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aspoonofsugar · 1 year

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Weapons Ever After

In the story, Alyx fell from the sky and met with the Hunter Mice, got trapped in vines, fought the Jabberwalker and got her knife stolen by a Talking Racoon.

Alyx too gets her weapon stolen by Jinxy and has to offer both her saddest and happiest memories to get it back. In other wrods, she needs her whole self to find her knife once again.

This ties with something we have known for a while now:

Just weapons? They're an extension of ourselves! They're a part of us! Oh, they're so cool.

Weapons are symbolic of individuality, so it makes sense their price is a part of the person themself. Not only that, but what happens to them is indicative of what is going on with their user's inner world.

This is especially true for the Atlas Arc, which opens up with RWBY + JNR all receiving power-ups:

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The teams' weapons are modified and enhanced because the kids are growing up. And yet, by the end of the arc, they all lose their weapons or have them damaged because of their crushing defeat at Cinder's hands.

Let's analyze each character and how their weapon comments their arc in the current volume.

BLAKE - SELF-REPAIRING BOW

Gambol Shroud describes Blake perfectly:

gambol means to move around playfully

shroud is a cloth used to cover things up

This name refers to our cat girl's tendency to run away (gambol) and to hide her true self (shroud). Initially, she herself is a little bow that moves around. As her arc unfolds, Gambol Shroud comments it faithfully.

Like its wielder, it is broken by Adam, but even if fragmented it keeps being useful and flexible. Blake has its pieces turn into a gun, a hook, a cleaver, a whip. They still work well enough to kill Adam:

Blake is hurt by her ex-partner multiple times, but she is strong and resourceful enough not to let it define who she is. She is more than just her relationship with her abuser and is made of multiple wonderful parts. Just like Gambol Shroud is a katana, but also 2 swords, but also a sickle and his sheat can be used to steal an opponent's weapon. It is as variegated as Blake herself is.

In Atlas, Gambol Shroud is fixed with a technique similar to Kintsugi. This method uses powered gold, silver or platinum to mend breakages, so that they become part of the beauty of an object, rather than something to disguise. This is Blake's development in a nutshell: she accepts her past mistakes and shows a brand new self with no shame.

Blake and Gambol Shroud go through a process of death and rebirth and learn how to heal. Maybe this is why she seems to whitstand her defeat and fall slightly better than her teammates. She has built the inner mechanisms to keep moving forward without being completely crushed.

Similarly, Gambol Shroud is burnt by Cinder, but this time the damage doesn't reach its core. Not only that, but the weapon keeps being used even after Blake's fall. It briefly becomes a memento for Weiss, who wields it as if she were holding the hands of her teammates:

Poignantly Blake finds it rather easily in Ever After precisely because Weiss has an idea of where it may be.

So, Gambol Shroud becomes symbolic of Blake's relationships with her teammates (Yang and Weiss especially). This is interesting because Blake is currently trying to guide the group and to keep it together.

Finally, Blake has to face the Hunter Mice to get her weapon back:

Mouse Leader: And on this day, we were not the prey, but the hunters!

Isn't it amusing that a Huntress's weapon is used as bait by a bunch of mice to trap a cat? Maybe the Ever After is trying to challenge Blake and her friends on what being Huntresses truly means and how it is easy to turn from hunter to prey, from human to monster.

YANG - DISARMING LOVE

Ember Celica convey Yang's many layers:

they appear as bracelets, as Yang is an eye-candy hot girl

they turn into gauntlets, as Yang is a hot-blooded fighter

they become asymmetrical, as Yang loses an arm because of her hot-headedness

This last point is the most important and the focus in Ever After.

Little: Steal? Never! They just take the things we are not looking at. Fair is fair.

According to Little, Jinxy doesn't steal, but takes things which are not looked at. In other words, they go after whatever is neglected. It is then meaningful they choose to collect Yang's arm of all things. After all, our Goldilocks has had her arm stolen twice now and both times for the same reason. She loses an arm because she protects a loved one.

In Beacon, Adam cuts her arm off when she tries to save Blake. In the Ever After, Jinxy grabs her prosthetic when she is consciousless after protecting Ruby. This is probably why the price to get it back is:

Jinxy: Knowing what it is to feel loved. A fair price for some, I'd say.

Jinxy's request can mean 2 different things for Yang's character:

Yang lost her arm to save both Blake and Ruby's lives. Then what if she did not do it? She may still have her arm, but maybe Blake and Ruby would be dead. Is Yang ready to sacrifice her loved ones for her arm?

