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dude I LOVE the idea of Blake being the Infamous Criminal of Team RWBY

like, they're in Atlas and getting arrested, right? Weiss was sheltered as shit and never got arrested for the events of the show, Ruby maybe did a small misdemeanor but nothing super major, Yang definitely has a few charges for club fights or petty crimes, but Blake? MILE LONG CRIMINAL RECORD. Breaking and entering, theft, grand larceny, assault, destruction of property, trespassing, and that's just the first HALF.

I like to imagine that Blake has been arrested quite a few times in the past (and has a HUGE distrust of the authorities and Ironwood, but that's a different post), and we know the White Fang didn't really give a shit about their identities (Blake not wearing a mask, Adam's name being known on the news), so imagine the cops looking at their previous crimes. They expect a lot from the bombshell blonde, and definitely a few crimes from the redhead who is literally biting her handcuffs, but what they DONT expect is a PARAGRAPH from the black haired quiet one. And THEN they see her name, and they go "OH SHIT" because they just arrested THE DAUGHTER OF THE CHIEFTAIN OF MENAGERIE and ADAM TAURUS' RIGHT HAND.

okay now I know this wouldn't be really plausible, but for the funnies, imagine if the cop guys read their criminal records out.

Cop: "Yang Xiao Long, destruction of property, grievous bodily harm, violent disorder."

Yang: "Checks out."

Cop: "Ruby Rose, destruction of property."

Ruby: "THAT WAS ONE TIME."

Cop: "Blake Belladonna, breaking and entering, theft, grand larceny, assault, destruction of property, trespassing-"

*two minutes later*

Cop: "-and finally, hijacking."

Blake: "Yeah."

Everyone else: "......DAMN??"

literally the only reason she isnt in prison for life is because Adam broke her out every time, and Winter got them out in Atlas 👍

chaoticevilspacewitch

Blake: wanted terrorist

Yang: *dreamy eyes*

but-a-humble-goon

If we're taking the comics to be canon we can add accessory to murder on that list thanks to Adam.

#rwby

bite-my-grimy-fleshy-ass

I remember as a kid the nearby small town had a "computer expert" who had a full storefront and office. If someone bricked their computer or it loaded with viruses he'd factory reset it for them and try to get it working again. He'd also buy, refurbish, rest, and resell old computers. But the main thing he advertised was if people brought him a computer and a list of programs they wanted installed on it he'd get them all set up. Flat rate of like 20 bucks.

Didn't realize until I was older and like, looking back on some of the tech stuff my mom needed help with and knew more about how software is priced that he was pirating it. Guy had a whole business set up where people who didn't know how computers worked would pay him 20 bucks to install Microsoft Office on their laptop because it was cheaper than buying it in the store and they didn't want to be bothered with figuring out how to install programs even if they could afford them normally. Like that guy was practically printing money well into the early 2000s. Very good hustle. Only small business owner I respect.

sir-adamus

kinda baffling to me that three years out people are still calling volume 9 a 'filler season', like just make it clear you don't pay any attention to the plot at all

character development isn't filler

lore drops aren't filler

paying off build-ups on character arcs isn't filler

having a season that's lighter on the main narrative to focus on the fallout of an intense arc, and ultimately reiterate and reconstruct the core themes of the show isn't filler

none of it's filler by definition because RWBY isn't an adaptation of anything - filler is specifically added material to pad for time so an adaptation doesn't catch up too quickly

it speaks to an incuriousness and dismissal towards the setting and the characters to dismiss everything volume 9 was doing as filler. this is a character driven show

#rwby

maddhatterreviews

Have you ever thought about how fucked it is that there were six Wonder Woman villains in the Justice league cartoon, but Cheetah, Giganta, and Dr. Cyber had nothing to do with her directly. Circe and Ares only appear in one episode each. Aresia didn't even come from the comics. And Dr. Cyber was such a background character I'm pretty sure most people didn't even know she was in Justice League when they first watched it.

There was also Hades who...

...Was basically just an off brand Ares.

