor Menagerie know about the current events. We’ll have to see what happens… well I’ve seen Chapter 8 so I know whats going to happen. But still, it’s setting up for something big and it’s hard to say whose coming out of this one unscathed,

Finally, lets talk Oscar and Ruby. This was THE big reason why I liked the episode. First there’s Oscar. We know that he’s scared about all of this, Volume 4 made that clear. But it’s good to see him talking to someone about it and how even though he’s accepted things, he’s still scared He’s new to all of this and he doesn’t know how to handle how he feels. It’s no surprise that it’s Ruby who he turns to about this. She’s so far accepted what’s come at her seemingly unscathed and has kept going without a change in her demeanor. How can she stills mile and think positively despite all that she’s gone through and what still awaits? Seeing Oscar talk about this with her allows us to see more of both characters and it’s good to see how the farmboy took Ruby’s words and seems to be inspired by her example.

Then there is Ruby herself. So there have been quite a few criticisms about her character, especially during Volume 4. How she never addressed anything about Penny and Pyrrha’s deaths. How she didn’t express any grief or anguish over the events of Volume 3. How she still feels like the same character and has felt very underdeveloped. I.. don’t agree. It always made sense to me why Ruby never addressed Penny and Pyrrha and why she kept up a positive demeanor. She wants to move forward. She wants to use the negativity that she felt form those events and use it to drive herself ahead. To do what they would do if it were the other way around and keep fighting to both help others and to prevent anyone form going through what she did. Yeah, maybe later on we’ll see it become too much for her, but right now isn’t the right time. Here, she was finally asked directly about it, hence why she opened up to Oscar about it. I imagine seeing how scared he is also provoked her into talking, in order to help him.

As for Ruby being underdeveloped… I wouldn’t say that. It’s more subtle and subdued compared to say Weiss. Lets put it this way, up until the end of V4, WBY were at a point where they were struggling to get over things and it kept them from moving forward. Ruby had already decided what to do with how she felt and to take that next step. There isn’t a lot of room for her to develop, at least not right now. But she HAS changed. In V4, she did express feeling guilty about endangering JNPR and dragging them into a dangerous situation. Her monologue in Chapter 12 also showed how she now understands that bad things happen. She understands that the world isn’t as ideal as she believed, but it doesn’t break her. it only furthered her resolve in becoming a Huntress But not just for idealistic reasons, she genuinely wants to help people because it is the right thing to do. Do I think that bottling up her fears and grief will get to her eventually? Probably. Do I think that Ruby is underdeveloped due to it? No. Ruby has always known what she wanted and has already accepted what’s happened to her. Shes; not the same girl in Volume 1 who desperately wanted to prove herself and was scared of making friends Shes stronger, has a more realistic view of the world, and is now trying to help others who are scared and nervous, lie Oscar. As Ozpin said, she is a spark of hope. A spark that spreads onto others. She inspired JNPR into following her because she kept fighting despite what she lost. She’s now inspired Oscar for similar reasons. Ruby is my favorite character ans this is why. No matter how bad things get and no matter how she feels, Ruby keeps fighting. She keeps moving forward. She is the embodiment of the show,and in turn Monty’s, message. And I am so happy to see this episode bring that into focus. Good work CRWBY!

Conclusion

This was a slower episode, but it was needed. I love character insight, what can I say? We get to see where Blake has grown, get Ruby to finally open up after so long, and get setup for the next part of the Menagerie plot. I don’t see where this episode was bad at all. Again, after four intense episode, the slower pace was necessary and again, we need the setup. Is this a ground-breaking chapter? No. it’s pretty plain, and I’m fine with it being that. It was a chance to breathe. and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

#rwby #rwby reviews

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