This is the kind of RWBY analysis I live for!
Can we talk about Bumbleby and destiny?
Because I noticed something recently. But let’s start at the beginning, with the incoming class at Beacon:
So here we have at least 100 students (that we can see). It’s a pretty big class, a lot to handle at once, especially when you need to intimately test their unique abilities. Now here’s the wide cut of launch pad for that first test:
Which has only 16 slots. So Ozpin is definitely not launching the whole class here, not all at once anyway. Meaning he’s doing this excercise in batches, specifically sized to make 4 teams per batch. This seems like an ideal way to set up partners in the way he wants, so good move on his part. Put 2 compatable students side by side (bonus if one will look for the other), then space them out with somebody they’d want to avoid, and hope for the best. So he’s got Ruby looking for Yang, Nora looking for Ren (and vise versa), and Weiss looking for Pyrrha, with Jaune, Cardin, Russel, and shadow people to encourage them to find each other. Solid choices- a sister to guide your young SEW, 2 already basically partners, and your predicted top students.
Now, this of course doesn’t go to plan. Pyrrha immediately seeks out and partners with Jaune. Ruby runs into Weiss before she can find Yang. Tenors work out, but I feel like that would have happened no matter what Oz did. Of course, Blake is notoriously missing from this batch. Meaning Ozpin did not intend for her to pair up with any of our mains. That too, obviously, did not turn out as he intended...
Blake finds and follows Yang, but she wasn’t in the same batch, she was already out there. So not only did Blake seek out Yang in the emerald forest, she actively avoided at least one other batch of students and waited for Yang to be launched for quite a while after landing. Sure, this could have been an oversight, but I think that it was written this way purposefully.
See, destiny is a major theme in the RWBYverse. The allusions you’re Blake and Yang being destined for each other are everywhere- from the color scheme, to BatB references, to the ring in the DC comics. But the theme pops up again and again elsewhere, and has motivated many of the biggest moments in the story- from simple things like Pyrrha’s sacrifice to huge arcs like Salem and Oz’s eternal struggle. Some seek to manipulate the destiny of others to serve their own goals. Salem’s entire plan seems to evolve around manipulating destinies, and much of what Oz has done up to this point has been the same, including the partner system. But despite their efforts, they cannot foresee or control people’s choices.
Oz could not predict the series of events that led Blake and Yang to meet at the sleepover. He could not control Blake’s interest in the friendly stranger that awkwardly complimented her bow. He could not have expected her to avoid her objectives until she found the partner she wanted. Blake’s choices shaped her destiny, despite the plans of those attempting to orchestrate it. Her destiny is ultimately her own.
Blake and Yang continually choose to make each other part of their destinies. Yang chooses to try and befriend Blake. Blake chooses to partner with Yang. Yang chooses to open up to Blake to help her. Blake chooses to believe Yang about Mercury. Yang chooses to find and defend Blake at the fall of Beacon. Blake chooses to run to protect Yang, and later to return to her side again. Despite all the world throws at them, they choose each other, again and again and again.
It’s a theme that came up in Ruby’s latest comic as well- the active choice to let in the people you love, to make them part of your life, your destiny. That agency of choice is one of the biggest themes in the story, and one I think will be crucial in its conclusion. In RWBY, anyone who seeks to control people’s destinies is doomed to fail. People’s ability to choose will always undermine any plan who’s foundation relies on their lack of agency. That is Salem’s greatest error, and has been Oz’s as well. But I think, I hope, that our team’s steadfast determination to choose their own destinies will finally teach him that he can’t win through control. And maybe, just maybe, that understanding will save all of Remnant.
It isn’t activism, they are in part funded by an oil heiress. It’s meant to paint activism in a bad light to justify attacks against legitimate activists.
@ Gen Z... What the fuck is wrong with you? How does this help? How does this accomplish anything? Do you even know anything about Van Gogh? How can you call vandalizing an impoverished artist's work activism?
I hate you I hate you I hate you I hate you.
This is not climate activism. This is attention-seeking bullshit.
Throwing this out for all the writers I know(and to remind myself later.)
While you are worrying about whether beta readers will steal your ideas, there is a more genuine threat on the horizon.