And also implied to be Diana's real father? Which, i don't know why the fuck that was even a thing.

maddhatterreviews

Holy Shit I was right. Hades really was just an off Band Ares in this episode.

but-a-humble-goon

MAWS demonstrating that people like Hank Henshaw and Lex Luthor can’t even convincingly pretend to be like Superman because the concept of empathy is simply as alien to them as he is. You can give a man like Hank the powers but you can’t teach him to fake like he cares. The idea of having compassion for your enemies doesn’t even occur to him as an option. He's genuinely confused when all the normal people around him seem concerned for the petty thief he just yeeted. Even with all the PR coaching Lexcorp money can buy he would never think to save a squirrel in the path of a giant monster or stop to pick up a kid’s hat off the ground and give it back to them after saving them.

nitpickspot

Power without kindness is deeply frightening, unless you're the one holding it. Luthor and Henshaw simply don't care to see a perspective other than their own

comicgeekscomicgeek

Empathy and restraint are totally foreign concepts to people like them.

#my adventures with superman #dc #Yea #no notes y'all got it

moonlight-at-dawn

Why did “be critical of your media” turn into “find all its flaws and hate it” why did people become allergic to FUN

sayitwithsarcophilus

Because people confuse “critical as in critical thinking” with “critical as in criticizing something,” so they think that “look for something bad, no matter how far-fetched” is what “being critical” means.

prismatic-bell

They also don’t realize that “literary criticism” means…

Okay. What literary criticism IS, is like taking a mechanical clock apart to see all the gears and learn how it fits together and approach your next clock with more knowledge of what makes it tick.

What they THINK literary criticism means is, you take the clock apart and beat all the pieces with a hammer, then scream at it because it doesn’t tick for you the way it used to.

izhunny

OMG SOMEBODY PUT IT IN WORDS

thepolyamorouspolymath

And sometimes literary criticism can be PRAISE. Sometimes while deconstructing it, you discover cool shit the writer did in terms of structure or character, and it’s worthy of note that it was done and done effectively and well.

capricorn-0mnikorn

Yes to all of this. But especially that last addition.

I feel sorry for those people whose school took all the fun out of literature class.

annotated-dc

An animated series based on the best-selling comic book line Absolute Batman is in development from Warner Bros. Animation and DC.

Huh this is a surprise, although I'd have gone with Abs!Wonder Woman personally, even if Abs!Batman has sold literal millions of copies.

maddhatterreviews

Of course this is fucking happening.

Look, I'm sure this will be fine, possibly great even...But we already have a Batman animated series going on right now, and there's people wanting a Batman series set in the My Adventures with Superman universe, we don't fucking need this.

In fact, I'll come out and say it, Can we just not do Batman stuff for a while? Five years. That's all I'm asking for. Just five years where we focus on LITERALLY anyone other Batman for a change. Wonder Woman, the Flash, Martian Manhunter, fuck, give the Teen Titans another cartoon. Just something other than this.

#dc comics #absolute batman

Ey, this evil bard character is kinda cool, I wonder who played him...

HOLY SHIT DOES THAT SAY TOM CARDY!?

#the legend of vox machina #Critical Role #scanlan shorthalt #Bard #Tom Cardy

wanderingcoasties

“The LEGO Movie was my favorite movie of 2014, but it strikes me that the main character was male, because I feel like in our current culture, he HAD to be. The whole point of Emmett is that he’s the most boring average person in the world. It’s impossible to imagine a female character playing that role, because according to our pop culture, if she’s female she’s already SOMEthing, because she’s not male. The baseline is male. The average person is male. You can see this all over but it’s weirdly prevalent in children’s entertainment. Why are almost all of the muppets dudes, except for Miss Piggy, who’s a parody of femininity? Why do all of the Despicable Me minions, genderless blobs, have boy names? I love the story (which I read on Wikipedia) that when the director of The Brave Little Toaster cast a woman to play the toaster, one of the guys on the crew was so mad he stormed out of the room. Because he thought the toaster was a man. A TOASTER. The character is a toaster. I try to think about that when writing new characters— is there anything inherently gendered about what this character is doing? Or is it a toaster?”

