EmBELLEm

Or the part where Jack Frost slaps Snow White in the face and disinherits her, after which she decides to run away from home and hitch a ride on a cargo ship smuggling magical gunpowder.

And the Wicked Witch choked the Cowardly Lion with a jellyfish while Dr Watson watched.

Also Lampwick and an ice cream cone were the best characters. And the seven dwarves were just one guy with D.I.D.

Or what about that time when a cup of hot coco kicked a wolf in the balls for destroying her favorite clothing store

Or what about when an ice cream cone kicked the shit out of Goldilocks on a train

Or when Cinderella tried to steal what were meant to be Elsa’s powers but was stopped thanks to the combined efforts of Pinocchio, Gepetto, and the Grimm Reaper herself?

Or when the Scarecrow fell in love with The Honest Fisherman but then a scorpion framed the Scarecrow for murder and everyone was rightfully pissed off?

Don’t forget that time when the Tin Man turned into a fascist dictator trying to murder everyone and disappear Robin Hood and her Merry men for telling him it’s a bad idea. Also the Tin Man shot a guy for calling him scared.

Oh what about Little Red Riding Hood going toe to toe with the Hare from the Tortoise and the Hare? Or all of Aseops Fables being class traitors?

- When she first grabs him he’s nervous and in shock but he calms down and talks casually since she’s only holding him above the ground

- When she pushes him over the edge his voice is shaking but his ego takes over “you can’t treat me like everyone else”

- He tries dealing with her ”Salem told you to get me back”, but when Cinder says “Salem isn’t here right now” he starts being scared. His eyes dart around looking for a way to escape

- He is freaking out since she might actually kill him, but then he starts laughing. “You know what? If I’m gonna get thrown off a building by this tantruming child I’m gonna go out telling the brat what she needs to hear!“

He even lets go of Cinder’s arm, the only thing holding him to life. This was a suicide run, she might let go at any second so he gave her a verbal smackdown she needed.

At the end of volume 3 when Salem was revealed to be the main antagonist of the series, I was under the impression that she was the most powerful character in all of Remnant. Yet between watching volume 8 and looking back at past scenes involving her something dawned on me. Salem really isn’t as powerful as she makes people believe. Its like Oz said: 

There’s also other lines that emphasize that Salem isn’t that powerful such as Oscar pointing out how Salem knows she can’t take on the whole world by herself and Ruby pointing out that if she was so powerful, she wouldn’t have acted with such caution. Sure, she may have gotten stronger since her days of having to be rescued from the tower by Ozma due to being cursed with immortality and getting powers that lets her control grimm, manipulate them and even summon pbut that doesn’t really make her a highly skilled combatant. After all, in their first battle, Oz managed to kill Salem multiple times. The only reason why Salem won and managed to kill Oz was because she had the infinite life cheat code. 

Each Maiden is, individually, poweful enough to take on Huntmen teams, even while inexperienced; a “fully-realized” Maiden, like Fria, could cause cold so deep it disintegrates cloth and causes instand cold-burn, if not near-frost bite (The Enemy Of Trust), melt through several dozen feet of steel (Amity), and Raven could cause large-scale lightning storms to appear out of nowhere.

Eache of them has a fraction of the power that Ozma once held; given that he still had enough to empower Qrow and Raven, and enough to fight Cinder 1v1? Probably around one fifth of his power each.

That means Salem has to be, at mininum, 4-5x more powerful than a Maiden.

The Volume 8 intro shows Salem with the Hound’s wings. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a hint to her having mutation powers similar to the Hound, possibly creating wings or extra arms.

(And maybe she has her own version of Cinder’s arm and is capable of directly absorbing magic.)

A very common trope in modern fiction is that immortals just become… out of touch with humanity. How can you relat to someone who’s life is a flash, a brief moment, compared to your unchanging, unending, interminable stagnation through history? How long until you lose the ability to empathize with the small, day-to-day troubles of these brief flashes in a pan we call life?

How many times has Ozpin met Team RWBY throughout the ages? Not the same people, but - the optimistic hero? The rebellious princess? The revolutinary? The protective firebrand? How many times has seen people just like them live, fight, and die? How long until they all start blurring together, and all you can see is their coming end?

It’d be so easy to forget that these people you’re protecting are people, not just faces. And from there it’s a short jump to start asking yourself… why? They’ll just die in a few years anyway. Why does it matter?

It’d be so easy.

People like Oscar, like Ozpin, like all the countless lives Ozma’s soul has passed through over Brother’s know how many eons, are so crucial because they remind him. Ozma isn’t just continuing through the ages like Salem is, he’s experiencing the lives of other people - their families, their friends, their hopes, dreams, fears, and deaths. He’s constantly reminded of the importance of the little, miniscule moments of life, because as old as he is, he’s constantly re-experiencing them through the eyes of people living them for the first time.

How many times has Ozma met people like Team RWBY? Countless. How many times has Oscar? Once. And that makes so much difference.

I feel like forgetting was the only thing Salem could do.

By giving Salem immortality the Gods made sure she will never learn the importance of life. They forced her to live for millennia in a world without humanity so she would would go mad, and even after humanity came back her immortality makes it impossible to create any sort of connection. She is ancient, people die around her faster than she can blink.Humans are Mayflies to her. Even if she would try to connect with someone they are so fragile compared to her.

Ozma is complaining about a curse, but at least he has some change that keeps it interesting, a different viewpoint every few decades, but not Salem, her curse is so much worse, a neverending stagnant existence.

What if Watts built his own Penny?

After the initial post where I initially thought this idea up, I brought it up on the Team RAIN discord and we kinda workshopped it all together. This is the result!

