Citadel Of My Thoughts

(original post here)

Share something that you're working on. A draft, a snippet, an idea you're currently vibing with. Give the people a peek behind the curtain. Hmm, there's my WIP The Baby Plot that I'm determined to complete this summer, but I think I'll talk about something(s) else for this, the plot bunnies gnawing most at my ankles, vying to be the thing I next work on: My as yet unposted first RWBY fic, For Want of a Nail, currently an around 55,000 word rough draft written mostly in the last two weeks of July 2023 and first week of August 2023. I usually manage about 10,000 words in month, to give an idea of what those two-three weeks were like for me. Why haven't I posted it yet? It needs more work, and I've had other fics demanding my attention. The inline link goes to art I commissioned of a scene from it, and that sneak peek scene is included with the art (written by me, not the artist). Fair warning that it's a dark fic with some fluffy scenes, and that is one of the fluffy ones. There's also my exploration of what Maiden!Yang would be like if it happened, Not Your Sacrifice, and that's very much not fun for her or her loved ones, but hopefully will be rather more fun to read. Also there's Yellow Beauty Burns Gold, about a headcanon of mine that it's Yang's Semblance that turns her hair golden blonde, and if she doesn't use it for long enough it'll fade back to the black inherited from Raven. Incidentally there's at least several months where she doesn't use it after Volume 3... (And there's the top secret thing to get revange! on @starlightsaphron, she knows what she did, and I haven't forgotten (alas, I need brainbleach) or forgiven. I think it'll end up being posted as 'Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings' because I don't know how else to make sure there's no spoilers in the warnings and tags. I'm assured it sounds painful by a certain someone I discussed the idea with :3)

AND/OR Share a work in progress from someone else that you're excited about. Talk about what you're looking forward to or hoping for. Give the creator a shout out or a pep talk. @electronicyarn's A Different Shade of RWBY. There's many things I'm looking forward to but most of all more Bees! Yes, Yarn, I know there's just been some, however there was Bees withdrawal for so long, and I can never have enough Bees! More, pretty pls!

AND/OR Tell a creator directly that you love their WIP and why you love it - either in a comment or an ask or in tags on a post. Yarn again, just to keep things simple, because I'm pretty sure I already do that by commenting on Shade.

BONUS: share a prompt that you're never going to fill yourself (for whatever reason) and tell folks to run with it. Quite simply because I'm highly unlikely to write anything that isn't Bees or Yang centric: Qrow Branwen searching for his potential offspring after learning his vasectomy healed itself.

I firmly believe in the ship and let ship philosophy. Despite Bumbleby being my OTP (one true pairing) that I love above all others, I don't care if someone else ships Blacksun. I just have no interest in seeing anything to do with it, so I take measures to avoid it - like add the ship name to the filtered tags and filtered post content in my settings, block tumblr users if necessary, that sort of thing. It's nothing personal, just curating what I see.

I'm fandom old (although not in RWBY fandom itself because Bumbleby becoming canon was what caught my attention in the first place) and I've shipped both canon and non-canon ships. Canon is not inherently better, it's just a joy to have the validation and to see that ship in the source material.

Do I hate Sun? No, I think he's a good friend to Blake, and I don't mind seeing him in the show, I enjoyed reading the CFVY novel he appears in, and I've even had him with a minor role in at least one of my own fanfics. Am I hopelessly biased in favour of Yang and Bumbleby? Absolutely.

I can admit that Blake and Sun had a mutual crush at Beacon, going by the winks and blushes, and in her own words she technically went with him to the Vytal dance as his date. But one technical date does not a relationship make. The point of Blake and Sun was to show that not all crushes progress into romantic relationships, and that friendship is a great thing to come from it.

So what was that evidence in Volume 3 that Blacksun wasn't going to happen?

Sun was standing right next to Weiss when Yang asked if she'd seen Blake. Well within earshot, and he definitely didn't miss Yang running over to ask because he turns to look after hearing her call. If Blacksun was supposed to be canon, he'd have gone with Yang to find Blake, or gone instead of Yang, and he'd have been the target of these words from Adam:

"I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love. Starting with her." (well, him, not her)

That would have pretty clear implications for future romance. Instead it was Yang, and those implications were for Bumbleby.