— Bojack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg commenting on how weird gendered defaults in entertainment are, and why we should think twice about them. Excerpted from this longer original post. (via 360degreesasthecrowflies)

#Gender #The Lego Movie

Thoughts and feelings on Absolute Wonder Woman?

I haven't kept up with it because I can't always afford new comics, but from everything I've seen it's genuinely fantastic. I don't agree with people who think it should replace mainline Wonder Woman, mostly because anyone who says that ONLY like Absolute Wonder Woman or are just angry with Tom King's current run.

But I feel like Absolute Wonder Woman only really works as an Elseworld. Not that it wouldn't still be good, but it seems like stories like Absolute can only take these kind of wild swings if it doesn't have to represent what the character is "Supposed to be" as the main canon interpretation of the character.

#wonder woman #Absolute Wonder Woman #DC Comics #Absolute Universe #Asks

izunias-meme-hole

One Villainous Scene - The God of War

I've been taking a dive into Wonder Woman's history over the past few months, and I gotta say... this shit is rich. While there isn't a solid base in the Pre-Crisis stuff, that old stuff still had a lot of solid ideas, good blueprints, and even genuinely great storylines (much like Superman's earlier runs). However, much like Batman & Superman, most of her best shit is from Post-Crisis, especially George Perez's run. Perez did a delightful job remaking and distilling Diana's mythos, pinpointing the love that makes the core of her character, showing the struggle between conflict and diplomacy, and giving life to the supervillains & gods she faces off against. So who sits at the top of this continuity's hierarchy of evil?

That's right. This is the book that put DC's take on Ares into the limelight. While he appeared Pre-Crisis as Mars, it was this run that refined and polished the God of War into a far more personal, powerful, and worthy Greater-Scope Villain. He's been an adversary of the Amazons since their inception, sabotaging them from the shadows and using Hercules to try and break them. While he didn't succeed in destroying them, he succeeded in isolating them, but during his attempt to cause World War III he tried to finish them off for good. As a result he caught the attention of Wonder Woman and now... they're settling this generational beef.

Diana is NOT letting her people die, nor is she letting war ravage the entire world. She intends to stop Ares, but unfortunately for her the war god is simply too powerful in more ways than one.

As Diana slowly comes to realize that Ares cannot be defeated through any conventional means, the gods hear her and grant her a lasso and she uses it to bind the war god. So after a length battle, Diana finally confines him... but that is not all she does.

It is here that Ares is shown the damage his ambitions and warmongering will cause. He sees the world in a nuclear holocaust, a world filled with wastelands, a world without worshipers. He sees all of this destruction... and weeps. For all of his warmongering, he has only sought to bring a world where he is empowered and worshipped for eternity. He wanted to be as praised as his siblings and his father, not a lonely self-made hell. So what does he do next?

He backs out of his own plan. Just when he was on the verge of success, he backs out as soon as he realizes how destructive the aftermath is going to be. And he does all of this, while showing his newfound respect for Diana. However, that doesn't mean that he intends to give up on his ambitions. If anything he promises that the moment conflict arrises again, he'll be back to achieve his goals without reducing the world into a lifeless husk.

In short, Post-Crisis Ares is simply a perfect Big Bad. He is far from Diana's main adversary, but he's a villain who fills a similar role to most modern iterations of Ra's Al Ghul or Brainiac, a pragmatic, manipulative, and grandiose overarching antagonist. He craves discord and war, yet his ultimate endgoal is a world that worships him and him alone. He is a lord of desolation, yet his ultimate desire is not to be the fuckup of his divine lineage.

#wonder woman #ares #dc comics

mostfuckableffvillain

#final fantasy

gothamite-rambler

Jason: There are a lot of differences between Epic the Musical and the original Homer's Odyssey, but I'm not a purist. The changes made were fine, and they don't take away from my enjoyment of the musical and story.

