We're all mad here

(I say largely because obviously no one is completely immune — internalized prejudice is so insidious and sinister that it can creep into your mind very easily. But the FNDM + a film and media studies minor has made me better at checking this sort of bias than many, I feel confident in saying that much.)

I watched people go rabid trying to defend terrorism and fascism and genocide because an attractive powerful white man is the one committing the terrible deed, and those same people bent over backwards to find an excuse to blame first any woman in that man’s sphere in-universe. Failing that, they’d blame the writers. Anything but admit that the cool charming capable guy those “fans” were smitten with was canonically a bad fucking person.

And as such, I have learned to see it for what it is when audiences jump to see the best in some characters and the worst in others. When the same action is charming and heroic or violent and cruel depending on who does it. When writers prioritize certain characters’ arcs over others, and when that reflects bias versus narrative priorities. And that is a very good skill to have.

like, they're in Atlas and getting arrested, right? Weiss was sheltered as shit and never got arrested for the events of the show, Ruby maybe did a small misdemeanor but nothing super major, Yang definitely has a few charges for club fights or petty crimes, but Blake? MILE LONG CRIMINAL RECORD. Breaking and entering, theft, grand larceny, assault, destruction of property, trespassing, and that's just the first HALF.

I like to imagine that Blake has been arrested quite a few times in the past (and has a HUGE distrust of the authorities and Ironwood, but that's a different post), and we know the White Fang didn't really give a shit about their identities (Blake not wearing a mask, Adam's name being known on the news), so imagine the cops looking at their previous crimes. They expect a lot from the bombshell blonde, and definitely a few crimes from the redhead who is literally biting her handcuffs, but what they DONT expect is a PARAGRAPH from the black haired quiet one. And THEN they see her name, and they go "OH SHIT" because they just arrested THE DAUGHTER OF THE CHIEFTAIN OF MENAGERIE and ADAM TAURUS' RIGHT HAND.

okay now I know this wouldn't be really plausible, but for the funnies, imagine if the cop guys read their criminal records out.

Cop: "Yang Xiao Long, destruction of property, grievous bodily harm, violent disorder."

Yang: "Checks out."

Cop: "Ruby Rose, destruction of property."

Ruby: "THAT WAS ONE TIME."

Cop: "Blake Belladonna, breaking and entering, theft, grand larceny, assault, destruction of property, trespassing-"

*two minutes later*

Cop: "-and finally, hijacking."

Blake: "Yeah."

Everyone else: "......DAMN??"

character development isn't filler

lore drops aren't filler

paying off build-ups on character arcs isn't filler

having a season that's lighter on the main narrative to focus on the fallout of an intense arc, and ultimately reiterate and reconstruct the core themes of the show isn't filler

none of it's filler by definition because RWBY isn't an adaptation of anything - filler is specifically added material to pad for time so an adaptation doesn't catch up too quickly

Have you ever thought about how fucked it is that there were six Wonder Woman villains in the Justice league cartoon, but Cheetah, Giganta, and Dr. Cyber had nothing to do with her directly. Circe and Ares only appear in one episode each. Aresia didn't even come from the comics. And Dr. Cyber was such a background character I'm pretty sure most people didn't even know she was in Justice League when they first watched it.

There was also Hades who...

...Was basically just an off brand Ares.

Okay. What literary criticism IS, is like taking a mechanical clock apart to see all the gears and learn how it fits together and approach your next clock with more knowledge of what makes it tick.

Look, I'm sure this will be fine, possibly great even...But we already have a Batman animated series going on right now, and there's people wanting a Batman series set in the My Adventures with Superman universe, we don't fucking need this.

I've been taking a dive into Wonder Woman's history over the past few months, and I gotta say... this shit is rich. While there isn't a solid base in the Pre-Crisis stuff, that old stuff still had a lot of solid ideas, good blueprints, and even genuinely great storylines (much like Superman's earlier runs). However, much like Batman & Superman, most of her best shit is from Post-Crisis, especially George Perez's run. Perez did a delightful job remaking and distilling Diana's mythos, pinpointing the love that makes the core of her character, showing the struggle between conflict and diplomacy, and giving life to the supervillains & gods she faces off against. So who sits at the top of this continuity's hierarchy of evil?

That's right. This is the book that put DC's take on Ares into the limelight. While he appeared Pre-Crisis as Mars, it was this run that refined and polished the God of War into a far more personal, powerful, and worthy Greater-Scope Villain. He's been an adversary of the Amazons since their inception, sabotaging them from the shadows and using Hercules to try and break them. While he didn't succeed in destroying them, he succeeded in isolating them, but during his attempt to cause World War III he tried to finish them off for good. As a result he caught the attention of Wonder Woman and now... they're settling this generational beef.

Diana is NOT letting her people die, nor is she letting war ravage the entire world. She intends to stop Ares, but unfortunately for her the war god is simply too powerful in more ways than one.

As Diana slowly comes to realize that Ares cannot be defeated through any conventional means, the gods hear her and grant her a lasso and she uses it to bind the war god. So after a length battle, Diana finally confines him... but that is not all she does.

It is here that Ares is shown the damage his ambitions and warmongering will cause. He sees the world in a nuclear holocaust, a world filled with wastelands, a world without worshipers. He sees all of this destruction... and weeps. For all of his warmongering, he has only sought to bring a world where he is empowered and worshipped for eternity. He wanted to be as praised as his siblings and his father, not a lonely self-made hell. So what does he do next?

He backs out of his own plan. Just when he was on the verge of success, he backs out as soon as he realizes how destructive the aftermath is going to be. And he does all of this, while showing his newfound respect for Diana. However, that doesn't mean that he intends to give up on his ambitions. If anything he promises that the moment conflict arrises again, he'll be back to achieve his goals without reducing the world into a lifeless husk.