Could CRWBY have prevented a shipping war between Blacksun and Bumbleby shippers if they'd kept Sun within view while Yang and Weiss talked? Probably not, but it might have made it more obvious that ship had already sunk when it came to becoming canon in future. Don't get me wrong, it's still a valid ship, it's just not canon.

Sun is also seen looking at unconscious!Yang and Blake clinging to her hand, and I think that's the moment he sees it: Blake loves Yang. He stops the flirty winks, and there are no more blushes from Blake. Like he said to Neptune in Volume 6, helping Blake in Menagerie and Haven was never about romance. She needed a friend, and he wanted to be there for her. She certainly doesn't owe him anything, particularly considering that she didn't ask him to follow her to Menagerie.

TLDR: there is evidence as early as Volume 3 that Blacksun was never going to be canon.

Not only are all of her points valid but one thing I have never understood is how a romance between Blake and Sun would have worked.

Sun wasn't a Beacon student. If the Fall hadn't happened, he'd have gone back to Haven once the festival was over. If there had been a romance in the offing there are a limited number of ways for it to play out, all of them unsatisfying.

Sun abandons his team to travel around with Team RWBY/JNR after they reunite.

Blake abandons Team RWBY (as a titular character, not gonna happen)

I firmly believe in the ship and let ship philosophy. Despite Bumbleby being my OTP (one true pairing) that I love above all others, I don't care if someone else ships Blacksun. I just have no interest in seeing anything to do with it, so I take measures to avoid it - like add the ship name to the filtered tags and filtered post content in my settings, block tumblr users if necessary, that sort of thing. It's nothing personal, just curating what I see.

I'm fandom old (although not in RWBY fandom itself because Bumbleby becoming canon was what caught my attention in the first place) and I've shipped both canon and non-canon ships. Canon is not inherently better, it's just a joy to have the validation and to see that ship in the source material.

Do I hate Sun? No, I think he's a good friend to Blake, and I don't mind seeing him in the show, I enjoyed reading the CFVY novel he appears in, and I've even had him with a minor role in at least one of my own fanfics. Am I hopelessly biased in favour of Yang and Bumbleby? Absolutely.

I can admit that Blake and Sun had a mutual crush at Beacon, going by the winks and blushes, and in her own words she technically went with him to the Vytal dance as his date. But one technical date does not a relationship make. The point of Blake and Sun was to show that not all crushes progress into romantic relationships, and that friendship is a great thing to come from it.

So what was that evidence in Volume 3 that Blacksun wasn't going to happen?

Sun was standing right next to Weiss when Yang asked if she'd seen Blake. Well within earshot, and he definitely didn't miss Yang running over to ask because he turns to look after hearing her call. If Blacksun was supposed to be canon, he'd have gone with Yang to find Blake, or gone instead of Yang, and he'd have been the target of these words from Adam:

"I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love. Starting with her." (well, him, not her)

That would have pretty clear implications for future romance. Instead it was Yang, and those implications were for Bumbleby.

Could CRWBY have prevented a shipping war between Blacksun and Bumbleby shippers if they'd kept Sun within view while Yang and Weiss talked? Probably not, but it might have made it more obvious that ship had already sunk when it came to becoming canon in future. Don't get me wrong, it's still a valid ship, it's just not canon.

Sun is also seen looking at unconscious!Yang and Blake clinging to her hand, and I think that's the moment he sees it: Blake loves Yang. He stops the flirty winks, and there are no more blushes from Blake. Like he said to Neptune in Volume 6, helping Blake in Menagerie and Haven was never about romance. She needed a friend, and he wanted to be there for her. She certainly doesn't owe him anything, particularly considering that she didn't ask him to follow her to Menagerie.

TLDR: there is evidence as early as Volume 3 that Blacksun was never going to be canon.