#ask.strqyr

[strqyr]

Did you see Sheena talk about Cinder's first version being in love with Summer?

yup. while it's nice to know exactly what kind of queer rep monty might have had in mind, i'm actually much happier with the cinder we did eventually get. like, as it stands people already questioned how an adult woman might pass as a beacon student; now add in that she's in her mid-thirties at her old stomping grounds where people probably should recognize her (or at the very least sense some form of familiarity), and that's just a bridge too far to sell, imo.

(also, on a personal note, anything that is giving "snape" gives me an ick, so i'm more than happy with the version we did get lol)

might also be why they ultimately didn't go with that version, but that doesn't mean it wasn't reworked into something more suitable for what had already been established in canon—like, say, summer is alive and is the one to find cinder for salem, for example (cinder's "and you... should have never been born" to ruby is pretty loaded statement, too).

just as a side note, these kinds of early concepts are always a good reminder that things aren't set in stone until they're actually in the show. i know, an obvious statement, but like, rwby especially; summer didn't even exist until jeff williams asked monty who was in the grave before suggesting ruby's mother, torchwick was meant to be a v1 villain only, neo was a very late addition to the cast, and the maidens certainly weren't thought out before the first episode aired. hell, i'm pretty sure the writers even talked about how they weren't sure how the staff of creation worked until they got there, so. from the beginning to the end, it's hardly been the most set in stone show on earth.

like, i'm just an outsider, i don't have any clue how the development of the show actually went about, but based on what has been shared by everyone actually involved... it definitely seems more fluid, ever changing, things being added on a whim and so on, so the constant bickering over whether things in the show have been the "first, original concepts" or "planned from the beginning" is, frankly, tiring as hell. i don't care if something has been there since the beginning or was come up second ago; just write it well, don't contradict previous canon and lie to my face (because the internet never forgets what has previously been said) and it's fine.

[strqyr]

Out of curiosity, how would you see a Cinder redemption to work out? Because I can't really see Cinder backing down at this point. I can kinda see an empathetic ending for Cinder if it played out like Nevermore wants to do for Adam (always parallels there). Like, yes she dies, but it's a tragedy that they couldn't talk her down. But that feels like you'd need more time with a redeemed Emerald to reach that level from our heroes, so idk maybe redemption in death turning on Salem is possible?

when i think of a cinder redemption, i don't expect—or even really want—it to be cinder being all buddy-buddy with team rwby and co with everything forgiven in a blink of an eye. that's not interesting to me. for me, the most important bit is that cinder is free, free to make her informed choices and to do so without the shackles of the past, i.e. that running is all that she'll ever do.

and while that could translate into a death that's treated as a tragedy, i just. . . at this point, it would still leave a bad taste in my mouth.

the thing is, cinder has never (to our knowledge) been truly free. she's gone from one abusive situation to another and yet another, exchanging a shock collar to a grimm arm. the one person she actually trusted broke that trust, and decided to go by the book rather than help the abused child-slave and essentially deemed her irredeemable for killing her abusers.

her theme, called 'the truth', literally ends with "the truth is no one's ever loved you."

this would all be fine and dandy, if the writers held every character to the same standards, and followed through with the "always go by the book"—but that's not the case.

before i go to the next section that is going to feel like a massive tangent (but i swear it will make sense), it is important to note: huntsmen and huntresses have a license for a reason, it is what allows them to actually act as hunters and to use their weapons, with rules in place that, if they so happen to break them (e.g. endangering civilians, public property destruction, etc), they may lose their license.

so. with that out of the way.

ruby stops a dust robbery, beating up henchmen and chasing down roman without a license. blake and sun, chased by roman in a paladin, decide that a busy highway with bunch of civilians on it is the best place to fight him rather than seeking a less civilian-filled area. ozpin allows team rwby to go on a mission that wasn't for first-year students to begin with instead of sending a professionals to scout the area, during which they kept throwing white fang members off the train without a lick of care for their wellbeing. team rwby and co steal a military airship all the while temporarily shutting down argus' cct support tower, putting the city in vulnerable position.

i could go on, but the main point here is: the heroes keep breaking the rules and laws and never get called out for it, because their cause is seen as good. they're justified, either because their goal is to help / save people, or because they're being. . protected by powerful people. idk.

whether you agree or disagree with this is irrelevant; what matters is that this is the stage the writers have set: it's okay to act outside the law, break the rules, etc. as long as you're doing it for a good cause.

