black out the sky

here for strq reunion on hiatus

[kritzenkriegen]

*thinks up an idea for a silly quick piece* okay haha let's whip something up real quick

*idea gets more complicated*

*idea gets more complicated*

*idea gets more complicated*

*idea gets more complicated*

oh no

[strqyr]

as i keep writing them and designing them new outfits, what has really come to compel me about cinder's and adam's status as antagonists is, oddly enough, their shared color palette with team rwby—and off the top of my head, they're the only villains outside of salem to do so.

visually, it draws them nearer, sort of cementing their place in the story, orbiting the main characters, and that opens the door for everything else, from parallels to ideological differences to bitter rivalries.

like i'm surprised how easy it all comes to me. no other villains are this easy to write and weave into the story. not even salem, as she lacks the same peer level with team rwby that cinder and adam have.

those two i can just drop in with team rwby, and they belong.

[strqyr]

sometimes you see criticism of a media that you agree with, but then the offered solution to said criticism makes you question everything because it doesn't actually answer / fix the problem, just moves it around a bit.

bonus points if the problem is moved to some other concept / character that's already heavily criticised. like at that point you're not even offering a solution to the criticism, you're doubling up on it and making it worse.

[strqyr]

#is this about Oz!Jaune?#because that's what came to mind#more generally it's much easier to find problem then to actually fix it [tags via @penny-the-pissed-poltergeist]

lol yeah, but i was also thinking about oz / oscar / the whole reincarnation thing in general.

like. i often get a feeling that people see oscar as the problem, and as long as you move oz to someone else's head the problem is solved, but... the whole concept of "ozma's reincarnation" requires a lot of focus, not to mention that salem is always going to feel a more personal villain to ozma than anyone in team rwby thanks to their past. so when it comes wanting team rwby as The Main Characters to get the spotlight and actually matter, oz is going to be a problem that requires careful handling—and even if you put him in one of the main girls head to solve it, you'd run into the issue of their stories becoming more about him, which isn't exactly ideal.

shoving oz into jaune's head is just giving the middle finger to all the criticism about the amount of screen time and focus he already gets lol—like, when the words "jaune feels more like the main character than ruby" are not uncommon sight, something has gone wrong, me thinks.

but yeah, finding solutions to problems is a lot easier said than done, and i know most people aren't aiming to fix the whole thing, rather they focus on the singular problem they have and how it could be solved.

unfortunately, i've managed to dig myself into the hole of "how would i answer this criticism as a writer?" which leads to spiraling into depths unknown lol

[strqyr]

who do i need to poke for crwby to throw a bone to the fandom in the shape of some semblance and weapon names. or any other info bits like where the characters are originally from, i'm not picky.

just because you're in the depths of a hiatus doesn't mean you can't feed the fanfics and fanart with little things 👉👈

[strqyr]

i finally figured out what makes early rwby feel different to the later volumes. it comes down to how the volumes themselves have been constructed, and how early rwby set expectations that the later volumes didn't exactly meet.

when you look at V1, there are very clear story and / or character arcs with set episodes. there's practically zero overlap; the initiation is about the initiation, the badge and the burden focuses on ruby and weiss, jaunedice on jaune, and the last two episodes on blake and weiss. each arc solves its "problem" within it; for example, after the badge and the burden, weiss doesn't have a problem with ruby being made the leader, two episodes and one in-universe day, and the problem has been solved.

V2 moves away from this a bit, but not enough for the "this character gets the focus for this specific arc" angle to completely disappear, more so the problems aren't solved within five minutes; team rwby's investigations didn't stop blake's situation from getting worse. the writing is still focused on specific characters and their development, leaving others to wait for their turn. . . though you do get a bit more of setting things up for those in the waiting room.

V3 is centered around the tournament with very little room for actual character development to take place, prioritizing moving the plot forward.

V4 and V5 take a bit more on their plate, but thanks to the main cast being separated, you still get the "this character gets the focus for this specific arc" feeling from it. this effect lessens the more reunions there are, but blake practically has her completely own story for 99% of the time.

from V6 however, this changes. the gang is back together, the plot is on the move, and there's no room for more episodic, character driven and focused arcs. every character should get something to make their presence justified, but with limited time available it's never going to feel enough compared to the early days of the show.

so, those who through V1-4 were waiting for the story to get to atlas so that weiss and her family could get their time in the spotlight, playing the central role in specific episodes and such, are left disappointed when the focus is given to fresh faces and storylines with no prior set up.

