Takeaways from the Volume 9 Epilogue:

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One thing I really like about Oscar’s ‘If there was anything I wish I could borrow from you…’ monologue is that it laid out/confirmed something I’ve always felt was a major aspect of Oscar’s dynamic with Ruby that I nonetheless feel a lot of the fandom has missed: That Oscar very much sees Ruby as a mentor and an example to follow, and how their dynamic is specifically a foil to what we saw between Ruby and Ozpin. That Ruby acts as a mentor and example to Oscar in the same way Ozpin was to Ruby, and that Ruby is a far BETTER mentor and example to Oscar than Ozpin ever was to her. Which, as an aside, is a dynamic I can’t help but feel a lot of people have been misinterpreting as ‘ship-teasing’ and is one of the main reasons I’ve simply never been able to see Oscar as any kind of viable love-interest to Ruby. Frankly the dynamic of ‘Ruby is the mentor and example to Oscar that Ozpin couldn’t be for her’ is simply so much more INTERESTING than any kind of romance could ever hope to be.

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Even in animatic form, Winter basically going overdrive on the maiden powers was a sight to behold. And her own monologue had all the self-deprecation we were expecting. Our girl is clearly holding on by a thread and it’s going to be REAL interesting seeing how she reacts and adjusts to her sister not actually being dead. As in, I can imagine a situation where Winter tries to throw herself into a heroic sacrifice with the belief that Weiss would make a better Maiden than her.

Also, Winter’s monologue giving major focus to how Penny is super-super-dead-dead-and-definitely-not-coming-back-for-really-realsies, as she is talking to the sister who she ALSO believes is DEFINITELY also dead? Specifically with the words that Penny is gone, when Penny’s last words to her were that she’d be ‘part of you’?

Yeah, there is no way in hell we’ve seen the last of Penny XD

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The CROWN. Like it was only a few shots, but as someone who read the CFVY Books (which you totally should if you haven’t, they’re great), holy shit I was NOT expecting them to pop up here.

I mean, in hindsight it makes perfect sense that they’d be involved in Volume 10. They’re basically Vacuo’s equivalent to Vale’s criminal element and the White Fang splinter faction as Salem’s co-opted insurgency group, with Jax and Gillian joining Roman, Adam and Jacques as the latest of Salem’s unwitting patsies. It’s definitely going to be real interesting seeing the crew deal with them. Like it’s really fun to imagine Team RWBY in particular being kind of exasperated at seeing Jax’s probably doing a whole ‘With Salem’s help I shall be King!’ shtick after everything they’ve seen with Roman, Adam and Jacques.

Oh and if you don’t know, Jax has a mind-control semblance, so him trying to use that on Yang could actually lead to a sneaky callback to the Justice League crossover, ie; Yang doing a ‘Yeah, I’m not doing THAT shit again.’ XD

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Qrow’s whole vibe through this is fascinating. Like his section may have been the one we already saw, but after seeing the abject depression and growing despair of all the other characters, Qrow actually being OPTIMISTIC hit so much harder.

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Raven showing up at the end is… interesting.

I’ll admit that ever since we saw that specific clip a few months back, I’ve been rather conflicts about Raven showing up to deliver RWBY+J to Vacuo, particularly after Ruby’s tree vision. Like for one it felt a bit random and unnecessary. The tree already deposited the Ever After team outside of Vacuo so they didn’t exactly need help getting there. Not to mention that it kind of clotheslines the story-thread set up by Ruby’s vision; that she now has a reason to track Raven down to get the ANSWERS to what happened to Summer. Finally, it’s just kind of… random? Like where did Raven even come from to get the team?

But now having seen the clip with its intended context, I’m definitely more on board with it. Particularly hearing from Kerry and Eddy that the original ending for the penultimate episode had RWBY+J going through the portal to arrive at their memorial stone, and met by a ‘Mysterious Figure’, ie; Raven. Here it feels like were getting more set up to get answers later as to what Raven was doing at the memorial.

And really, now that I’ve thought about it more, this method kind of puts the thread of Ruby going to Raven for answers even MORE into focus. Like the story reintroduces Raven in the present right after Ruby got a vision basically saying ‘hey, Raven is important’. And now going into Volume 10, we’re pretty much perfectly positioned for Ruby to pull Raven aside for those all-important ‘Why were you fucking my mom? What happened to my mom?’ questions.

