#dualight ask

[anthurak]

RWBY: Any combination of the Happy Huntresses (including all at once if that's the most fun one for you, of course).

Oooh, this is a fun one as it actually finally gives me a reason to talk about this one Robyn and May theory/headcanon I’ve had since Volume 8:

See, ever since Volume 8 I’ve had a theory that Robyn has actually been limiting the power of her semblance to JUST being a lie-detector, as evidenced by the combination of her semblance requiring her to touch someone and wearing gloves with one finger uncovered.

Basically, I think at full power Robyn’s semblance has a ‘Wonder Woman Lasso’-esque power to FORCE the truth out of someone. Potentially even truth’s that they themselves never even realized.

And one of the main reasons that Robyn limits the power of her semblance is because this just so happens to be how May realized that she’s trans.

And it WASN’T by her own choice either.

Basically, back at the academy Robyn would use her semblance to essentially prank her super uptight, emotionally-repressed classmates. Until one day she decided to ‘truth-bomb’ her partner/teammate, only for the ‘bomb’ to be a LOT bigger than any of them were expecting. And obviously happened to REALLY mess her up at the time.

Now in the present, May does not resent or even regret what Robyn did one bit. Basically taking a ‘yeah it may have really messed me up at the time, but in the long run I’m glad I figured it out sooner than later’.

But for Robyn, the fact that she unwittingly forced this IMMENSELY personal revelation on one of her closest (girl)friends, essentially ripping May out of the proverbial closet by FORCE, has left her with some EXTREMELY complicated feelings about her semblance. Which is one of the big reasons she refrains from using her semblance's full power and mostly just uses it as a lie-detector.

[anthurak]

RWBY: Pollination (no qualifiers for the internal dynamics, so whichever stance on Enabler works for the idea you like best. Or leave it unaddressed if the idea doesn't need the specificity)

Okay cool, so this actually gives me an excuse to dig up some of my old Pollination headcanons from years back XD

I think my main ‘Dark’ Pollination HC is basically that Team RWBY is one big hyper-traumatized, fucked-up, mutually-codependent, yet somehow oddly (if barely) functional polycule.

This is a Team RWBY that has been through utter HELL together, have each been thoroughly broken, and are now clinging to each other for dear life to just hold themselves together. Which also happens to of course involve a whole smorgasbord of fucked-up coping mechanisms.

Like not only is Enabler a thing here, it is a thing that Ruby and Yang stopped giving any kind of fuck about YEARS ago, as have Weiss and Blake.

Heck, Blake thinks it’s kinda hot, which really just shows how unhinged she’s gotten as well.

Weiss might be the one closest to still being sane, but at this point she’s more just the most self-aware, and has decided that she loves her teammates more than she likes being sane.

Each and every one of them is a completely broken mess. But together, they can at least feel like they’re whole.

[anthurak]

If you're still in the mood for that most recent ask game: Penny Polendina

Favorite Thing About Them:

The way that Penny ends up representing an absolutely BRILLIANT twist on the Pinocchio character mold at the end of Volume 7. As in, instead of the expected ‘become a real boy’ bit, Penny being able to become the Winter Maiden is absolute, undeniable PROOF that she was ALWAYS a Real Girl!

Least Favorite Thing About Them:

The fact that the whole ‘Maiden Penny vs. Monstra’ thread never amounted to anything? Admittedly I have no idea how that could have worked given what Volume 8 was actually doing, but it is still a bit disappointing.

Favorite Line:

“It SHOULD matter.”

brOTP:

I fully endorse Penny being one of Winter’s now-multiple adopted younger siblings. Or you know, younger sister-in-law if Frosen Steel happens (as it should!) XD

OTP:

Nuts and Dolts and/or Frosen Steel

nOTP:

I suppose anyone who isn’t Ruby and/or Weiss?

Random Headcanon:

At some point, Ruby and Penny end up needing to have a conversation about Penny watching Ruby sleep XD

Unpopular Opinion:

Post by @anthurak · 7 images

💬 1  🔁 23  ❤️ 64 · Theory: Penny the Great and Powerful · A while back, I did a post theorizing on how Penny could return another time, spec

Penny is definitely coming back again. It’s happened before, and it’ll happen again.

Song I associate with them:

Post by @anthurak · 8 images

💬 0  🔁 16  ❤️ 75 · Penny in the Shell · So I was watching Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex again recently, and I wound up noticing so

Honestly I’d say a good chunk of the Ghost in the Shell: SAC soundtrack? Admittedly due to having realized she has a lot in common with the Tachikomas lol

Favorite picture of them:

Honestly Maiden Penny will never not look fucking AWESOME XD

[anthurak]

(If at any point it feels like I'm sending too many of these, just poke me and I'll stop.) Still for that ask game: Ruby Rose

Favorite Thing About Them:

Where to start, huh? XD I guess just to pick one of many; I love how Ruby is this fascinating blend of upbeat, optimistic heroism and dark, broody anti-hero types. Like Ruby just has this grit and edge to her that it feels like we NEVER see in these kinds of super upbeat, optimistic heroes, especially girls. Ruby gets to be intelligent, calculating, pragmatic, ruthless and ANGRY. And that just makes her all the more interesting as this style-optimistic, determined heroine.