Yang is ready to jump into harm's way for Blake and Ruby. Does she do it because she loves them or because she is scared they would not love her back if she doesn't? Is love that needs her to give an arm for others true love?

This is the conflict the auction lies out for Yang. It makes sense for her not to give up on the feeling to be loved for a mechanical arm, right? And yet, why should she leave behind her arm so that she can be loved?

What is the right choice? And is there really no other choice?

As you can see, Jinxy's words highlight Yang's complex. She unconsciously sees love as conditional:

Yang: Do you… think she thinks less of me… for not helping out with Amity?

What if Blake stops loving her because they disagree? What if Ruby gets hurt in Mistral while Tai is looking after Yang? Would Tai love her any less?

In a volume which is clearly going to explore Yang's relationship with both Ruby and Blake this complex is bound to surface. Only in this way she can start working through it.

WEISS - EMPTY FLOWER

Myrtenaster represents Weiss's duality:

It is a sword because Weiss is a knight

It works like a wand because Weiss is a magical girl

She is warrior and queen, male and female, anima and animus. At the same time, her weapon also shows her ice and sugar personality. It is apparently stiff (gray) and rigid, as it doesn't change form. Inside, though, it is full of colors and can be used in multiple ways thanks to Glyphs. Similarly, Weiss appears cold, but has a rich interior world, made of dreams and feelings.

This double side of Weiss can be found even in Dust, which is the key element of her fighting style. Dust represents Weiss's versatility, but also the privilege she was born in. And yet, the latter is gone right now:

Weiss: It's... it's all gone... There is nothing left for me to go back to.

And Weiss is out of Dust:

Weiss: Well, good news, I’m low on Dust.

For better or worse Atlas and the SDC are a big part of Weiss's life, but they are both gone. In this situation, it is interesting Weiss is the only one who so far has not lost her weapon. This can be read in 2 different ways:

Weiss's identity has grown strong enough not to be tied to Atlas and the SDC anymore. Obviously, she is shaken, but not completely broken.

Weiss is currently clinging to an empty vessel of herself. This may be why she thightly grabs Myrtenaster the moment she admits how much she lost:

Should she do it or should she just let go?

This conflict may tie with Weiss's weapon being the only one, which doesn't get modified in Atlas. It is because Weiss's fighting style is already perfect, but there may be another explanation. Weiss doesn't change in Atlas because she already has all that Atlas has to offer. Her real challenge is then to transform now that Atlas is gone. She is empty, but by letting go she can re-invent herself.

JAUNE - BREAKING DEATH

Crocea Mors is linked to legacy in 2 different ways:

It is an object Jaune inherited from his great-great-grandfather, so it symbolizes the Arcs' history

It is later modified by using Pyrrha's metal, so it comes to embody what Pyrrha represents in Jaune's life

So, Crocea Mors is two legacies combined. Two people Jaune wants to become more similar to. At the same time, it parallels Jaune's development. As he grows, the weapon changes, as well. It is introduced as a lame hand-me-down, but both its attack and power (Mistral) and its defence and versatility (Atlas) get enhanced. Basically, as Jaune's identity becomes rounder and rounder, so does Crocea Mors.

It slowly transforms into the perfect weapon for a Knight. A sword and a shield ready to fight for the people. And yet, in the volume 8 climax, Jaune uses it to kill Penny. So, Jaune's identity as a Knight shatters, just like his sword.

What now?

If Jaune is indeed the Rusted Knight, then it may be he is stubbornly clinging to an already broken identity:

Curious Cat: Time changes, you know? And so do we when it's our time to change, don't you?

In order to evolve, you must accept death,grief and destruction. Only if you do, you can be remade.

At the same time, the idea of a Knight trapped inside a rusted armor ties with Jaune's metal motif. In alchemy there is a scale of 7 metals: lead, tin, iron, copper, mercury, silver and gold. The objective is to transform the lead into gold. This is Jaune's arc in a nutshell.

He starts off as lead. He is inexperienced, ignorant and unrefined, but then he meets Pyrrha. Pyrrha is already gold by the beginning of the series. Hence why her golden armor, which contrasts with Jaune's white and gray one:

Not only that, but Pyrrha's semblance is literally about manipulating metals. So, she sees Jaune's raw potential and decides to turn the lead into gold. She is the one who starts the process.