(by the way you should check out my rwby fan comic)

Now at first I thought „Ah yes I can simply base every Rwby villain on a super paper mario villain!“ but F-ing mimi and dimentio made that impossible.... so...

Tyrian was the first one I’ve drawn and I‘m gonna be honest I didn’t know how to draw in the style so I traced of a pic of nastasia, and used that as a base to create this... also I used Tyrian purple as the main shading for him.

Next was Watts and he‘s based of Mr. L mainly cause Mr. L has a moustache. I like how he tuned out.

This was the most frustrating picture! You would think that cause I traced over O‘chunks picture, that it‘ll be easy but... so many details! And colours! I didn’t think he would have that many but than I coloured him... and the hair was I pain to draw too... god that took me so long...

At first I wanted to base cinder on mimi.... and oh boi did that not fit! So I based her on nastasia. Based not traced, btw I didn’t feel the need to do that at that point in time. I think it turned out good...

Last but not least, the queen herself! Salem! The most original drawing on this post! The cape is loosely based on count blacks cape... but except that... was that completely my own Fan Art. I like how it turned out. To me it seems very close to the original style but still being clearly Salem. Also I like that from a far it looks like she is friendly smiling and than you look closer and it‘s an evil smile.

You know what? I’m sorry, you’re right.

Cinder’s made a lot of great choices in her life.

She’s hanging out with people who love her and don’t abuse her…

…living out her fantasies…

…and she’s totally got a new sense of depth in the world.

She’s got a good sense of balance.

She’s really learned to reach out.

Let down her defenses.

And sometimes, you know, just…chill. 

It’s slow going, but hey, sometimes you’ve gotta crawl before you can leap, right?

But as long as you mingle with the right people, things will always look up.

After all, the streets are a fine home if you know what you’re doing.

You’re right, she’s really enjoying herself.

Growing into a brand-new person.

She’s a girl who made a wish many years ago, and at long last…

Weiss NEVER even MET Adam. She never had to see with her own two eyes the kind of monster her father is responsible for creating. She never got to see that brand over his eye. She never had to fight for her life to defend Blake, or pay for defending her with a limb the way Yang had to- and Yang wasn’t even tangentially responsible for it. Weiss got through the ENTIRE narrative around Adam without ever having to meet the guy, let alone be presented with moral dilemma his existence invokes.

Meeting Weiss, who would come out in defense of Blake- a Faunus- would FORCE Adam to reevaluate his position. If even the heir to the SDC- someone who we know was as racist as any run of the mill middle American irl was willing to put their life on the line to defend a Faunus, then Adam would HAVE TO understand that even IF he wanted Blake dead, that Weiss wanted her safe. Weiss wanted a Faunus safe.

They really could’ve done something interesting with Adam’s story, with a really awesome sword fight throughout, where Adam explains his POV that humans are beyond redemption ESPECIALLY for what they did to him, let alone for what they’ve done across the planet. And Weiss could’ve explained that she never knew what was going on- or at least, never wanted to know- but that HE was the one threatening a Faunus at the moment. Weiss and Adam are both arrogant assholes, but if they’re BOTH presented with their opposing POVs and forced to look the results in the eye, there’s no way that some really incredible growth couldn’t have come out of it.

Adam shouting about his friends being orphaned in SDC mine explosions. Shouting about “NO FAUNUS” signs in front of the only places to get food in small towns. Shouting about unfair wages and dangerous work conditions that HER FATHER is responsible for. Weiss countering back that NONE of this is Blake’s fault and coming after her won’t change anything- that if anything SHE is the one responsible for not doing ANYTHING when faced with her father’s actions, not Blake. Weiss explaining that helping with the Breach just makes them criminals, that working with Salem would bring the downfall of Faunus just as easily as the downfall of humans. That all the privilege and entitlement in the world meant nothing if it was handed to her just because of her last name and not earned. That Blake is the LAST person he should be trying to exact revenge against because she NEVER stopped fighting for equality, just chose a different strategy. Adam angrily ripping the blindfold off his face to show his brand- as a statement, but also as a tactic to really fluster Weiss- and explain how in his POV Blake turned her back on any meaningful change when she left the White Fang, and that that betrayal hurt more than any scar.

Instead they decided to make him an irredeemable scumbag, more interested with getting revenge on his ex for dumping him than actually pursuing equality or justice for his people. And they doubled down on this aspect again and again and again, giving us the comic, the fact that he’s WAY older than Blake despite looking the same age as any of our other teenaged characters, etc. This retroactive rebranding of Adam from “radical revolutionary willing to do anything to achieve equality” to “jilted ex boyfriend gone psychopath” robbed RWBY of a really interesting story that could’ve been explored. Adam and Weiss coming together- even just once- could’ve been a literal goldmine of insightful commentary on an issue that’s been frontpage of nearly every newspaper at least once a month for decades. They could’ve made Adam an intelligent, passionate character, who felt that Blake was just as “misguided” as she thought he was. Instead they just wanted him to be some 3edgy5me Killgrave clone.

Adam was branded by the SDC, scarring and blinding his left eye. We don’t know the whole story, but we can infer that he’d done something to warrant some asshole deciding that he needed to remember who he belonged to. That he was nothing more than property, like cattle.

Weiss was ALSO scarred over her left eye- a wound DIRECTLY caused by her defiance to her father and his company as she fought for her freedom. If you listen to her songs, she feels as if her father sees her as nothing more than his own property to manipulate and control for his own means, and it’s obvious he sees Whitley in the same way after he pulls Weiss’ title of heiress.

Both of these characters were scarred over the same eye for daring to break the chains that bound them. These two characters clashing over their philosophies and ideals would’ve been INCREDIBLE social commentary.