I just realized why we see so many posts depicting Jaune Arc as this total chick magnet. Because that's the character Jaune is. Or rather, he's the deconstruction of such a character.
See, Jaune's character inspiration is the same as these 'magic girl boyfriends' you see in various manga and anime. This plain vanilla boy who living a normal life but one day stumbles upon a strange, new world, either by literally being transported, or just learning about a hidden civilization. either way, they get embroiled in crazy, intense things, but don't worry! They get a girl, sometimes several with crazy powers to help and protect him, soon becoming ride-or-die for the guy. And soon the guy gains powers of his own, with his character growth being centered around 'being a real man who can protect the weak women who shouldn't be fighting'. His power scales to absurd degrees until he becomes a basic god.
Jaune more or less has the same thing happen to him, as he goes from a civilian life to Beacon Academy, and gets Pyrrha Nikos as a partner to help and even train him. The problem is that Pyrrha gets killed, filling him with much angst, regret and rage. And the other girls he's stuck with don't so much love him as they regard him as a lost puppy in a box. The closest we get to women wanting Jaune THAT WAY is the Thirsty Moms bit in "Sparks". And despite his training, Jaune is always stuck at the bottom tier of Team Remnant, largely due to his inexperience. (How true that is now after V9 is unknown).
Basically, what I'm saying is that Jaune's character is what would happen if a vanilla boy didn't have plot contrivance and raw pheromones to carry him through the hardship and crisis.
I'm still currently re-writing Chapter 32, but here's a snippet of what's to come! Warning: these next few chapters will be sad.
Brown eyes stared back.
The mirror held her face like it did every morning. There was nothing different and yet, she still hunted for something. She wasn’t sure what—she never was. But the glass was inches from her face which gave her the appearance of someone quite vain. She supposed, in a way, she was quite a vain person. She was always concerned with how people perceived her, how they regarded her. She was constantly examining herself from all angles, in mirrors, phone screens, glass surfaces, anything that could reflect her shape back at her. She needed to be perfect. She needed to figure out what it was that people wanted, then mould herself accordingly. Lila Sawyer was vain and right now, she looked it. Checking her reflection so thoroughly while standing in the middle of the hallway. She should be getting books, not checking her hair. But her eyes had caught onto something on her face and she stopped. Examined the gaze. She supposed it should be something that she liked about herself. How much like her mother she appeared. She was, after all, a beautiful woman. And Lila knew that, so was she.
But right now, all she could see what set them apart. Namely, their eyes.
Her mother’s had been sweeter. They had been blue, but they had shone like lakes beneath the summer sun. They had been beautiful and still made Lila think of watercolours along the paper. Whereas, Lila thought that her own eyes resembled mud or a beast, an oak tree. There was something darker in her gaze. Something that made her different. Something that made her feel like she was still missing. Still failing.
She touched her hair. She had it in an elaborate updo that had taken too long to justify. But she looked beautiful, exactly like her mother would want. Exactly how everyone else would want. Everyone loved a beautiful girl, while also hating when that beautiful girl held a mirror to her face.
Footsteps alerted her that Helga was coming. Lila wasn’t sure when she had learned to distinguish her team’s footsteps from the others. But at some point, she had, and it had allowed her to prepare the right face.
Helga didn’t bother greeting her and slammed back against the neighbouring locker. She had her books to her chest and an exaggerated look on her face. She looked like a Shakespearean actor readying themselves for a monologue that lasted a few pages.
Lila felt her mouth twist into what she knew was a smile. Helga had always been dramatic.
Gently, Lila shut her locker.
“You look chirpy,” she pointed out.
“No idea what you’re talking about.”
“Is it because of Arnold?”
Helga made a face.
“I just had a whole conversation with the princess. We weren’t fighting,” Helga said, sounding quite proud of herself. “Well, not entirely anyway. We were both yelling about Amy Schumer. But! Before you say anything, we were on the same side. We were hating together!”
A laugh escaped Lila.