When offered a publishing contract, please do all your research before you sign. There are a number of fakes and scammers out there, as well as good-intentioned amateurs that don’t know how to get your work to a wide audience. I won’t tell the heartbreaking stories here - there are too many.
Being published badly is worse than being never published.
It can destroy your career and your dreams.
The quick check is to google the publishing house name + scam or warning.
But, to be sure, check with these places first. They aren’t infallible (nothing is) but they can help you protect yourself. They are written and maintained by expereinced writers, editors, publishers and legal folks.
Absolute Write: Bewares and Background Checks
Preditors and editors
Writer Beware
and the WRITER BEWARE blog
Keep yourself and your work safe.
This is really important, so if you are a writer or have writer friends, or you are a writing blog, please reblog it.
welcome back!
to the people who sent in welcome back mail <3 thank you~ 😌 pls enjoy ✨them✨
also to that rando anon, i like french toast
so I’m sure I’m not the only one losing my mind over today’s episode, right?
A little prompt a wrote a couple months ago for a friend of mine.
Walking through the decayed ruins of Beacon was nothing if not cathartic for Ruby after all these years. The war against Salem had long been over, Beacon’s campus relocated to avoid a repeat of the past, and many had moved on from the events that had transpired on these hallowed grounds.
Ruby hadn’t.
That’s why she was here after all. On the anniversary of one of the worst days of her life.
She walked through what would have been the entrance hall, the shattered remains of the doors still lie in heaps around the door’s frame. Dust is kicked up from her steps, uncovering shards of Atleasian knights strewn across the floor.
“I can’t believe you! You never told anyone what was truly going on!” Ruby screamed.
“And I take full responsibility for that. It was a mistake…”
“A mistake that I will never forgive you for.”
“I don’t expect you to, in fact, I would prefer if you didn’t.”
“So many people died...people we were supposed to protect! They didn’t deserve to die!”
“And that is MY burden to bare Miss Rose, no one else's!”
“It is my burden when I didn’t keep my promise! I failed them…”
Her footsteps echoed off of the empty corridor leading to the cafeteria, the clicks of her heels against the stone the only sound to be heard.
“Are you okay friend Ruby?”
She spins around to find nothing there.
“Another stupid memory…” Ruby says to herself.
“Are you okay friend Ruby?” Penny asks as they walk into the main hall the night of the dance, “Your hand is shaking.”
“I’m nervous.”
“Nervous about what? We’re just going to be dancing.”
“I know, but we’re going to be dancing...together…”
“I don’t understand.”
“Hold on,” Ruby says as she pulls Penny off to the side, “Friends normally don’t go to dances together Penny.”
“So are we not friends?”
“No no Penny, I just...don’t know how to explain this…”
“Are we more than friends?”
“No, but...I want us to be…” Ruby says with a blush.
“Ruby,” Penny says lacing her hand with Ruby’s, “You deserve someone better...someone real.” She says, tapping her arm to make the metallic clang for emphasis.
“You are real! You think just because you were made instead of born makes you any different from me? You can feel, you have an aura, you…”
“But I don’t know if I can...what’s the word?...love. I don’t know what that means for someone like me.”
“I know that I care about you, I want to see you happy, and I’m going to keep you safe no matter what.”
“Is that what love is?”
“That’s what it is to me.”
“Then I think I can manage that.”
“Does that mean…” Ruby studders.
“I believe it is customary for one of us to ask the other to be in a relationship.”
“Penny, will you be my...girlfriend?”
She kisses her cheek as she wraps her arms around Ruby’s shoulders , “I still don’t know if I can be enough for you, but I can try.”
Ruby presses against her to tighten the embrace, “You will always be enough for me.”
The end of the corridor is blocked by the collapsed roof. A blinding silver glow comes from Ruby’s hand and the debris moves itself out of the huntress’ way. The dorms were only a short walk from the cafeteria, but that didn’t stop the memories from coming back to Ruby in waves.
Passing Oobleck’s classroom reminded her of the time Penny had snuck into the back of the classroom and spent the whole time trying to distract her from the lesson by drawing the two of them.