After her death, Jaune keeps on evolving:

He goes from lead to tin in Mistral, when he changes his armor

He strenghtens his sense of self and blooms into iron in Atlas, where he also gains more golden details

However, he then kills Penny, who represents the properties of Copper (love and beauty)

As a result, I would not be surprised if he were now stuck. Symbolically trapped inside an armour because he can't stop being iron, while he should keep on going to reach gold. In order to change, though, he should face what he has done and let go of his current knight identity. It used to fit him, but has right now grown too small, just like his previous armor. It may be time to look for something else.

Speaking of which, isn't this golden woman interesting?

As @blue-cheeseinmyoffwhites noticed she is a blacksmith and may be the reason why Jaune is trapped inside an armor. In general, the idea of a golden woman, who is also a blacksmith (aka that works metals) reminds me of Pyrrha. Since Little may be in the story to help Ruby face her grief over Penny and her child-self, then this woman may have a similar function for Jaune. What if she is there to help him work through his guilt over Pyrrha's death and his hero complex?

We'll see how it goes, but so far Jaune is the only one whose weapon has been shattered and this might be his chance to build it anew. He might even make his own weapon instead of relying on someone else's legacy.

NEOPOLITAN - SELF MADE PARASOL

Hush represents who Neo is: Hush is a parasol that can be used as a shield and with a blade inside. It is the perfect weapon for a student of an Academy that superficially teaches girls how to be ladies and secretely trains spies. It combines the elegance of an accessory with the lethality of a weapon.

At the same time, Hush is clearly complementary to Melodic Cudgel. The former is a silent blade, while the latter is a flashy and noisy gun. The former is Neo’s message to the world to shut up. The latter is Roman’s enjoyment of the pain of others that sounds like a melody. So, Hush is perfect for the partner in crime of Roman Torchwick.

It is a weapon that fits both Lady Beat’s spy and Roman’s friend. The point is that Neo can’t keep being both. She can’t keep being Trivia Vanille and Neopolitan. She must choose.

Neo's parasol is symbolic of Neo's real self and it combines her many layers. It is also something Roman gifted her with, so, together with his hat, it is part of his legacy to her. Just like Neo herself is Roman's legacy. She is a person Roman loved and helped grow. The key to overcoming her grief is for Neo to realize this. Yet, she can't and maybe this is why she doesn't look for her weapon, but simply makes a new version of it by using her semblance (or so it seems tbh).

This may very well be because Neo is not trying to change or to self-reflect, but is projecting her anger and sadness over other people. This is why she immediately transforms into the 2 people she hates the most: Ruby and Cinder. Then, she lets her semblance out and... be it because it naturally evolves or be it because of the place she is... a tons of Neo immediately pop up...

And yet, who is the real one?

The Ever After may be at the same time the best and the worst place for Neo, right now. It is the best fit for her semblance. Overactive Imagination is about projecting the inside out, after all. It is about letting everything she represses take a real shape in the outside world. So, it makes sense that the Ever After amplifies its effect. However, letting our emotions go rampant without filtering them may lead to a disaster.

Symbolically, Neo may very well lose her real self. Just like she has lost her weapon and is replacing it with an illusion. Will Neo find herself again or will she stay in the Ever After forever?

(On an unrelated note, I am looking forward to how Neo's semblance is going to influence the Ever After:

Like, are these shadows all "characters" Neo creates? Is she gonna materialize the younger Ruby illusion on the bridge? Does it mean her semblance has evolved so that now her illusions can talk?

If Ruby and the others are stepping into the role of protagonists, then Neo may very well be using her semblance to step into the role of a writer:

I would not be surprised if she conquers the Ever After, at least temporally. It would be fun to see if the Ever After conquers her in return.)

RUBY - GROWING MOON

Crescent rose means "A growing-up Ruby". After all, Ruby herself is a rose (Ruby Rose) and crescent means "to grow up". So, her weapon describes Ruby herself: a young child, who grows up stronger and stronger... or does she?

It is obvious Ruby is not a smiling growing up child anymore. But then, who is she? There is no answer and this is why Crescent Rose is still missing.

Apart from this, Crescent Rose is interesting because it is one of the many things that tie Ruby to the moon. After all, the moon has 3 phases (well, 4, but we only need 3 :P):

Crescent Moon

Full Moon

Falling Moon

These 3 phases are linked to the life of a person. The crescent moon is youth, the full moon is maturity and the falling moon is old age. So, Ruby is a crescent moon (crescent rose) because she is still in her youth.