The sound made something brighten in Helga’s eyes as her theatrical expression melted into a grin.
“Trust ugly Zionists to bring people with common sense together,” she continued. “Fuck that imperialist nonsense.”
“And trust sleepovers to also bring people together,” Lila added. “Told you we talk about politics.”
Helga chuckled then launched into a retelling of the conversation. She didn’t spare any detail, adding in the appropriate facial expressions and switching voices when it was required. Although that, Lila knew, was pure exaggeration. Something you got used to when you were friends with Helga Pataki. It still astounded Lila that this girl had managed to fool so many people into thinking that she was nonchalant. She was the biggest ham that Lila had met.
But she nodded anyway, taking in what Helga had to say, until she noticed something from the corner of her eye—Phoebe.
She was standing on the other side of the hallway in a conversation with the members of the calculus club. Lila still wasn’t sure of their names, but she did recognise Nadine as one of them. They were talking about something that must have captivated them, because they hadn’t noticed that Phoebe’s attention had strayed from them.
Helga also hadn’t noticed that Lila wasn’t listening. She was waving her hands around and twisting her fists as her expression tightened into a frown. Lila had planned on moving her gaze back to her friend when Phoebe’s gaze connected with hers. It was a brief source of contact, but it sent a flash hurtling into her stomach. The results had her insides feeling charred and like she wanted to cough up ashes. Phoebe turned away and dived into her conversation with her team. Lila cocked an eyebrow. She knew that she was being harsh. The kind thing would be to let it go. It was in the past now and no one could do anything about it.
But she still hadn’t forgiven Phoebe.
It was ridiculous. Helga had—somehow—forgiven her, but Lila couldn’t. Wouldn’t. Phoebe’s choice had destroyed Helga. Lila had been the one holding that girl up. She had been the one to put her back together while crumbling herself. Phoebe wasn’t a bad fit for a Guardian, but that didn’t mean that Lila had to like her. Merely condone her.
They were allies, not friends.
The bell rung.
“Oop, that’s us!” Lila cut off the rambling and threaded her arm with Helga’s. “Time for your favourite: Mrs. Brown!”
Helga groaned.
“And I’ll be sure to sit with Gerald so you can be next to your true love!”
“. . . I hate you.”
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Check out the full story here!
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Why it's great in Rise for Leo to BECOME the leader instead of STARTING as one
I've been thinking about this a lot and discussing this with friends in our private TMNT chat. I just wanted to share my musings about why I think it's actually a good thing. Not is it only a nod to the original Mirage comics, I think it's important to Leo's development as a character.
In Rise, Leo has shown different, but in some ways, the same insecurities that other incarnations of Leo have. In previous incarnations, Leo has always felt pressured and stressed about feeling incompetent and being unable to protect/guide the family. Rise Leo has that same issues, but it's enhanced by the fact that he isn't the leader.
"I'm useless." - Leo, Minotaur Maze
"I'm nothing without them [my brothers]." - Leo, Portal Jacked
Looking some Rise episodes like Minotaur Maze and Portal Jacked, Leo feels like he's the load to his brothers. He's the only one of the brothers who hasn't really mastered their weapon properly yet (Mikey and Raph have pretty good control of their new weapons while Donnie only has minor hiccups on his tech bo). He's getting better, but as Portal Jacked proves, he still feels like he's nothing without his brothers. Leo gets very eager in opportunities that allow him to step up or become 'better'. This is why he got so excited in Minotaur Maze to become a champion or why he embraced becoming a pro wrestler in Shell in a Cage. Although perhaps he knew inside that the title meant very little, he just wants a title to prove to others and most importantly himself that he’s not nothing. Inside, Rise Leo believes that he's nothing, useless, and he's desperate to prove himself.