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Finally… yeah that ending hit me a LOT harder than I was expecting. Like that ending was HOPE in its purest form and it was honestly beautiful to see. Particularly right now with the future of the show seeming so uncertain. I’ve personally been optimistic about RWBY’s future (in a manner not unlike Qrow’s vibes I suppose lol), but damn the hopefulness of that ending hit especially hard, and was something I’ll admit I needed. And I imagine the rest of us could use as well.

We'll be getting Volume 10. And 11, and 12, and however many more it takes to finish this story. At this point, I have no doubt of that.

Story idea:

Before Team RWBY and Jaune leave the Ever After, jaune says he doesn't see what they see. He doesn't see the glowing door that would take them home, only another branch.

They claim there was a door it was open for them, but he can't see it. While they question why Jaune can't see them, he knows why... he's not ready yet. He suggested that they go on without him, but they would try to argue even more so when the door is slowly closing on them. With some arguing, they reluctantly go, but before they leave, Jaune tosses the rusted crocea mors....along with what remains if Pyrrha's sash wrapped around.

Honestly, this is all I got. With what I wrote before with 'Knights Test' and the emergence of God of War Valhalla. Figured there is more that Jaune can tackle cause it kinda feels like the stuff with paper pleasers was at least surface level, and I know there's other issues he's got.....like his imposter syndrome, self worth issues. The only thing I can't think of is....who is he gonna fight at the end of it all?

Ship of the Week!

Gonna start posting these here too because why the hell not. I love to scream with joy about my ships. Starting off strong with one of my favorites (actually they're all my favorites), Blacksmith's Familiar! Which is my name for the ship comprised of Blake/Yang/Penny (I named it for the fact that the ship name for Yang/Penny is Blacksmith) Now let's get into it!

These three are, as I so affectionately refer to them, my 'THEY COULD HAVE BEEN SO FLUFFY THEY DESERVED TO BE FLUFFY' OT3. I mean, notice how in the pictures above, Yang lets Penny pick her up, and Penny lets Blake lift her when she hugs them! Anyway Combat Kitty happens to also be one of my favorite rarepairs. One of my favorite things to talk about regarding it is how Blake must know how Penny felt in the early volumes, being different but being able to pass being both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because they can blend in, they aren't targets. A curse because they can't be authentically them. And then you have Yang. Yang who has never been anything BUT authentically herself. Yang who doesn't care that Blake's a Faunus or that Penny's a robot. Because they're still them! And she loves them! And they should be able to love themselves too! Yang Xiao Long who goes out of her way to remind them that not only are they wonderful for everything that they are, but she'd never want them any other way. I hc that Yang runs warm, and thus she appreciates that Penny is cool to the touch. Her favorite times are when Penny and Blake are leaning into her on either side, snuggling into her while she wraps one arm around Penny and uses the other hand to gently pet Blake's ears. Think of the affection in her eyes as she gazes at each of them. Yang's always worn her heart on her sleeve, and that means Penny and Blake are never left in the dark about how she feels about them. This is great for Blake, because she never has to worry about empty promises from Yang. She means and does what she says. It's also great for Penny, who has always struggled with the nuance of interacting with people, and struggles when people either don't say what they mean, or worse, suddenly change their behaviors. Penny's bluntness and slight inability to lie also helps. It helps Blake for the same reason Yang's earnest nature does, and it helps Yang because of her issues with people leaving her, lying to her, and in Raven's case, even trying to manipulate her (I hope I'm making sense). I am so delusional about these three I stg. They would be SO obnoxiously in love that Weiss would have to take to wearing earmuffs in their vicinity to ignore the stream of loving words, and a blindfold to ignore the sweet gestures they'd constantly exchange. Like They're so adorable I could DIE Anyway, Thank you for reading! I have been delusiona- I mean Apex and this has been a Ship of the Week post! See y'all next week!

Oscar would relate SO MUCH to Steven Universe

Everytime I see this scene I can't help to imagine Steven is Oscar, White is Salem and Connie is Ruby. It all fits so well.

Salem is convinced that oscar is only one of Oz's tricks, and that he's deceiving himself. He's fooling everyone into thinking he's Oscar, that he's not Ozma, that his soul is not the same.