Bruce: You put a lot of thought into this. Good for you.

maddhatterreviews

Hey, here's a question: Do you think Bruce would ask Diana about Epic: The Musical? Like, she had to have know at least some of the people /creatures/gods from the Odyssey. So do you think Bruce would talk to her about how they are portrayed by the musical?

And do you think he'd bring up the musical the next time Circe decides to turn everyone in DC into pig-men or something. Or would he convince the other Justice League members to start singing the Circe Saga every time she wants to start shit?

#DC Comics #epic the musical #Batman #Circe

sheenaduquette

I'm the anon who asked you about Cinder over the weekend. I realize that in my ask I forgot to tell you what they did with Cinder in RWBY. In canon her sole motivation is power for power's sake. She is a victim of abuse (which is why, despite everything she's done, I can't help but feel sympathy for her) at the hands of her adoptive mother from Atlas who she snapped and killed in self-defense as well as Salem. She isn't a mother and so far she has no redeeming qualities. How different is that from the Cinder you discussed in 2014?

When we were discussing Pyrrha’s fate and how Cinder came into play, he decided he wanted her to be, “misunderstood,” by the audience. There was a whole side story where she hunted and killed the previous Fall Maiden at the temple in order to steal her powers, furthering the assumption she was acting out of malicious and selfish intent. Because she did not inherit the powers properly (intentions of the previous avatar) she feared Pyrrha being capable of taking them back from her as the true successor.

She was intended as a red herring who was tricked into believing a half truth in order to manipulate her into a puppet being controlled from the shadows. While she had blood on her hands, she carried that burden of guilt by believing she was acting out a necessary evil, similar to Lelouch from Code Geass.

Ashe had been under the impression that the rise of the Maidens would lead the world to calamity, so it became her goal to harvest the avatars’ powers in order to destroy them with herself as the sole vessel. When she learns the truth of how she was tricked, she sacrifices herself to help the girls and restore their Maiden powers in a final effort to overcome the true affliction on the planet.

While the world would remember her atrocities, a small handful would hold her as a hero in their hearts.

sheenaduquette

I completely forgot a very vital piece about this character, so here's some notes straight from Monty:

jesterraconteuse

#the amazing digital circus

march-gay-shipping-madness

FINALS:

Pearlina (Pearl Houzuki/Marina Ida) (Splatoon 2) vs. Bumbleby (Yang Xiao Long/Blake Belladonna) (RWBY)

Pearlina

Bumbleby

Voting ended onMar 31

lilyroseheart

BEES WE'RE FALLING BEHIND!!!! FIGHT BACK HOLD THE LINEEEE

maddhatterreviews

I mean...I personally don't really care about this, but I know other people who do so...

#rwby #Poll

aspiringwarriorlibrarian

Robyn being hated and demonized by sad internet men is just another point in RWBY’s favor, honestly. That’s how you know you’ve written a subversive female character.

violetta-mondarev

this but also:

Every female RWBY character being hated and demonized by sad internet men is just another point in RWBY’s favor, honestly. That’s how you know you’ve written subversive female characters.

haltraveler

Robyn is hated not in spite of, but BECAUSE she’s fulfilling an archetype usually filled by a man (and usually a white man at that)

Compare Robyn’s introduction to Qrow’s. Both scenes show them acting cocky in order to antagonize members of the Atlas military. Sure, Robyn was trying to distract Clover in order to achieve a concrete goal while Qrow was drunkenly trying to prove a point but both scenes are very similar. But the overall reaction from dudes on the internet couldn’t have been more different. Because when a man does that he’s seen as a cool renegade who doesn’t play by the rules but when it’s a woman (and ESPECIALLY a non White woman) she’s called an arrogant bitch who should be listening to the authority figure who obviously knows better.

amethyst-wind-uk

She’s fucking Robin Hood taunting the Sheriff of Nottingham and SherIronwood Forest. Stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Rallying against unjust laws and unfair treatment.

There have been 25 separate movies (at least, and not even counting the Ivanhoe ones) made glorifying Robin Hood, and yet as soon as he’s genderflipped (but otherwise doesn’t change as a character) one time, the pitchforks come out.

harostar

Weird how rampant misogynists seem to feel the need to keep watching a show about dynamic, multifaceted, complex women.

