I should have probably mentioned that I dont think Ride would go after Bigby right away like if no one understands her she'll probably just isolate herself again which still isn't fun and also hella angsty but yeah. From there I could see her wounds kind of festering and her becoming more bitter and then going after him but yeaH. SHE WOULDN'T DO IT UNTIL ALL OF HER BRIDGES HAD BEEN BURNED. Or at least until she felt that was the situation.
Okay let me preface this by saying that I have been doing research for about an hour now and I'm pretty sure that Ride falls somewhere right between neutral good and chaotic good (probably leaning more towards neutral good) which makes her pretty complicated and is going to make this rant hard to write because it's going to force me to think more about my character as a whole which is good.
Okay so lets start with Rides story and headcanons I have for the darling girl shall we?
We all know the story of the girl under the hood, befriended by a wolf while walking through the woods only to have him turn on him and devour her grandmother before trying to devour her. The woodsman comes and cuts the grandmother out of the belly of the wolf and -- according to fables -- then fills it with rocks and drowns him. (thats actually from another fairytale but it's fables canon and I have no quarrel with it and it actually has nothing to do with this rant.)
What we have never learned -- at least in the fables verse -- is what happened before the wolf.
In my opinion, before the wolf accident, Ride was a very outgoing girl who was desperate to go on adventures and fall in love and explore every corner of the world. Her family, however, being humble people who treasured their isolation had none of it.
Which brings me to her family and their situation. They did well for themselves, mom baked bread and other goods and made clothes for the commoner as well, the father cut wood and took care of their little plot of land where they probably had a few crops here and there and maybe some chickens and like...a sheep and a cow, probably. Just basic stuff that would allow them to continue to live in isolation.
Why they were isolated i'm guessing probably had something to do with something i came across in 1001 nights of snowfall where snow claims that the family has 'magic and didn't stay dead for long' (which, insinuates that Bigby nearly killed both but because of their magic they were able to survive ala Snow with her gunshot wound, anyways) Magic has the potential to be revered or feared and I don't think Rides family wanted either.
I also think this has something to do with the iconic red cape but that's another rant for another day. ALSO i'm 100% positive that Ride's parents never told her of this magic since she seems to have no knowledge of it in fables. ANYWHO.
Onto headcanons. That I may or may not have stolen from Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters. Whoops. (also please note that when i said bandits in fly and rides conversation that wasnt a mistake, that's what Ride believed they were at the time because she was just a girl and she didn't understand).
So as I discussed there's a good chance her family had magic with it and somehow the common folk found out about this. Like I said, Rides family did well for themselves, well enough to gain enemies for the simple fact that the products that they sold in the market sold better than others. Maybe it was a just a suspicion, or maybe someone actually found solid proof, but one night there was a banging on the door and an angry mob demanding that the witches be burned.
Rides mother wrapped her in a cloak, shoved a basket of food in her hand that would last her about a week, and told her to go to her grannies and never turn back. She had to all but force the girl out the back door.
The last thing that Ride saw was her house burning.
So she ran in the direction of her grannies. But it was dark and she was in the middle of the woods and she had no family to speak of. She was completely lost and scared and alone.
Then comes the wolf. And he's sweet, and knows his way around the forest, and offers to help her to her grandmothers house, asking nothing more than her company in return. He takes total control of her situation.
And then turns on her. Attacks her and her grandmother and plays with his food a bit before swallowing it whole. The only reason they survived was because of magic, and the woodsman.
For a few weeks its peaceful, her and her grandmother begin recovering, believing the wolf to be dead. But then word spreads around that there's a big bad wolf attacking anything in his way, taking down whole armies if need be, killing mercilessly, and they know that he lived, and they don't recover, and they live their life in fear. A few years later her grandmother dies in the middle of the night -- probably because of old age or a stroke maybe -- and Ride is all alone, cowering away in in her cottage, only coming out when the adversary demands it. She becomes a ghost.
Red Riding Hood? Who's that? Well she's anyone the adversary wants her to be. Turns out there's a lot of power in not being known by anyone.
Then all the stuff with Blue happens and she finds out that her trust has been betrayed again -- but this time by the adversary, and she comes to find that a system she once thought was just was actually corrupt as hell. Her entire life is turned upside down in the swing of a cape.
She begins to recoup in fabletown. The wolf hasn't been heard of in years and if he's still alive he's in the homelands, far behind her. This is her second chance, her chance to move on and make some kind of life for herself and jesus she does. She gets a new look, she makes three wonderful friends and she falls in love and goes on little adventures with them and for the first time ever experiences the world and become that brave bold precious girl she was before the attack.
Then she finds out who Bigby really is. She figures out why he looks so familiar and why she can never really bring herself to give him any more than a passing sheepish smile. She looks at him and she sees claws and teeth aimed at her throat, she feels the scars on her back as if they were given to her yesterday. It's like taking a knife to a wound that -- while sensitive -- was finally healed. The pain is fresh again.
And then when she turns to the people she trusts about it they all tell her that he's changed, that he's a good man now, that her pain is petty and that she should move on for the sake of everyone involved. Her feelings are tossed to the side and she's left with nowhere to turn and no one to trust. Again her life is turned upside down and she's expected to just adapt in the blink of an eye.
But they forget that it took most centuries to get used to seeing their tormentors and treating them as allies. They don't consider that most their tormentors were on the adversary's side and were now either dead or left behind. Not one of them understand where she's coming from.