Oscar denying it at first, also convinced that it's not true, that he's his own person even if he carries a part of him (his soul)

And salem saying that Oscar holds information and has memories that he couldn't have by himself. Oscar starts doubting, remembering everything he knows about Amity, Atlas, his mannerisms. Hallucinations like when he saw himself in the mirror back in his farm. Oscar starts doubting, he weakens.

Ruby appears, trying to help him and tells him not to listen to Salem, she's just trying to mess with him.

And well, this would be a stretch, mainly because Oscar doesn't have anything tangible that contains oz's soul. But let's say for the sake of the post that Salem would be able to separate Oscar from his soul just to prove that his soul is not his but Ozma's. His soul at first adopts the form of Ozma, then of his multiple incarnations and finally, Oscar. They need each other bc that's his soul. Oscar soul tells Salem that Ozma as she knows him is gone. Ruby helps Oscar get to his soul, reuniting and becoming one again

And everything because Oscar has to deal with everything Ozpin and the previous incarnations started and tried to finish, dragging a lot of people in the process to face a villain that not only is stuck in the past but also holds a bond with the original soul, Ozma

It all just fits SO WELL

And it baffles me how easily people understood that Steven is his own person even when the series show all the "anomalies" Steven suffers bc of his gem and the memories it holds but somehow, a lot of RWBY fans can't see Oscar as his own person and just see him as a meatsuit for Ozpin and a fuckin vessel, missing the whole point of Oscar's character arc

Y’all

We still haven’t seen The Face Ruby makes in the OP in the show

Yeah, This? Ruby’s had a breakdown, but she sure as hell hasn’t reached a manic ‘happy’ point (yet)... unless this refers to her ‘I am obviously Not OK but using Optimism to Hide the Pain’ that has ‘worked’ up to now... but, like, if it’s not a metaphor for Ruby breaking and falling into Neo’s hands...

I fear for our girl, but also, this is my Suffering™ Blorbo atm

Here's a concept I want in V10

Dessert Grimm Worms

Now that RWBY Volume 9 is finished, how would you rate it as an adaptation of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"?

Just to preface, I am aware that Volume 9 takes visual cues and inspiration from the Alice stories and puts its own twists and turns on them. Either downplaying certain characters, villainizing other characters, or presenting scenarios inspired by those in the book in a way that ties more directly to the prior events of RWBY. So it is by no means a one to one adaptation, nor do I treat it as one.

But, how would one rate it as a spiritual adaptation?

From my initial viewing, I thought it matched a few of core themes from the Alice stories in how it places Ruby Rose as the one who goes through an arc. This volume could be summed up as Ruby's growing up, identity crisis, and reformation. My aim isn't to do a deep dive analysing every facet of the volume and how it relates to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but just to focus on Ruby and Alice.

Alice’s experiences in Wonderland can be taken as a metaphor for the experience of growing up, both in terms of physically growing up and coming to understand the world of adults and how that world differs from a child;s expectation of it. Sounds a bit similar to Ruby's journey from having an idealized, exciting and heroic view of the world, and having that worldview chipped away by tragedy, disappointment and regret. Blake warned Ruby against that romanticised view all the way back in Volume 1 after all.

Other inoccuous similarities take strikingly dark turns. Just as Alice's act of curiosity towards the White Rabbit started her odessey, Ruby's slow journey through that intense crucible and her eventual endpoint began with her curiosity and friendliness towards Little. It ends up on a downward turn when that curiosity is shut down by her depressed state and disassociation. Even while Little has not lost hope, the moment Ruby openly states that she can't hold true to that optimism and sends Little away, it spirals down even further when Neo enters the picture.

But things were going downhill well before Neo's big scene. The long death of Ruby's innocence has been a prominent factor since Summer Rose's disappearance, the Fall of Beacon, and the plan to save the citizens of Atlas going awry and a dear friend's second death. This played into her self-doubt and belief that she as Ruby Rose was not enough. At the volume's darkest points, she must face her pent-up grief and frustration, her feelings of mortality and declining self-worth.

The question of her identity, of who and what she is as Ruby Rose, Huntress, and Hero, is also in flux. Just like the denizens of Wonderland and the Ever After exist in a state of fluctuating identity, Ruby's and Alice's sense of self fluctuates when their beliefs are challenged. Alice is asked to identify herself by almost every inhabitant of Wonderland, but after seeing herself change physically and mentally time and time again she is unable to give an answer. The question of "what" Ruby is is an undercurrent throughout, and Ruby questions everything about her and whether its come to any good, or ever will.