An interesting thing is that all these ideas are expressed by the so called Triple Goddess:

The Triple Goddess is a deity archetype revered in many Neopagan religious and spiritual traditions. She is viewed as a triunity of three distinct aspects or figures united in one being. These three figures are often described as the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone, each of which symbolizes both a separate stage in the female life cycle and a phase of the Moon.

Guess who is an example of a Triple Goddess?

Exactly, Trivia/Hecate is often considered a Triple Goddess :P And when she falls together with Ruby, she very conveniently turns into 3 people: Oscar, Yang and Penny.

Neo is supposedly Ruby's mirror, so these three characters should not only be important for Ruby's arc, but also represent part of who she is. As for now, several interpretations are possible. For example, Oscar, Yang and Penny are the protagonists of Ruby's major conflicts in the last 3 volumes.

In volume 7, Ruby and Oscar have a disagreement over telling or not Ironwood the truth. In volume 8, Yang decides not to follow Ruby's leadership and to take another path. So far, volume 9 focuses on Ruby's feelings over Penny's death. All these conflicts have built over each other until Ruby can't ignore them anymore.

They can also foreshadow future focus. Right now, Ruby is struggling with Penny's death, but later on she may also have to experience a shift in her and Yang's dynamic, as Yang enters a relationship with Blake:

Weiss: About time. Ruby: About time for what?

It may be nothing, but it is interesting Ruby seems oblivious to Bumbleby's clearly blossoming romance.

Similarly, once RWBY + J goes back, Ruby might share some focus with Oscar, since the 2 of them have clear parallel arcs.

Finally, these 3 people might also represent past, present and future:

Oscar is waiting for Ruby outside, in the future. Maybe this is why in this shot, Neo gets far away from Ruby when she transforms into him. He is a person, who did not fall and one of the loved ones, who are looking forward to Ruby's return.

Yang is with Ruby in Ever After. Neo closes up on Ruby, when she looks like her sister. Yang is a person who fell with Ruby and who is sharing her journey to go back home.

Penny died. Neo goes behind Ruby while being Penny and tries to drag her down. Penny is a precious friend, who is now lost and also a symbol of Ruby's inner child.

Whatever the case, the metaphor is clear... all these conflicts and Ruby's past self are dragging her down. She needs to face all what is repressed to climb back up.

Maybe this is why even before Ruby can start looking for Crescent Rose, she has to solve her feelings over another weapon:

Penny's sword symbolically works as a mirror for Ruby. By taking it, Ruby has the chance to grieve, to let her feelings out and to look at who she is. And yet, a couple of minutes after getting it, she is already moving forward. She is stepping into Alyx's role and getting a new purpose. Not only that, but her whole plan revolves around giving Penny's sword away.

The meaning is clear, Ruby is still not ready to let all her grief out. She chooses to ignore it and to start moving again. And yet, we know the sword is coming back for her:

Who knows? Maybe, just like Pyrrha's metal, Penny's jade sword is going to get integrated into Ruby's weapon or attire, as well. As stated above, we have a blacksmith, after all.

What is sure is that Ruby can't hope to find Crescent Rose until she decides what to do with Penny's sword.

THE AUCTION - ITEMS AND PAYMENTS

Little: Hugs are very valuable!

Let's go back to the Auction. Jinxy is presented as a thief and as a crook. However, I think the story makes clear there is a meaning to their actions. Specifically, Jinxy looks after things people disreguard and makes them look valuable, so that people would try to get them back.

At the same time, Jinxy's prices are nothing, but what the person truly needs to get what they want. The price is the truly important thing in Jinxy's auction, not the item, which is a fake anyway.

The first item looks like a bunny made of diamonds, but it is actually a small mouse like Little. It is then a representation of the child self. And what should one do with a child-self, if not to hug it thightly and nurture it?

Let's look then at what Jinxy asks our 2 sisters:

They ask Yang's feeling of being loved in exchange of her arm. They do not ask for the love Yang receives, but for her inner perception of it because it is unhealthy. Yang will always sacrifice parts of herself in exchange of affection, unless she lets go of the idea love is conditional. She needs to build a new idea of love or she will keep on losing pieces.

They ask Ruby's hope in exchange of Penny's sword. This is because Ruby needs hope in order to overcome her grief over Penny. It is meaningful Little steals the doll, so that it can reveal itself to Ruby before she has the price to pay for it. Interestingly, she gets the sword, but still can't properly process it and gives it away 2 minutes later.

Ruby and Yang need to nurture their inner hope and self-love if they truly want what the 2 weapons represent aka a whole self.

