#rwde-ish

[laserdog10]

Ruby, Jaune and Sun, I felt like those three are more like main characters. Aside from being leaders to their own teams, I think there's more to them than just goals to become huntsmen. For Ruby, struggling to become the leader while growing up, with Jaune learning from his mistakes to improving to follow the legacy of his ancestors, and Sun trying to make amends to his teammates in the books. What do you think?

Ruby and Jaune are spot on, but seeing as the books are god awful and I don't consider them canon at all cause they did Team SSSN so fucking filthy it's not even funny.

However I do agree that Sun's journey as a Huntsman should have indeed been about him maturing and taking things more seriously. I don't agree that he's a bad Sun Wukong allusion, just that RT handled him poorly (like everything in their damn show). Sun isn't a terrible leader, but he was definitely getting there to be his best and we never saw his progress because it was relegated to books that focused way too much on CFVY and also assassinated CFVY as characters.

Coco was honestly fine before the books, and I feel that as a second year IIRC, she could have given Ruby, Jaune, Sun, and dare I say Cardin some pointers on how and what to strive for as Team Leaders, and she subsequently learns from them too.

Cardin I feel is a complicated case since in canon he's really just the simple bully archetype, yet we here that he stayed and helped protect Beacon when shit got rough, and I say that could've been the perfect time to turn him into a Eddie Brock/Flash Thompson type person and realize he needs to shape up and atone for his previous behavior. Cardin's not a bad person, he's just a jerk that needed to wisen up but we unfortunately never got to see that.

[caddeter]

Skimming through the RWDE tag after the Volume 9 final aired reminds me of how the FNDM will defend the show by saying ‘people make mistakes’ and ‘the writers are only human’ because now the show seems to be sending that message.  It also reminded me that I wrote over 1000 words explaining why I think that’s terrible.

‘People make mistakes’ is the absolute worst argument in defense of something that I have every heard. I find it even more insulting than the infamous ‘don’t like, don’t watch,’ because it implies that putting effort into your craft is optional.  What this argument says is that I am in the wrong for expecting anything more than garbage. You are legitimately saying, ‘It could have been better, but you’re wrong for saying so.’  Yes, I realize that nobody is perfect and that they are going to screw up every now and again.  That’s why I’m criticizing it.  I mean, when was the last time you heard people get criticized for doing something right.

This argument of ‘people make mistakes so you can’t complain’ also ignores the moment after, where they look back on what they did wrong and learn from it.  That’s why we make mistakes, so that we can grow as people.   Why should we try to improve ourselves if we’re already ‘good enough.’ ‘People make mistakes,’ is a fact of life, but that does not mean we should throw up our hands and give up all attempts to get better and it certainly doesn’t mean we should accepting bad stories.

But enough about my philosophy on mistakes, let’s talk about this one, specifically how situational it is:

Twilight is recognized across the globe as one of the worst books ever written.  Even ignoring the way it bastardizes the concept of Vampires, it’s a story that reads less like a romance and more like a drug addiction. The lead characters have all the chemistry of a brick and a dead rat.  The relationship it tries to push as beautiful and grand is downright abusive at points.  And this isn’t even getting into all the misogyny and racism and pedophilia in those books.  But people make mistakes, so I guess we shouldn’t hold it against Myers.

Sword Art Online is one of the most infamous anime there is.  Despite its large following, whenever someone looks over it with a critical lens, they come to the conclusion that it’s utter crap.  The plot and worldbuilding are inconsistent. The characters (Kirito especially) exist more to fill out roles in a fantasy than as actual people.  It’s all about making Kirito look good and ensuring he comes out better than when he came in, no matter what.  It goes out of its way to include some kind of sexual assault of the lead female character in a given arc with no respect for the subject matter, to the point where it’s hard to tell if Reki Kawahara thinks rape is the worst crime a man could commit or if he has a fetish for it.  But people make mistakes, so the critics are more in the wrong for making videos on it.

In spite of (Or rather, because of) its troubled production, Sonic 06 is one of the worst video games in existence.  It’s so glitchy, it borders on unplayable.  The story is bland at best, flat out terrible at worst.  The new characters it introduced were all unlikable for one reason or another.  Level design was horrendous and boring.  People have made numerous videos and blogposts explaining why it is one of Sonic’s worst games, if not one of the worst games period.  But people make mistakes, so we should stop complaining.