Next was Goodwitch’s. Ironwood requested for Penny to be able to attend Glynda’s class, letting her spar with students was one of the easiest ways to gauge her abilities, and Ruby was the first one selected(she suspected Penny had something to do with that.) It wasn’t as much a fight as it was a dance between the two. The constant clash of metal and spray of sparks each time their weapons met was exhilarating for the two.
Then came the dorms, and what a mistake that was.
The halls were blackened with Grimm soot. Every surface etched with the scars of the fighting that had become the school’s legacy, every surface but a single door, one engraved with four letters, RWBY. It was spotless, as if all the grimm feared to come near it. Gently, Ruby pushed open the door. A thin layer of dust covered the room and all it contained.
“Why do I keep coming back here? It’s not like this will change anything.” Ruby thinks to herself as she look over the room.
That’s when she spots it, a small glint of metal beneath what used to be Weiss’ bed. Fully extending Crescent Rose, Ruby pulls a small chain out from under the bed frame. It was a simple gold chain with a small locket attached.
“No...I was sure this was gone.”
Inside the locket was a photograph, one taken from a Scroll camera, of Ruby and…
“You don’t deserve to say her name!” screams a voice in her head.
“You’re right. I failed her…”
The words echoed off of the empty walls, only drowned out as Ruby fell to her knees sobbing.
“Why? Why did it have to be Penny and Pyrrha? Why couldn’t it have been Cardin or anyone else?! They didn’t deserve to die!”
The silver glow returned to Ruby’s hands as her anger came in waves. The light grew from a small globe to a staff of pure energy, one she had only seen once before, the night she fought Salem.
“I DON’T WANT THIS!!! I WOULD GIVE IT ALL AWAY TO HAVE THEM BACK!” Ruby says, letting the staff fall to the floor.
As if made of glass, the staff shatters, but the pieces begin to rise and form a frame around the window.
“This has to be some kind of trick, some curse Salem placed on me, they can’t come back…”
“If they can’t,” a voice in her head laments, “then what is the harm in trying?”
She presses her hands to the glowing crystal frame only to have sparks fly from the edges pressed against the wall.
“Please, let me see them again, if not both, let me see Penny again!”
The frame filled with the same glow from before, only it began to clear. On the other side appeared to be a small house, something not too extravagant, but homely at the same time. Standing on the front porch was an older version of herself with an older Penny by her side. In Penny’s arms was a small bundle of cloth with a tuft of brunette hair.
“I can’t believe it. This is what Salem took from me. This life with her.”
Ruby places her hand onto the image.
“Ruby…” Penny on the other side of the image speaks.
“Penny?! Can you hear me?”
“Ruby…”
“Penny please!”
“RUBY!”
The sound of Penny yelling her name brings her upright. Tears roll down her cheeks as the shuddering starts.
“FUCK THAT NIGHTMARE!”
Arms wrap around her shoulders, “Was it the same one again?” Penny asks as she cradles Ruby in her arms.
“Salem’s curse yea.”
“We’ll find a way to fix it. I promise.” Penny says, kissing her forehead.
“You always bring me back. Even when I truly believe Salem won, when I believe you and Pyrrha are gone for good, you pull me out.”
“I’m glad. Sometimes I worry you’re not going to come back one of these times.”
“Don’t worry. I intend to keep my promise, I’ll keep you safe and happy for as long as I live.”
“That was so cheesy of you to put in your wedding vow.”
Ruby giggled, “It was, but I meant it, then and now.”
Penny sighs, “I know you did and still do,” She says, running her hands through my hair, “Is there anything new in the nightmare this time?”
“Nothing different than before. Though one thing about the nightmare is strange, the image I always see of the two of us that brings me out has you holding a baby. I know we talked before and you didn’t think...”
Penny freezes, “Uhm…about that...”
I look up at her, “Please tell me that is you’re about to say something incredible.”
“I talked to Weiss and she seems to think there might be a way to use dust to…”
“Let’s try!”
To be continued...
I’m sure everyone knows which one...
She-ra Season 5 Lockscreens LQ (Part 3) Part 1 (HQ) Part 2 (LQ) ☾reblog if you saved | send your request☽
Formerly tech-blr, going to try and start posting my writing stuffs from AO3 and FF.net. Primarily RWBY, but other fandoms when/if I get into them. 26 they/them
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