Ultimately, Ruby must both grow up and still remain Ruby Rose, one who is able to navigate the harshness of the world (Remnant) and the darkest psychological recesses (Ever After) to be a more complete person. Alice changes her outlook and how she treats the inhabitants of Wonderland and learns not to make the same mistakes again. Instead of learning to be more sensitive to the needs of others, like Alice, she learns the hard way of stretching herself to lead, inspire, motivate and protect others at the expense of her own wellbeing. For Ruby, her youthful imagination and zest for life from earlier Volumes was always going to fade away, but this Volume addresses that with acceptance and self-love, and allowing her to truly keep moving forward.

There was a line James had in the confrontation with Oscar in the Vault in the Volume 7 finale that still, for some odd reason, piques my interest, and I found myself pondering it again today when the conversation was vaguely brought up in passing in one of the Discord servers I’m in. 

“[It was smart of you, not to bring the Lamp down here.] I wouldn’t trust me either, right now”. 

The way it’s phrased almost makes it sound like a threat, but the way it was directed to be read doesn’t. It’s just a tired statement of fact, which I think might be why it’s stuck with me. He fully acknowledges that he’s not in a good frame of mind, certainly not one to be trusted not to do something rash, and it’s only after Oscar correctly brings up the motivation of fear that James becomes angry but that self-awareness is at least partially there.

I don’t know, the entire exchange, sad and upset as it yet tends to make me, is still just a favorite of mine.

Something something relic of choice thoughts

Something about RWBY being a story of choices. A few people have picked up on Cinder being notable for being the only character who seems to specifically not make her own choices, despite being the Fall Maiden and thus the character associated most with the Relic of Choice.

Perhaps aside from Tyrian, who has the most chaotic and loosest of motivations, every villainous or antagonistic character has had moments of reflection/expression of their philosophy, of why they do what they do, and many have made the choice to actively turn away from it, to choose to do something better, to do what is right, not what is easy. Cordovin, Ilia, the Ace Ops, Hazel, Emerald, Whitley, Willow, the Faunus of Menagerie, Ozma.

Something about Cinder being the metaphorical daugher of Salem, and the inheritor of the powers specifically descended from her real daughters. The direct parallel of Ruby, the character most associated with Knowledge - the only two characters (besides, likely, Oz) to have used both the relics shown so far.

I know some people hate the idea of it, but the build up to Cinder’s potential heel-face turn, the Chekhov’s Gun that the Relic under Beacon was her relic, the Relic of Choice, the first Relic in the grand chess game, and yet the one now the least-discussed.

Ozpin made the Relic of Choice more difficult to find. Because he knows the burden of leadership greater, and the choices it entails? Because it more than any other relic scarred him as the Indecisive King?

Something about how each relic has a cost - knowledge at the cost of time, creativity at the cost of finitude, choice at the cost of paralysis, destruction at - well, that one, we’ve never been told, though I wager it will be destruction at the cost of self - the Grimm being destruction personified, the way the Grimm arm consumes more of Cinder’s body each time it is used, her hesitation, she wants power but is she willing to give everything? What is truly most important to her, and can she admit what that is to herself?

Unless the arc structure changes, we are almost certain to see the Sword before the Crown. Perhaps Cinder gives in to the Sword to claim the Crown, using its power to scatter what remains of Beacon until she digs down to the real Vault. Something about Cinder having the relics and using them, and Salem having them, and not. Salem chose Cinder as her vessel for the Maidens’ power - but irrevocably tied to that, Salem has made Cinder the master of the relics, not herself.

Cinder claiming the Crown, using it to see the truth about Salem just like how Ruby used to the lamp to learn the truth about Oz. The fact that all along, just as Salem has used Cinder, she has tried to use Salem in return (with mixed results). Will the woman who walks out of Beacon with the last Relic be a hero? A villain? A monster? Will she walk out at all, or is Cinder the Indecisive Queen, doomed by the revelation of choice, the ability to at last be more than a pawn?

She is willing to give herself away for power - but is she strong enough to choose the reverse? Will she give away power to again be herself, to choose her own path?