Post season 4, Spongebob Squarepants took a downward dive.  Characters became little more than one unlikable trait.  It crossed the line from mischief to malice, so good characters suffered while the bad ones triumphed.  It was extremely evident that they had already run out of ideas, because they kept rehashing the same episode plot over and over again and needed to pad out some episodes.  But people make mistakes, so they should never have tried to fix this.

Lucy is the most boring movie I ever sat through.  It’s just ‘This girl gains reality altering powers, be amazed at how easy everything is for her.’ There is never any point where she is in any sort of real danger or anything actually threatens her.  She loses all empathy for her fellow man and has no problem throwing them away like broken toys (In an Asian country when our main character is white, mind you), yet it expects you to see her as the good guy throughout. Instead of being terrified by her rampage, it expects you to be amazed.  And maybe that would have worked if it used said reality altering powers in more creative ways.  But people make mistakes, so I guess it’s a good movie.

I could go on for ages and never run out of examples for any given form of media.  And this is all ignoring examples that are actively malicious, like stories that are intentionally sexist, racist, or homophobic.

And then there’s that other group of people this argument conveniently doesn’t apply to:  The critics.  If people make mistakes and you think we should just ignore that, then you can’t challenge the critics on any ground, because they made a mistake by talking about the writer’s mistakes.  If we are not allowed to judge your writer, then why are you allowed to judge ours?

Not to mention how this logic is almost self-refuting. When you say this, what you are saying is that the only thing wrong with the criticism is that it is criticism.

Furthermore, this argument also somewhat undermines the effort other artists and writers will put into their craft in order to make something as best as they possibly could. If we should all just accept when someone fails to make something good, then why should we recognize how Fictional Games ensured that Amnesia The Dark Descent had an atmosphere which on its own could leave you terrified rather than relying on cheap jumpscares?  Why should we praise Tatsuya Endo’s writing for blending heartfelt, humorous, and action-packed when he wrote SpyXFamily? Why should we celebrate Avatar the Last Airbender not just for its amazing story of multiple cultures coming together and strengthening one another, but also for its fully realized and fantastical world?

By saying that we should accept mistakes and that it’s wrong to criticize bad writing, you wind up saying that all of their effort was pointless.  Why bother trying to make something as best you can when people will accept anything?  If we’re not going to pay attention to what a story or writer did wrong, why should we pay attention to what a story or writer did right?

‘People make mistakes,’ means just that, that people make mistakes.  So how about we treat those mistakes as mistakes and hold people accountable for them, rather than act like everyone and everything is perfect and infallible?

[invincibleweasel]

Really hoping whoever the Summer Maiden is gonna be, isn’t gonna be a completely new never seen before character destined to die. Like, if you are gonna give spotlight to a non-main, at least give it to someone the audience already cares about to an extent. We already have a billion unused characters, no need for more, instead use the ones you already have, RT.

Give me Summer Maiden Ilia. Give me Summer Maiden Coco or Velvet.

Give me Summer Maiden Arslan or Reese.

Give me any member of NDGO as the Summer Maiden.

I’ll take any of those over a brand new blank face that will die in a volume or two. Amber, Vernal and Fria all died in the same volume they were introduced which effectively made their deaths lacklustre and have no lasting impact. And yeah, half of those characters I mentioned earlier are technically as unimportant as the Maidens but their existence had been established beforehand. They’re not completely new characters, they’ve had 3-7 years to gain a following, people care about these characters. Which would make it hit even harder if they were to die, losing the powers to whomever took them or whatever. 

[anonarat]

You know what. I feel like throwing caution to the wind after being in hospital.

Can someone please explain to me why Bumbleby is so popular?

[sapphic-sustrai]

I would like to ask a favor of the Emerald tag and that’s can we please stop cluttering the tag with content that’s barely about Emerald? 

For the longest time now, I’ve rarely ever seen content that’s 100% about Emerald. I’ve mostly seen E/mercury, E/mberald, content that barely features her in it, and even content that has nothing to do with her at all. 

 As an Emerald fan, I’ve become quite annoyed with seeing all of this improperly tagged content within the tag. 

This isn’t me, “policing the tag”, I just want people to properly tag their posts and I want to see more Emerald specific content in the her own tag.

[whitleyschn33]

As much as I have -100 hype for this volume, I will say - the poster art is pretty well done.

[whitleyschn33]

Blake for the ask game?

