The-writing-marksman - I'm Bored, Tumblr Should Fix That Right?

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.

Poly K/DA nappin

(one of many) late night kisses

I feel like I need to say this, as I've seen some concerning fandom purity bullshit crossing my dash.

This blog is unapologetically pro AO3.

I support them and all they do, may they continue to do it for decades to come.

why is privacy so eroded. I get treated like a nutcase if I say no, I don't want strange companies taking pictures of my home and putting them online for maps or whatever. I don't want to be in the background of your tiktok, and I think it's weirder for you to assume I'm okay with it than it is for me to politely ask you to refilm it so my face isn't in the frame. I don't enjoy handing my employer a list of every online account I have and feeling under surveillance when I'm just shit posting or sharing pictures of my cats or garden harvest. I don't want to hear your private calls on speaker on the bus, esp when the person on the line doesn't know you're broadcasting their words to strangers. I don't want an algorithm guessing what will piss me off the most so I spend more time online, engaging with shit I don't want to see or hear out of outrage. I don't want any of this. it's total ass.

No matter who I ask, this is the consensus. Nothing happened except Raven calling Cinder out on her name. I chuckled at that, but that’s all.

That was…disappointing. 

coming to terms with having a crush. happy she-ra anniversary!!

Let’s keep this one rolling!

Does it make sense to make fanart for a book that does not yet exist? Yes. I think yes.

I may have spent all night drawing it in a haze, but when I found out @jazzfordshire small town au is turning into a book, the whole thing was beyond my control.

I'm just so excited and proud of Jazz! I can't wait to read all about Dani and Eleanor and to have this book proudly sit on my shelf!