In previous incarnations, it sometimes felt (to me) that being a leader was a heroic burden Leos had to take, that becoming one meant taking on the responsibilities no one else wanted; basically to take one for the team. I keep thinking back to 2003 Mikey's deconstruction of Leo's character:
“I think you all should just lay off the poor guy [Leonardo]. I mean, it can't be fun always being the responsible one. And we're the ones who really benefit: Raph's free not to think cause Leo does all the thinking for him, Don's free to dream, and I'm free to take it easy all because Leo's busy being responsible enough for all of us.” - Mikey, TMNT 2003
In Rise, instead of leadership being a burden, it's actually something that will build up Leo's character (not that the burden thing it’s bad, it’s just a different take). Not only will it give Leo purpose, but it'll also help improve the low opinion Leo has on himself that he keeps hiding by the classic Superiority Inferiority Complex / Sad Clown shtick. It will build up his confidence and it's great to see this development of a teen who suffers from feeling that he's nothing, something a lot of people face in life, to step up and realize, 'Hey, I am something'.
I also think that this development for Leo is going to be an interesting one for Raph. Rise Raph sort of designated himself as the leader because he's the oldest. He doesn't like taking orders from anyone else, and he's happy that way. I don't think Raph is a bad leader, he's honestly doing good and the best he can, which is all anyone can ask for... but admittedly, he isn't super great. He doesn't think things through and he sometimes doesn't have that intuition that comes with decision making. In fact, Leo is doing a lot of backseat leader-ing when opportunities arise, having great leadership qualities and intuition, things which Raph unfortunately lacks as a leader. Even Donnie has shown that he trusts Leo almost unconditionally when he wasn't even paying attention in the conversation at hand, automatically agreeing with Leo in a debate between Raph and Leo (in Hot Soup: The Game).
I'd like to think that Raph knows deep inside that he may not be the best choice as leader for his brothers, so he feels pressured and may be prone to lashing out when tensions get high (shown a bit in Mascot Melee).
My analysis and prediction is that Raph will have to learn the hard heartbreaking and important lesson that will test the bond between Leo and Raph: Sometimes, being a great leader isn't about making hard choices or organizing the people, it's knowing when you need to step down and let someone else takes the reigns and lead. It’s a hard lesson to learn and Raph realizing that will be one of the most emotional and mature moments in the show, I feel it.
It's always said the real adventure is the journey not the destination; and I'm hella excited and happy to see Leo's journey to becoming more confident with himself and becoming leader, as well as the subsequent character development Raph has to go through about stepping down as leader. Also I'm not ruling out the possibility that Rise Leo might face some of the same stresses that come with being a leader in addition to the journey to become one.
These are just all my thoughts anyway :P
TL;DR - It's great that we see Rise Leo become a leader instead of starting as one since we get to see his development from a guy who has poor opinion of himself that he hides under jokes and a Superiority Inferiority Complex to a confident leader. Also having Raph learn the lesson that sometimes a good leader knows when it's time to step down and let someone else lead.
Burn, the eldest of the infamous Sandwing Sisters, is big and beefy, tough as nails, bad to the bone, scary as Sorrauul, thirsty for blood, and quite possibly the saddest dreya in existence.
Almost nobody knows about that last part, though. Nobody except her bother Smolder and his pet Scavenger, Rose (or Flower, as she's called). Burn's depression from losing her mother and going to war with her sisters out of anger has lead to her developing an insurmountable need for physical affection.
(It also catalyzed her growing bipolar disorder, which was the main source of her violent and aggressive tendencies, as well as spurring her horrid obsession with stuffing deformed dragons and collecting creepy creatures)
((Essentially, Burn was just an extremely messed up dreya, and the circumstances of her life only messed her up even more))
(all of this information is in correlation to my short story)
You know, after seeing Qrow’s talk with Ruby in “End of the Beginning”, I realize that I do not like pre-V5 Qrow.
I get that he’s supposed to be the, ‘cool edgy fun uncle’, and while does that well enough…
He talks down to Yang and offers her basically no sympathy when she was tricked in the Vytal Tournament. And then he goes and provokes Ruby into heading to Mistral to use her as bait.