What are my top four favorite non-romantic relationship dynamics for them?

Something I realized when trying to think of answers to this question - Blake by far feels the most separated from the main team. By that, I mean she feels like the character that has the most life outside of the team, like it’s not as big a part of her life as it is for Ruby and Weiss. She has a stronger relationship with Sun than her teammates, opening up to him in V1 instead of Ruby or Yang. When Yang talks about her family, Blake doesn’t reciprocate. It’s not until V3 that she says anything about Adam - and of course it’s in her right to keep private! But combined with being completely separate from the main plot for both V4 and 5, dealing with an entirely new cast of characters - her parents, Ilia, the fox brothers - it has her feeling like the team is just a small piece of life, and that it would be perfectly in character for her not to rejoin them in Haven, instead continuing her work with the White Fang. That is her ultimate goal, after all; to fight for racial equality. Why leave that, her goals, family, friends, and home for a team that she feels less attached to by comparison? Sorry, tangent over. Point is, RWY probably won’t heavily feature here and it’ll probably be more “relationships I’d like to see more of”.

Ozpin: First on the list - I feel like these two would have a lot to talk about, especially after the reveal of Ozpin’s past. Both of them have suffered the abuse of a romantic partner, and Ozpin’s unique perspective as someone that lived before the Faunus came into being and has observed the progression of human/Faunus relations should be something that Blake would be incredibly interested in. We got a taste of what their dynamic would be like in V2 as student and professor, and I could see it continuing that way - Blake mining Ozpin’s experiences for knowledge and advice, and the two working together to help support Faunus rights, using Ozpin’s first-hand experience of what tactics have the quickest and longest-lasting effects. A lot of healthy debate and mutual growth in that department. Also, just any acknowledgment of the fact that Blake should be able heavily sympathize with what Ozpin went through, of having a manipulative romantic partner that convinced you to go further and further down a road that you weren’t completely comfortable with, and then turned on you and lashed out when you tried to leave. I feel like the two could give each other some healthy mutual support in dealing with those wounds. I just think it’d be neat~

Qrow: So, I was pretty surprised when the V7 soundtrack rolled out and there was a song (Brand New Day, I think) that I think most people would agree with me in saying sounded like a duet between Qrow and Blake. It was such an odd choice, but from what I remember, it was an interesting... idea (I say idea because as far as I remember they didn’t really do shit with it, especially on Blake’s end). Both Blake and Qrow seemed to have resolved to move forward between V6 and V7, Blake wanting to end the chapter of her life that Adam ruled over now that he’s gone for good, and Qrow realizing that his attitude and alcoholism has become outright dangerous to the people he cares about (if only that had stuck). The idea of the two of them both resolving to pull themselves together and treat their time in Atlas as a new start, as a blank slate to become better versions of themselves, is one that I can get behind. A little redundant maybe since Blake did something similar in terms of character growth just in V5, but I could appreciate V5 being her gaining the confidence to trust her friends and allow herself to be supported by them, finding the courage to face Adam, and then V7 being her finally putting that chapter of her life to bed after Adam’s death, and starting something new. With Qrow, I also like the thought of him actually wanting to get his shit together - to put effort into his appearance, to work on sobering up, to find something else beyond Ozpin and the Salem mission to spend his life on now that his faith in Oz has been so heavily shaken (too bad that didn’t happen on-screen, or stick). Seeing the two of them recognize that they’re both trying to improve themselves and choosing to support each other in their respective journeys would be really sweet - Blake helping Qrow find a new outfit and keep him away from alcohol, Qrow helping Blake repair her relationship with Yang with his knowledge of his niece, and the two of them helping each other remember that they can rely on their friends and family to help support them, no matter the misfortune that they feel they may bring to the people they care about. A black cat and a bad luck charm - I’m surprised we haven’t gotten a conversation between the two.