#rwby #rwby volume 9 #rwby spoilers #rwby meta #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #jaune arc #neopolitan #my meta #this post is one week late #but i really had no time to finish it before

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ckret2 · 21 days

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So y'all know the Gravity Falls production bible that leaked three weeks ago. Someone in one of my discord servers pointed this out:

And, naturally, that spawned an entire AU.

AU Concept: Ford was kicked out instead of Stan and takes a job as a trucker to makes ends meet since he couldn't go to college, while still studying the weird and anomalous however he can.

Ford driving around from quirky small town to quirky small town, drifting through the liminal spaces of truck stops, meeting odd people in isolated diners, seeing strange things out on the road—a deer with too many eyes bounding across a two-lane highway, a flirty woman at a rest stop who doesn't blink or breathe, mysterious lights in the sky at night, inhuman growls on the CB or 50-year-old broadcasts on the radio—and taking notes when he stops for gas or food.

Aside from having gotten kicked out before graduating high school, Ford's the same person he is in canon.

He's still an ambitious guy, and here "ambitious" means working hard and saving as much money as he can—so, a long haul owner-operator who spends weeks at a time on the road. (He goes through a LOT of educational audiobooks.) Plus, this is the easiest way for him to get to travel the country; and since it looks like his "travel the world" dreams with Stan are dead, he'll take what he can get.

Since he's never in the same spot long and carries his life in a truck, almost all of Ford's research is in his journal. His bag of investigation supplies has an instant camera, a portable tape recorder, a thermometer, a flashlight, rubber gloves, and a few zip lock bags—and that's about it. It has to share space with all his clothes, toiletries, and nonperishable food when he's on the road. He doesn't have much opportunity to closely examine anything odd he finds, unless he's lucky enough to run into something when he can stop for the night. He has to cram his paranormal research around the side of his full-time job.

He doesn't live in Gravity Falls, but he knows it exists. Every time he moves—to Chicago, to Nebraska, to California—he seems to inch closer. He currently lives in Portland and usually hauls loads between the Pacific Northwest and Chicago or New York. He stops at the truck stop outside Gravity Falls when he can and has gone fishing in town a few times. He doesn't have the benefit of extensive research to know that this is the weirdest town in the world; but it seems pretty weird to him, there are local rumors about the town, and he's had some weird experiences in the area.

Plus, he can't explain it, but it's like the town's calling to him. He wants to move there, but it'd put him over an hour outside of Portland where the nearest jobs are. Maybe if somebody chucked him like $100k to build a cabin in the woods; but what are the odds of that?

He does know Fiddleford. Truck broke down somewhere and Fiddleford kindly pulled over to fix it on the fly. They looked at each other, had mutual knee-jerk "dumb trucker/hillbilly" reactions, and within ten minutes both went "oh wait you're the most brilliant genius i've ever met." Fiddleford's living the same life he was in canon before Ford called him to Gravity Falls—with his family in California, trying to start a computer company out of his garage—but they make friends and keep in contact.

One time Ford stops at a kitschy roadside knickknack store that also sells new agey magic things—crystals, tarot cards, incense, etc. He bought a "lucky" rearview mirror ornament that looks like an Eye of Providence in a top hat and hung it from his cab fan, and ever since then he's had weird dreams whenever he sleeps in his truck.

Things I don't know yet: what Stan's up to; or why Ford's the one who got kicked out. I tend to believe that in canon Stan wasn't just kicked out because he ruined Ford's college prospects, but rather because the family thought he deliberately sabotaged Ford; so in this AU, Ford would've been kicked out over a proportionate crime.

#gravity falls #gravity falls au #grunkle ford #stanford pines #fanart #my art #my writing #(since i'm not posting a chapter this week this is y'all's substitute Writing And Art From Me)#(i traced the trucks & diner background and i am not ashamed bc i cannot be assed. i just wanna draw ford in Situations)#(i tried a new kind of lining & coloring on the truck! i will never be doing it again!)#(for my follower who's into vehicles: his truck's based on a late 70s Kenworth W900A. loosely. the headlights are anachronistic.)#(the design has been simplified via the logic of—)#(—'if I don't think that detail would be included in a cheap Optimus Prime toy then I don't need to draw it.')#(EDIT: over a week later i realize i typed freightliner instead of kenworth... i don't know why i typed freightliner.)#(i hope the reason no one corrected me is because no one noticed rather than because y'all think im dumb)

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