Least Favorite Thing About Them:

I’ve discussed this elsewhere before, but I feel like Ruby really gets sidelined in Volumes 4 and 5. Like outside of a handful of standout moments, Ruby feels like she’s just sort of pushed into the background compared to all the other characters getting focus.

Favorite Line:

Again, where to start? :D

I think I’m going to go with “That’s what happened to mom…” simply because I feel like that might still be the most HAUNTING line I’ve ever heard from an anime/YA fantasy protagonist.

brOTP:

After Volume 9, I feel like the unequivocal, unarguably correct answer HAS to be Little/Somewhat.

OTP:

Still White Rose XD Though I also feel Frosen Steel fits in here too.

nOTP:

I’ve gone into this in another post, but I have some particular issues with much of the mentality that seems to permeate much of the Ruby/Oscar ship.

Random Headcanon:

Skate/Snow/Sandboarder Ruby is absolutely going to be a thing

Unpopular Opinion:

I still think Eyepatch!Ruby is happening XD

Song I associate with them:

Hunt You Down by The Hit House.

Mostly for that song’s use in the Bloodborne trailer lol

[anthurak]

One last one for RWBY: Snowleopards(Kali+Ghira+Willow, I'm once again not certain on the ship name)

Willow has her fair share of, shall we say ‘not so healthy’ means of dealing with her trauma related to her ex-husband. One of which happens to be doing things she knows that Jacques would absolutely hate as a posthumous ‘fuck you’.

And getting absolutely railed by Kali and Ghira Belladonna kinda ticks ALL of the boxes for something that would have Jacques doing a few hundred RPM in his hypothetical, non-existent grave.

[anthurak]

I've seen you repeatedly bring up that you expect Ruby Rose to end up with an eyepatch to cover a missing eye, but why the confidence it'll happen in canon? (I'm trying to further my understanding as this is one of those topics where the potential hints fly completely under my radar and have gone undetected.)

Yeah, this has become a rather interesting question to dive into lately. I will freely admit it can come off a bit odd, particularly if you weren’t around for the early days of the RWBY fandom.

Because yeah, Eyepatch!Ruby is a very OLD theory, dating back to Volume 1 and particularly the first round of the old ‘Future AUs’ where I recall it first got really popular.

And while I’ll also freely admit that a lot of the theories appeal to me is simply the fact that Ruby would look really cool with an eyepatch, I do nonetheless think there is still a canon presidence for it happening.

Namely, the subtle but notable detail that Ruby is at this point the only member of her team that HASN’T suffered any kind of big, dramatic injury that has left prominent physical scars. Yang obviously lost her arm, Blake was stabbed in the stomach, and Weiss has her eye-scar (and was also stabbed in the stomach, but her eye-scar has always been more prominent), but nothing really for Ruby aside from all the psychological scars.

At least, so far…

And if Ruby is due to suffer some big, dramatic injury, then losing an eye does feel the most likely. It’s been alluded to a couple times courtesy of Cinder and Tyrian. Plus I think it would ultimately play very nicely into RWBY’s overall themes of Defiant Optimism. With even suffering such a terrible would ultimately NOT stopping Ruby one bit and even playing into a bit of ‘Glass Half-full’ mentality. Namely in the form of losing an eye not actually diminishing the power of Ruby’s Silver Eyes one bit, given the hints we’ve gotten about how that power if FAR more than just having ‘special eyes’.

Also, while we haven’t exactly gotten many direct ‘hints’ towards Ruby losing an eye, I would argue that’s not really relevant? Given that something like this would supposed to come out of nowhere and be actually shocking. I mean if you think about it, the only foreshadowing we got to Yang losing her arm was how the introductory line in her trailer seeming incongruous with her character design.

[anthurak]

Still for the ask game, I may have gone overboard coming up with questions. (Sorry if your inbox gets too flooded)

RWBY: 🔥 What’s the pettiest thing they’ve ever argued about?(Bumbleby)

So thanks to my headcanon that Blake and Yang basically have something of a mutual kink for melodrama (owing to how they both seem to think that their time at Beacon together was some spicy ‘rivals to lovers’ situation rather than the fact that they were basically making awkward gay flirting noises at each other from minute one), I like to think that as a couple they will repeatedly play up the pettiest, most inane disagreements into the silliest, most over-the-top melodramatic roleplay bullshit you can imagine. Like one time trying to decide where to go for a date ended up escalating into a faux fight to the death that ended with fucking in the middle of a trashed apartment XD

[anthurak]

A while back I went through a bunch of your RWBY posts and a few of the concepts you discussed ended up merging into a specific scenario that has been haunting me for months, so I'm going to share it in hopes of finally getting it to quiet down rather than continuing to bounce around my skull:

Drawing on reading Ruby as an Odin allusion, the Silver Eyes being more expansive than only the eyes, particularly the idea that she'd end up trading one of her eyes: when making that trade, the entity isn't asking for the eye, but for the silver in in it, so after the trade it can no longer channel the power, and takes on the colour it would have had had she not inherited the Silver Eyes from Summer.

As you might expect based on what I was reading when the idea started forming, the colour my mind suggested to be revealed was a (perhaps to Ruby unexpected) red.

(This is not something I think would be remotely how any component of this would go in canon, but it is fun to think about.)

Oooh, this is a fun idea. Ruby with red and silver eyes is definitely a pretty cool image.

Though I do have to admit I personally still prefer Eyepatch!Ruby lol