and when not that long ago blake got two whole volumes for her story with no one else upstaging her, weiss' story getting crumbs while the writers introduce relationship troubles for ren and nora out of nowhere is going to sting. to be clear, this isn't just about these specific characters, this feeling applies to the whole show in general—and might also explain why there are complaints of characters getting "too much screentime" even if their screentime in specific volume isn't much; they've already gotten their slice of the pie earlier, and any more is going to stand out against those who've gone neglected.

that's not to say the writers should have stuck with the V1 level of writing and focus on characters, some overlap was very much needed. but it does help to explain why fans were left dissatisfied with the handling of some characters and their storylines, as well as where their priorities lied; it didn't come from nowhere. the writers, unwittingly, set expectations they couldn't follow through with, mainly due to the amount of characters they decided to juggle at once.

there's only so much you can slice a pie before people are getting nothing.

[strqyr]

me: okay for this au i won't make any massive changes, just building off of canon and small tweaks here and there.

me five seconds later: the academies are now less schools that take four years and more training camps, initiation is a multi-day thing, no teams only partners, no faunus (the term exists as a different concept), no gods, bunch of characters have been moved around, vytal festival is every four years and always held on the island of vytal, and while the core of the lost fable lore stuff is still in place (i.e. ozma and salem), it's significantly different. also that second chapter that was supposed to follow the first episode of the show? yeah, that wasn't working, it's completely different now :)

[strqyr]

i find it interesting how little salem actually cares about team rwby and co. she doesn't consider a threat to her plans, not even a slight annoyance she needs to deal with, and she barely addresses them directly—and the two times she does, with ruby and yang, she uses "girl" which carries a certain dismissiveness with it; "dear girl, their goal was never victory. it was merely to set the stage.", "and who is it i've taken from you, girl?"

compare that to how she immediately addresses ironwood as general ironwood, then follows it up with james, and the difference is noticeable. hell, with oscar you can actually see her switch up: "you can pretend, boy, but you're not fully him. not yet, at least." -> "well, perhaps you and i can have a better working relationship. oscar, was it?"

it feels like this weird mix of respect—or lack of it—and manipulativeness, depending on the context. she clearly knew oscar's name but didn't use it before the possibility of a "better working relationship" entered the picture, so no doubt she knows ruby's and yang's as well but doesn't bother to address them as such because they're not even a blip on her radar.

and it's like. does that count as salem underestimating them? is that going to be her downfall, not considering them as a threat, not taking them as seriously as she perhaps should? it's not like she outright dismisses them, it's more so that whatever they do, however they try to foil her plans, it won't matter in the end. time is on her side, after all.

but on the other hand, there's cinder, who is very aware of the thorn team rwby can be—"salem doesn't know those children like i do."—and it creates this weird situation of like. okay. you have two villains with two very different views of the heroes and the threat-level they possess. how do you handle that? salem doesn't feel like the big bad for team rwby—too detached for that, emotionally—, but cinder does, yet salem is still the main villain. unless the point of salem's downfall is that she has underestimated just about everyone, including cinder, it just feels. . . flat. at the moment i'd feel the same if they went with redeemed salem route as well.

something's just not clicking in place, which makes predicting the trajectory of salem's (and in part, cinder's) story difficult.

[strqyr]

sometimes you see criticism of a media that you agree with, but then the offered solution to said criticism makes you question everything because it doesn't actually answer / fix the problem, just moves it around a bit.

bonus points if the problem is moved to some other concept / character that's already heavily criticised. like at that point you're not even offering a solution to the criticism, you're doubling up on it and making it worse.

[strqyr]

ever since the mother tree's leaves were shown to have elemental reactions, i've been workshopping an alternative origin for maiden magic just for funsies (and to use in several AUs), and now i feel like yapping about it, so.

each set of maiden magic has its own tree (think of the one in haven's vault, with its glowing flowers reacting to presence of people), and each tree is connected to the mother tree in the ever after, their roots defiantly existing between two realms.

their seasonal association comes not only from the appearances of their respective trees—winter is frosted all over and glimmering, spring blooms with flowers, summer is flush of vibrant greens, and autumn with leaves of red, yellow, and orange—, but from how the powers move from one host to another. instead of it being immediate, the powers will wait for their season to arrive before finding a new, young host to "grow up" with once more; for example, if the winter maiden would die during summer, the powers would return to its tree until winter comes, then seek a new host.

while the maidens are able to use any elemental power—elements ask for no permission, if it snows during midsummer, it snows (especially in a world rife with dust)—, learning the ones associated with their own season does come easier.