in that sense, it's difficult to agree with rhodes' decision as being the right one for following the law, as it is difficult to believe that cinder was wrong to kill her abusers—to do so would mean that certain characters get to play by different rules simply because they're part of a special clique with powerful friends who can cover their actions up, that things like "hope" are only for those who didn't suffer """too much""" during their childhood and actually had people to support them.

all that cinder didn't have.

so like. at this point in time, with everything the writers have set-up and said the show's theme to be, how they've described ruby as someone who sees the best in people and wants to make the world a better place, with cinder being the epitome of a character failed by society due to the amount of focus she's gotten, it's like. . .

either they try to bridge the gap and make it clear that there are no "sides" as far as who has to play by the rules and who doesn't goes, or they fully commit to the idea that life is great when you're part of the clique or have connections to it, and if that's not your situation, then sucks to be you, should have thought of that before you were born!

i hope this makes sense, because i don't even know anymore lmao.

but also: i'd be totally fine with cinder faking her death at the end and then going on a journey to, idk, find herself or something. like i can deal with another fake-out with a slightest of hints that she's still alive. but an actual death and i'm gonna start thinking that the writers have something against child-slaves, and not in a way that should be obvious.

[strqyr]

It really feels like the most ardent Yang stans don't actually like Yang as a character? Putting aside how much of it is tangled up in demonizing Tai for having mental health issues and a job to do, what do you mean Yang was a mother to Ruby? Where? Nothing about her behavior is motherly, nor does Ruby and Yang's behavior with Tai make sense if that's true. "Whoo, butch icon!" Um, no? She wears pants now, punches people, and frowns, but beyond that she has always been so very fem

mmhhm. yeah. it's the same with "yang isn't a party girl" (literally how she's described in the official blurb and nothing in the show contradicts it), or "yang doesn't make jokes / puns" (she literally does), or "yang doesn't have anger issues" (she does, and the villains literally used it against her during the tournament)—i don't know if it's projection or what, but it's like you can't talk about yang as she is in the show without being branded a hater or something. exactly why i don't really interact with much fan content for yang because it's so deeply rooted in fanon, canon is faaaaaaar behind in second place.

i can't blame anyone for thinking yang is "motherly", though, since that's how crwby keeps describing her outside the show, but. . . you're right, the behaviour simply isn't there in the show. i have two older sisters and they've been more motherly towards me in settings where our parents simply cannot be present (e.g. at school lol), so maybe my standards are too high, but yeah. no.

i'd maybe get it if at the time when yang actually gave parental advice to ruby, ruby would have replied with something like "ugh, i know, you keep telling me that" rather than "ugh, you sound just like dad", implying that this isn't the norm for yang.

i'd maybe get it if yang hadn't reacted flippantly to leaving zwei alone in the dorms while they're gone and showed some level of responsibility, but she sees the absurd amount of food and the can opener tai packed and goes "welp, that's settles it! [...] zwei will be here when we get back!" (who needs water anyway? /s) it's weiss who raises concern first, and it's ultimately ruby who brings zwei with them rather than leaving him alone in the dorms.

i'd even get it if they'd addressed this supposed "yang had to mature faster beyond her age" when they had a whole story line of her wanting to be considered an adult because she thinks she's "been through enough" to do so. . . but all it amounts to is her loss of arm and tai's unwillingness to talk about raven with her.

like. i don't know how much faith people have on the writers or how good they think the writing is to begin with, but yang's arc in V4 was the perfect time to address the alleged "yang had to be a mother to ruby" part of their past, and. . . it didn't happen. which would be a baffling decision, if that were the case. horrible writing, really, so i can't see why anyone would wish for it at that point, unless they don't care about the quality of the writing and only care about their headcanons becoming true.

point being: they could have never said anything about yang being "motherly" and literally nothing would change. yang and ruby's relationship is pretty much two siblings who care about each other, but can still make mistakes and unintentionally hurt each other. they're not constantly on the same wavelength, and that's fine.

their relationship works just fine as such, but it breaks apart if yang is supposed to have raised ruby or acted as a mother to her, for their behaviour towards each other—as well as tai and qrow—simply doesn't support it.

and honestly, any attempts at trying to define yang into a neat box goes completely against her trailer quote: "scathing eyes ask that we be symmetrical, one sided and easily processed. yet every misshapen spark's unseen beauty is greater than its would be judgement." from the beginning, yang has exhibited traits that have traditionally been considered "feminine" and "masculine"—it's never been "one or another" with her, it's both. not to mention, yang as a butch is like. where?? i'm sorry, did the definition of "butch" change at some point???