You know how Snow feels about Brandish? That's how Ride feels about Bigby, but according to the law there's nothing she can do about it. She can't hurt him. She can't bury him in a pit. She can do nothing but sit there and wither away.
This is all without mentioning her new friend Hansel from Steph's good!hansel verse. Maybe he's fuel to the fire, but he's also the only one who understands. Everyone else wont even try to understand. Everyone else is rolling their eyes and telling her to get over it.
But she can't. At least not any time soon. And forcing her to move on is just a different type of death. It's just forcing her into silence. So our heroine begins to lose herself and her sense of direction. She's lost in the woods again and whos to blame?
In her eyes it's the big bad wolf.
Now onto other stuff I wanted to address such as the assumption that Ride is
nothing more than a precious pumpkin (which she is)
defenseless (which she is not)
Impulsive (again, she's not)
On the dash I saw a lot of people assuming she would fail IF she went after Bigby, which yes, could happen, that's a risk that anyone takes in going to get vengeance. And if your characters assume that? Well I don't blame them because as much as they might love Ride it's kind of canon that none of them really know much about her sans whats on the surface. Even Fly is just beginning to figure out whats underneath all the sweetness.
Ride is smart. And she's certainly not impulsive. The only time we've seen her be impulsive is when it comes to protecting Fly and others that she cares about.
But when it came to a matter as grave as taking vengeance on the person that tortured her directly and then indirectly for years -- she would play it smart, and she would play it safe. It wouldn't be something that she just decided to do one day, it would be something that she planned out and carefully calculated, making sure that all the circumstances where in her favor before taking action.
Defenseless?
I don't think so.
She might not have the same skill as, say, Snow or Charming, but she certainly knows the basics of using a weapon. And if you're someone who calculates before acting you don't need much more than that. It's shown that she can handle a sword if need be, and I have a headcanon that the girl sleeps with a dagger beneath her pillow. I'd say it's a pretty accurate headcanon given the fact that she lived in fear and paranoia for years. If the wolf came again she was going to make damn sure she had a weapon on her.
This is all without mentioning that she could discover her magic any day now. And since magic powers tend to go hand in hand with emotion she could easily discover it with the duress that she's under. Her emotions are heightened and so are her powers.
Oh also I'm pretty sure that Hansel would be down to teach Ride some basic and effective fighting skills if she asked.
So defenseless?
100% going to fail?
Impulsive?
I don't think so. Not when it comes to this. This is something she would plan. It's something she's been dreaming about and chewing on for years. She wouldn't let herself fuck it up.
I WILL SAY WHEN IT COMES DOWN TO IT THOUGH THE GIRL ONLY HAS LIKE A LESS THAN 5% CHANCE OF HURTING HIM MUCH LESS KILLING HIM. THE GUY IS MILITARY TRAINED AND HELLA STRONG I GET THAT. 10000% I promise.
"But this is so out of character!" you say "Ride is so sweet she would never!" you say "Ride is the type of character for forgive and have mercy!!" you say.
Ride is a ruthless one when she wants to be, and she certainly knows how to hold a grudge. By the way that whole thing with the makeover to prove to fly that she could be just as banging as those arabian girls?
c a l c u l a t e d.
When she wants to do something to get back at someone, she's the kind of girl that will plan it out, it applied to Fly and it certainly applies to Bigby.
Now I will agree that because of her love for her friends she wouldn't harm Bigby. But you also have to take into consideration that since her friends don't seem to understand where she's coming from (some of them not even trying to understand) -- she already feels like she's losing them. If things keep going at this rate she's going to feel alone again, like she has nothing left to lose but her life and if she dies trying to take vengeance?
It's okay with her.
Can anyone talk sense into her? Yes, because oh lord there is plenty of sense to be had. Everyone knows that Bigby is good guy. People could say it till the cows come home but that's not whats going to convince Ride. Ride is the kind of girl to -- as I said -- hold grudges. On top of that she's a very emotional person, when she gets in moods they seem to overtake her completely.
If someone wants to talk sense into her their first going to have to understand her and have some pity on her and realize that what she went through was traumatic and not something that can be easily forgotten and forgiven. So far the only person who understands that is Hansel, and jesus those two are only good for enabling one another.
Ride has this very dark side to her. I mentioned it in the Ride/Hansel thread. She has this own personal wolf inside of her that growls every so often and thirsts for blood and vengeance and justice. If she feeds that wolf even once she'll turn into a monster. She'll become the vigilante that we saw Hansel turn into and it'll be hard for her to turn back.
I'll end the rant with this -- I do not expect your character to have pity on her if they don't feel it. I 1000000% understand being protective of Bigby. How can I not with Therese running around in my head? I'm not telling any of you that you're wrong in defending Bigby, I'm not asking any of you to act out of character. All I wanted was to explain how I am playing Ride and why she is acting like she is because I feel like people didn't fully understand it.
There is so much more to Ride than meets the surface. You have to look closely for it (which I expect none of you to do since she is a minor character among so many majors) but it's there. She's not just a precious princess. She's more than that. She goes deeper and darker than that, and if anyone wants to save her from her downfall they have to recognize that first and start treating her like she's more than a sweet girl with a pretty face. Treat her like she's human. Find her flaws. Understand them. Accept them. Then she can start moving on. But not a moment sooner.
⌚ Is it easier for you to write as canon characters or OCs?
Canon characters, I think, considering all of my muses except for one up to this point have been based on some kind of canon. And my one OC, while not terribly unpopular, also hasn't been getting the kind of traction canon muses do -- just part of how it goes, I suppose~