[strqyr]

many point out ruby's nerdiness towards weapons, but i think it extents to grimm hunters in general. like, this is the same ruby rose who thinks a life of a huntress was a better career path because it's so much more romantic and cool than any other career involving helping people, who asked glynda for an autograph, who knew exactly who ozpin was when asked—compare that to yang who looked at the glynda goodwitch, a famous huntress in vale, and asked "who's that?" and you know exactly which one of them has been living and breathing this career for years.

and all that information is delivered in the very first episode. it's only in the next episode that weapons come into picture, and it's also in relation to hunters.

i guess what i'm trying to get across is that it's less that ruby is a weapons nerd who's going to tinker with weapons on her own (building your own weapon seems to be the norm anyway) and more that she's a nerd about all things hunters.

which is also why she should have freaked out (positively) about silver eyes and show interest in them a lot more because they fall into the same pile of "legendary hunters of the stories" as grimm hunters do. . . just so that the crushing realization of this sucks, actually would hit so much harder.

[strqyr]

40% of my writing process is planning. 10% of it is actually writing the story down. the remaining 50% is analysing my own writing decisions, and writing explanations for why i made those decisions as if i need to justify them to some unknown reader who doesn't even exist.

and then sometimes during the explanation i figure out a better way to get some idea across or to a better use for a character and woop! it's back to the drawing board.

[strqyr]

there's early concept art for adam, right? i didn't imagine that, he had dust vials or kunai knives, or maybe it was both. . . right?

someone help me i've been trying to search for it with no results ಥ_ಥ

[asura-12345]

Replies are restricted so I'm reblogging. do you mean this by any chance?

[strqyr]

yes!! no wonder i didn't find it, it wasn't concept art at all lmao

thank you!! ♥

[strqyr]

there's early concept art for adam, right? i didn't imagine that, he had dust vials or kunai knives, or maybe it was both. . . right?

someone help me i've been trying to search for it with no results ಥ_ಥ

[strqyr]

after figuring out the timeline, redoing some of the worldbuilding, and painstakingly reshuffling some characters around and repurposing their roles somewhat to get myself out of many and more roadblocks, i finally sat down to write what the first two chapters of my self-indulgent, rewrite-ish (more like a reboot, really) AU should have in them. this is the furthest that i've ever gotten to actually writing anything, so that's a win already in my books.

the only problem. . . i'm writing it as if it's an animated show. unless i get a sudden burst of inspiration to start designing outfits, learning 3D modeling and animation, that's never going to happen, so now it remains to be seen whether i can translate it to something that's actually made to be read without losing the general vibe of it that i'm so far liking.

i am truly my own worst enemy 🫡

[strqyr]

you know how V9 opened with summer's narration of a fairy tale? imagine if each volume had been like that, with this unknown narrator telling a story at the beginning and the very end of the volume. the story told would be continuous rather than each volume having their own, one that in some way parallels what's happening in the "prologue" and the "epilogue" the narrator speaks over—and the very first narration, in V1 would start with a book opening.

not too unlike what was done with salem and oz for the beginning of V1 and the end of V3, just taking the concept further and keeping the narrator unknown for much, much longer.

long enough that viewers would debate whether the narrator is important or not, whether it's simply a stylistic choice to frame each volume—and connect them—because of the fairy tale motif. there'd be several suspects for who it could be, too, enough hints and clues and red herrings to point at any direction you want. . . until V9 rolls around, and we learn it's been summer all along, right in front of us this whole time.

and she closes the book, goes on her mission, disappears, and you would think that was that, the storytime is over. . .

only for the next volume to roll around (*sobs*) and it continues.

[strqyr]

doesn't that make ozpin doctor who? /Joke

i've never watched doctor who so i have no idea lmao

all i know is that there are different actors playing the character, while oz would be like, same actor wearing a different hat -type of deal.

[strqyr]

the thought of ozma being immortal with regenerative abilities (just like salem) while keeping his multiple lives angle is hilarious to me and i'm so very tempted to throw this into my au.

just imagining him changing his appearance for each life, letting his hair grow longer, other times cutting it or going bald, growing his beard out, styling it, yes or no for moustaches, glasses that he doesn't really need, dyeing his hair so often that at this point he's gone through the whole colour spectrum, etc etc etc.

he's got a list of names that he cycles through and each still has the same beginning in case he messes up and begins to give his old name.

and whenever he "dies", he's somewhere keeping low profile (when his body doesn't take forever to put back together, that is). some poor follower of his just has to deal with this immortal dude taking over his couch for however long it takes to be considered appropriate for ozma to reappear as a "different" person.