Central to RWBY, but less obviously stated, is the impact of choice. Grief and moving forward are a central tenet of the show, but this is always a choice. We can choose to stay mired in grief, or we can choose to move forward. Choice threads its way through every character arc, every pivotal moment is the choice of a character - to keep hoping, to do something different, to go for what is easy or to go for what is right.

And the Cinder-shaped hole in that narrative that becomes more visible every passing volume is, I think, critical to how the Vacuo arc will go. Eventually, we will see Cinder make a choice *for herself*. To pick not power or relics or maidens or gods or monsters, but to pick Cinder Fall, just like how the central turning point in the narrative of grief and hopelessness was how Ruby realised that she could pick herself in Volume 9.

And that will change everything.

she literally just found about it, she found out about this from a fucking twitter post

Me having inspiration to write my own stories and finish my wips:

Me thinking of all the ways I could rewrite shows aimed at children aged 7-13 to be masterpieces of fiction:

Okay so obviously I want to talk about the final three lines of the trailer. Because assuming these are actually part of the same statement and haven’t been edited together for trailer-drama, this is both really interesting and REALLY unsettling.

You see, on it’s own the line “What if you could leave Ruby Rose behind? Shed like an old coat?” feels like typical villainous ‘leave your quest’ temptation. ie; “Being the Hero is just so HARD. Wouldn’t it be easier to just give up?” Or in this case; ‘abandon those qualities that make you the hero’. We’ve all seen it’s like before.

BUT then we get the following line “What might happen... if you don’t?” And this adds an entirely new dimension to the conversation. It adds so many implicit questions to the previous lines: “What might happen if you don’t shed your current self? What might happen if you continue on as you are now? What might happen if you don’t change who you are?”

And taken in conjunction with what we’ve seen of Ruby character arc, this changes EVERYTHING. At this point, I think we can all agree that Ruby’s character arc will serve as a critique of her staunch, overriding sense of heroism and force her to reckon with where it is actually leader her. That for the past three volumes, Ruby’s staunch heroic ideals have led her barreling down a path to self-destruction.

Which all means that this line of dialogue might NOT actually be some villainous temptation, but rather a character driving Ruby to question WHO she really is and just WHERE she is headed. That this character speaking actually has a point.

That Ruby actually DOES need to change.

Which frankly, feels all too fitting for a character who’s semblance allows her to deconstruct and reconstruct herself as a molecular level...

there are airships from every continent in vacuo along with a fixed amity arena. this is incredible. maybe the message that ruby sent out to the world really did work. but it seems its been more than a couple days since they fell

Finally managed to gif the single most earth shatteringly important Arkos moment.

The quality isn't great but when I tell you I think about this regularly I mean it.

My forever headcanon is that the reason Ruby is Like That is because after Summer left and Tai shut down and Yang had to grow up too quickly, Ruby kind of slotted into this role of "child that needed to be ok for things to function."

As in, Ruby learned very quickly that if the food was a little burnt and Yang was on the verge of tears because of it, she chokes it down with a smile on her face. Or Tai forgot to get groceries again and they have to order the same takeout food for the third time even if she's sick of it, she picks around to make it look like she's eating a lot and tells her dad it's ok. Or she had to stay at school for an extra hour because both of them were too busy to pick her up right away, she stays on the steps doodling in her notebook and waiting patiently.

Tai needed to heal and get his shit together, Yang needed to be everything Tai wasn't being and try and be herself at the same time, and Ruby needed to be ok. Because if she wasn't then the other two might just break even worse. So she grits her teeth and she swallows her complaints and she tries so hard to be good and not add to the stress.

And after everything was finally beginning to heal, when she was old enough to care for herself and Tai was functioning like an adult again, she just never knew when to stop.

If Jaune only had very limited time to look for a way home each day, and his home base was the Paper Pleaser acre, why didn’t he search all the adjacent acres first?

I don’t have a pic of the whole map atm, but there’s a lot of acres to the North and Southwest that aren’t explored, but Jaune clearly knows those acres exist. So, why didn’t he knock the one Literally next door off the list of possibilities to get home?

Unrelated, but I wonder if the Jabberwalker’s acre seeming post-apocalyptical could be related to having a volcanic acre adjacent to it. Though, Ever After and all, the Swan Lake acre would be more likely... wait... oh fuck, what if the Goose is the big bad of the Ever After and that’s it’s home?

Ruby goes full blender on Neo and her army of Jabberwalkers only to be curbstomped by The Goose, calling it now