actually. . . i feel like a lot of fanon for yang has completely ignored the quote. yang can't be flawed or messy (even though people claim they love flawed characters), she's perfect in every single way, perfect sister, perfect fighter, and if you dare criticize any aspect of her, then a) you're wrong (even if the show acknowledges it, too), or b) if that flaw exists, then clearly it's some other character's fault.

i posted yesterday how it's exhausting being a strq fan, but it's also exhausting being a yang fan. can't have shit in this fandom lmao

[strqyr]

I genuinely think it's a missed opportunity to not have mentioned Team STRQ to the Yang and Ruby while they were at Beacon. Even Qrow said they were pretty well known. A headcanon of mine is that Yang watches old footages of Team STRQ in the web, especially Raven's (don't mind me imagining that Yang tried to imitate Raven's fighting style before Tai stopped her). Thank you for entertaining this ask.

yup. for a supposedly well known team—and based on ancillary material, qrow is famous enough to have fanboys—there's very little actually said about team strq outside their family.

surely some of the faculty was already there during team strq's time; small mentions here and there, pointing out the similarities, both positive and negative. concerns, too; would they end up the same as their family? or would they succeed where strq failed?

hell, yang's whole thing is searching for raven!! and what little she knows is that raven was a member of team strq, attending the very same academy she's currently attending and there's nothing???

c'mon now.

i've had the same headcanon, occasionally with the twist that finding any footage is actually difficult because somehow, some way, a lot of it has been scrubbed off the web. wouldn't be good PR for the bandit queen to have been a beacon student, ya know ;)

[strqyr]

thank you for being one of the rare people who don't mischaracterize yang by acting like she's a mom friend or something

being in the rwby fandom means getting stuck with bunch of early—and i mean early—day fanon that was never recalibrated to fit, ultimately leading to creating yourself your own little corner to avoid and ignore the widespread fanon.

this is one of those cases. not even sure how it started and how it continues to persist in the face of. everything. but here we are, and i'll continue being in my weird little corner 🫡

[strqyr]

Do you no longer believe that Cinder's redemption is possible? :'(

let's put it this way: i still believe that redemption would be the most satisfying end for cinder as a character, considering that the most likely options for her death are "her abuser kills her" or "prove her right about hunters".

however. . . i saw what happened to penny fans in V8. i'm simply lowering my expectations as low as possible to avoid disappointment. ya know, like, i'd rather get positively surprised than face crushing disappointment by trusting the writers not to double down on "former child slave as a hate sink? yes please!" lmao

[strqyr]

Honestly, I'm glad that you are here to write your critiques with RWBY without being demeaning. I think too many fans think that having criticism or dislikes in the show means you hate it and that is so inexplicable? I like RWBY but I can't deny that it has botched its racism plots and its a bit rushed at points.

I don't feel as alone when I do see fans having a more critical eye on things they like/don't like.

to me, it comes down to a very simple thing: people are a lot less likely to criticize an idea they never had any interest in than they're to criticize an idea they found interesting.

at its core, criticism is basically "i like this; i wish it was (even) better."

so, yeah. the whole "if you criticize something, you must hate it" is just utterly asinine. like if i hate something, i'm not giving it a second thought in a day lol

there's also like. different kinds of criticism? sure, sometimes you watch something that just gives you that visceral "wtf was that", and you just want to vent on your own blog. sometimes, you liked what was in the show, but can also acknowledge how it could have been done differently to get the message across better, etc. and sometimes, you felt like the writing promised something else and then didn't meet those expectations, either by ignoring it completely or by swerving to a lane on the opposite side of the road and you're left wondering what the hell just happened.

all completely valid, of course; it just depends on your preference and current mood. speaking for myself, if i find something lacking, i tend to offer alternatives because that's part of my analytical process; figuring out why something gave me the reaction it did, why it doesn't work, and finding workarounds without changing too much, if plausible.

with rwby and its fandom, especially, it's like. there was a definite change around V6, i would say. before that, for example, it was pretty much widely accepted that the racism plot was botched from every direction, at worst you'd have people just ignoring it and focusing on the rest. but then the writers started drip-feeding queer representation, and something broke, because you sure as hell cannot claim the show you like is "progressive" with its botched racism plot, and so began the attempts to explain how it wasn't actually botched, for reasons XYZ and ABC—and that eventually evolved into "no criticism allowed" and "criticism = hate" to dismiss it.

which in itself is weird, because in my personal experience, it's very easy to avoid criticism. tumblr offers all the tools to do so, from blocking to filtering tags to filtering words in the body of the text (even blog names!!!), so at this point if people keep seeing criticism when they don't want to. . . they've made their choice.

(sorry if this is all over the place, my mind is half focused on a f1 race lmao)

[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.