Ruby: Yeah, I know what I said at the top, but these two were sleeping in the same room for 6 volumes and I can only think of 4 interactions they’ve had - and only two of them are longer than, like, a line. We were robbed of seeing any kind of cross-partner interaction like we got with Yang and Weiss. Blake gives this speech in V8 that, besides just... not making much sense if you think about it for too long... doesn’t mean anything to the audience because the last time Ruby had a meaningful conversation with Blake was literally in V1 E03. Give us something to work with here! It wouldn’t be that hard to have Ruby and Blake talk about their different outlooks on the world, with Blake trying to be positive but tending to be pessimistic, and Ruby being fairly optimistic and having to be convinced to consider other possibilities. Both of them could learn from each other, Ruby learning to consider motivations more strongly and Blake relearning to have hope after coming out of the White Fang having seen it gone so wrong, and then maybe Ruby would actually have earned Blake’s supposed admiration in Volume 8. Also I remember seeing a fic where Ladybug was a side pairing and it was super cute, so, uh, yeah, more of that dynamic platonic or otherwise please XD

....Annnnnd that’s it. I can’t think of anyone else that I’m just like, yeah, I could see these two having an interesting rapport. I like Sun as a romantic interest too much to put him in this section, and I’ve never really been interested in her parents or Ilia. Maybe Marrow, as a Faunus in a high position of power in the most racist kingdom in Remnant? It feels like they’d have something to talk about, but that’s kinda ruined by the writers not being able to write a racism story and refusing to uphold their previous worldbuilding. Pre V2 Adam is also something I was interested in solely for the “student realizes what their mentor is doing is wrong and can’t continue to support them but will continue trying to reach out and find common ground again” type vibe they had going on, but Post V3 Adam ruined that so thoroughly it basically sewed salt in that earth sooooo, yeah, I’m just going to move on now.

What season were they at their best and why?

I’m going to say V2 - I think she gets some really good characterization during the hunt for Torchwick, showing her tendency to get obsessed and pursue something single-mindedly, and her team worrying about her and trying to get her to rest for her sake is a nice bonding moment, even if the later talk with Yang has some... issues. Also, the Mountain Glen talk with Weiss and Yang is very nice, giving us insights into her insecurities and motivations as a huntress. The train fight also rocks, and getting to really see her Semblance in action as well as how it can work with the addition of Dust gets you really hype, wondering how other Semblances can be modified with the use of Dust. All in all, I think Blake gets cool fights and good character moments in V2, more so than any other volume off the top of my head, so it gets my seal of approval.

What season were they at their worst and why?

Hmm.... without rewatching the Mistral arc, I’m going to say it’s a toss up between V4 and V8. V4 is not kind to Blake, at all - who thought it was a good idea to make her slap Sun multiple times and never apologize for it? Being pissed after he followed her is one thing, but she slaps him on multiple different occasions and never apologizes for any of them. It’s not okay. 

But at least she’s actually fighting Grimm and doing something in V4. She does nothing in V8 but play damsel in distress; you could take Blake out of V8 and nothing would change, that’s how little she does. She’s not even allowed to hold her own in a fight anymore and it’s really sad. And for some reason she acts like she’s afraid Yang’s mad at her?? Like, what? It reeks of “there was meant to be a fight between Blake and Yang but we had to cut it, but didn’t rewrite the rest of the volume for some reason.” Thing is, though, without any concrete reason for her to be fretting, it paints Yang and Blake’s relationship in a really bad light - like Blake’s afriad that leaving Yang’s side for any amount of time for any reason is going to get Yang mad at her, which, uhhhhhh... not something you should be implying with a ship that’s had some pretty sketchy moments in the build up, like the promise never to leave, them getting angry at Marrow for even suggesting they learn to work with other people, them having a fight that just gets resolved by killing Adam... It’s not a good look to have Blake seem so worried of Yang for seemingly no reason. 

So yeah, toss-up there.

How would I rank their outfits from worst to best?

Easy; worst is V7, then V4, V1, and V2 Hunter outfit as my favorite.

Which Hogwarts House would I sort them into (optional; what would their wand be?)

Oooh... I think the gut impulse is to slot her into Ravenclaw, because then you can have Gryffindor Ruby, Hufflepuff Yang, Slytherin Weiss, and Ravenclaw Blake, but I’m going to say Blake is a Slytherin. She’s goal-driven, resourceful, stubborn, favors subtlety in battle, incredibly determined, has a self-preservation streak, and ambitious. I think Slytherin’s emphasis of knowing what you want to do and doing whatever it takes to get you to that goal would suit her well, while Ravenclaw’s focus on knowledge, wit, and logic fit in some ways, but not others. I could see Blake as a History of Magic nerd, to be honest, and preferring the library to Quidditch matches unless her significant other is on the pitch~ 

As for wand, Blake is a bit tricky as there are a few that I think she could work with, but I want to say aspen with a unicorn hair core, though I could easily be persuaded into beech with a dragon heartstring core, or a few other various wood/core combinations.