You would think they would move on to one of the millions of shows catering to their need for a White Male Lead.

fission-mailure

I’m just thinking of that one person who spams the main tag and keeps insisting that it would ‘just make sense’ and have been ‘so much better’ if Robyn was secretly working for Salem to destroy Atlas from within with her Bad Socialism. Because as we all know, if you advocate for workers’ rights and the repair of critical infrastructure, you’re an evil saboteur.

Just, like. Idk, mate, if you feel yourself being possessed by the roaming spirit of Ben Shapiro every time you talk about a character, it might be time to back off a little.

matrixdragon

This post was linked on Twitter. And oh boy, did the shitheads come out with Bad Robyn Takes. There was ‘someone established as level headed suddenly starting a fight on the airship for no reason’, ‘she’s only there to justify Ironwood hate’, ‘it made no sense for her to set up the roadblock’, and my personal favourite, ‘we liked qrows first appearance because he had a cool fight, Robyn just talked, so she’s lame’

aspiringwarriorlibrarian

Of fucking course.

“Qrow had a cool fight and him telling off Ironwood was awesome! But if Robyn fights to keep the authorities from arresting an innocent man, she’s evil!”

swapauanon

The belief that Robyn was going to be evil is ESPECIALLY stupid when you realize the V7 opening had a clip of her and Qrow fighting Tyrian together, vs how the same opening repeatedly has Ironwood looking super shady.

matt0044

I feel like the archetype of “headstrong hero that often gets into more trouble that out“ is too often reserved for male characters. White male characters at that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4InTzxkd_0

Seriously, I remember viewing and enjoying Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The hijinks, the devil-may-care attitude of the protagonist and even how the best friend gets a stealth character arc of his own.

However, one thing was apparent: if Ferris was a girl and/or of any other enthnicity visible to the audience, the protagonist wouldn’t be seen as endearing. And not from card-carrying bigots failing to disguise their prejudices.

Rather from even average movie goers who will often be ignorant of this sphere of normality which includes that white, male protagonists not being lawful or morally correct gets the benefit of the doubt.

They’re flawed and will improve themselves over the story. Or they’re flawed in an admirable way like a teenager being too cool for the room or a rogue-ish older man ravishing another woman, consent be damned.

When these traits and varients there upon are present in a female character, especially one front and center in the protagonist slot, these traits are… negative. Some even call to question their status as role models as if this were a Saturday Morning Cartoon of yore.

Which is what RWBY slowly gained when the girls were allowed to be fleshed out. And especially when Volume 6 rolled around.

This being in spite of how it was far from dissimilar to other stories with this sort of narrative beat. The heroes defying authority for what they feel and know is right is a trope practically ubiquitous to YA fiction among other stories featuring teenage/kid protagonists.

Female characters are allowed by fans (and writers alike) to do what their male counterparts do… so long as said male counterpart is the audience’s proxy if not the real protagonist. They’re part of a team who answers to a male leader and follows their instructions.

Maybe they’re treasonous but we’re less inclined to question the male protagonist’s judgement calls. Even when we know they’re not the best, we’re also willing to take a step back and maybe forgive them for not getting it right. Nobody’s perfect. This is part of their growth.

Swap the genders for the leaders along with most of the male cast and suddenly you get lawbreakers instead of rebels fighting the system. Suddenly, you got fans questioning, “Who’re the real heroes?” when other stories with eerily similar scenarios don’t get as much flack.

I mean, by this logic, Red vs. Blue is just an unwatchable mess.

asm5129

I think it’s also really worth recognizing that Robyn is like

Literally the character they claim to have wanted Adam to be.

She is a nuanced, politically savvy rebel fighting for the most vulnerable that’s not afraid to cause some real heavy disruption if that’s what the situation calls for.

Yes she’s not part of the white fang arc but BOY do people like to not acknowledge how she indicates CRWBY’s increased political awareness and understanding after the backlash to that arc.

#rwby #robyn hill

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