What do I think this character would be like if they were on the opposite side (good characters are bad, bad characters are good)

I’ve got two - one semi-plausible for the character and one that’s just a blatant “eh, they have similar vices, so role-swap?” crack idea

First, the one that makes some sense is Blake not leaving the White Fang at the beginning of the series, but rather being an undercover White Fang operative on a special mission; to infiltrate Beacon and either kidnap or assassinate Weiss Schnee. Either holds some promise - kidnapping Weiss to ransom her back to Jacques Schnee in exchange for the downfall of the SDC/improved Faunus rights, or outright assassinating her to send a message to Jacques that the Schnee line will not continue, and not even a Huntsman Academy like Beacon is safe. 

And the crack one - in Mountain Glenn, Blake seems to emphasize that she sees herself as someone that runs from challenges, that when things start getting hard she ducks out. So, wouldn’t it be fun to see her in the role of our resident coward Raven? Blake as the leader (or second-in-command to Leader Adam) of a bandit tribe, looking out only for their band of Faunus after leaving Mistral due to discrimination, robbing human villages and living a nomadic lifestyle among the Grimm-infested woods, even taking on masks of the Grimm they hide among. Could be interesting~

If I suddenly had control of RWBY, what would I want to do with this character after the events of V8?

Give her something to do besides playing “will they wont they” with Yang! Anything! She’s had nothing to do for two volumes now, and it’s clear that the writers just have no idea what to do with her, so they’re stretching out the B/Y relationship confirmation because that’s the only thing they have still going for her after ditching the Faunus and Adam. I don’t know what they can give her at this point now that the CEO of Racism is dead, they missed their chance to do anything interesting with the Faunus in Atlas, and Sun won’t be back for at least another volume, but just give her something to do besides be this flustered, meek, timid girl that suddenly can’t win a fight by herself. I’d have to rewatch the volume to confirm, but does Blake win any fights in it? At all? Blake used to be a passionate, outspoken, determined ninja that could hold her own against a gang leader, a train car of robots, Grimm, and other trained huntsmen. V8 Blake can’t hold off one Grimm, and seems like she’ll fall to tears if Yang gives her a mean look. 

Speaking of Yang - let them actually talk about their relationship for fuck’s sake. Confirm it already, bite the bullet and commit to the train wreck of a ship. I don’t like Bumbleb33, mainly because I think it was barely set up, very poorly developed, is currently unhealthy for both Yang and Blake, and both characters have better love interests already, but it’s clear that this is where RT wants to take these two characters - so just confirm it outright already instead of yanking us around for a third volume. V9 should theoretically be a more character-focused volume for Team RWBY, so take this time to lay out where Yang and Blake are in their relationship and where they want to go with it. You know, the healthy, logical thing to do while also clueing the audience in on just what they mean to each other. Though, considering how that went with Ren/ora.... ugh, it’s a lose-lose situation, isn’t it?

[laserdog10]

I know Neptune is inspired by Poseidon but every time I think about him my mind connects him to the little mermaid.

They both have older siblings.

They both have a deeper connection to the ocean than most people realize.

You can say that Neptune trying to be cool is his way of getting legs.

Plus I think it would make a fantastic story line between him and Weiss if he heard her singing one day and that leads to him being inspired to be a huntsman because he truly understands the meaning behind her song.

Bonus points if he doesn't know she's the one that was singing

Lol I could see that making sense as well, CRWBY was never concrete with their character allusions at times.

Honestly I had a friend of mine point out that Team SSSN could have and should have been the OG team from the actual Journey To The West story;

Sun is obviously Sun Wukong, has the clones ability and his staff, but unfortunately Sun's design just doesn't reflect that allusion. All he has is Ryu-Bang and Jingu-Bang, the golden hair and tail, the red armor on his forearms, but not much else.

Sage and Scarlet fall into neither other members, cause neither of them have traits of Piggsy or Tripitaka.

Neptune however is all over the place and the only thing he has to Sandy is his water manipulation Semblance and his polearm type weapon. Granted it's not a Monk's Moonblade like Sandy's but it's close.

As it stands however, nobody in SSSN live up to their allusions, Sun and Neptune barely do and it feels like they gave up halfway through on their designs, Neptune especially cause the only thing that reflects his Poseidon allusion is...his weapon and his Semblance...