Thereâs been a very odd resurgence in the idea that bumbleby is not a done deal lately, and Iâm not talking about from the usual crowd. Iâm talking about from people who either do ship it or ship other non conflicting (ie not f/reezerburn m/ono or the likes) wlw or mlm ships. Frankly itâs baffling after everything Blake and Yang have been through and how theyâre being written.
But I want to talk about this idea that they arenât guaranteed with a scenario: what does it mean if bumbleby doesnât happen? What implications does that have?
First I want to talk about f/airgame and the accusations of queerbaiting there. There has been an attitude that just because f/airgame didnât happen that means bumbleby is less likely. However, these are two very different ships. F/airgame existed for one volume, and not even a full volume at that. There is a level of plausible deniability that the writers didnât realize how popular it would become and how it would be seen. Iâm sure they expected that some people would ship it because this fandom will ship anything that moves (and some things that donât), but itâs reasonable that they didnât expect it to blow up like it did.Â
And when it did blow up, there wasnât much they could do to tone things down because of the way the show is made. Any changes to make things more explicitly platonic wouldnât have been able to happen until volume 8 (had Clover survived). Even if they couldâve adjusted minor things in later parts of volume 7 the arguably most egregious moment happens in their first big episode together. Because f/airgame only existed for a volume they didnât have the chance to make adjustments to their interactions based on how fans were interpreting them. Even so, the writers have still been accused of queerbaiting for how they handled them in volume 7. But any backlash they got for Clover would pale in comparison to what Bumbleby not happening would garner.
With Bumbleby there is no plausible deniability. They know exactly how their interactions are being interpreted and theyâve known that for years. And they know exactly how much it means to people. Volume 6 is where Iâd argue they lose the ability say that they didnât intend for their relationship to be read romantically. In volume 5 we have Alone Together and Yang talking through her complicated feelings for Blake as well as just how focused on Yang Blakeâs reunion with her team is. Blake and Yangâs relationship is singled out, and the writers know how that was received. So they have two options going into volume 6: tone it down and make it clear theyâre meant to be seen as platonic, or keep writing them in a way thatâs setting them up romantically. And what we got was a combination of heartfelt moments, a lot touching, and Adam making it very clear how he views their relationship.
Volume 7 doesnât stop there and comes after one of the writers is asked point blank if theyâre a couple and doesnât deny it. He wants us to experience it, and we get Blake and Yang constantly flirting and any pretense of their relationship being subtext is gone. When Nora says âI think thereâs more going on thereâ itâs just straight up text. It tells us, the audience, that Blake and Yangâs interactions are meant to be interpreted romantically, especially when no one actually disagrees with her (even Ren just says âMaybe one of them feels that way but the other might be worriedâ which doesnât actually deny that they have feelings for each other).
So for Bumbleby not to happen is to go back on all of that. There is no âwe didnât realize people would take it that wayâ because the text itself contradicts that. They have had literal years to switch gears if Bumbleby wasnât the plan. Which means that if Bumbleby somehow doesnât happen all of this wouldâve been a deliberate and incredibly malicious deception. It would arguably be one the worst queerbaiting instances ever. So why would they choose to do that? What do they gain from it? And what writer in their right mind wants to be known as âone of the guys responsible for one of the biggest queerbaiting scandals everâ?
Weâre talking about a company that isnât a stranger to including LGBT rep and that has earned some goodwill from the LGBT community with characters like Val/entina, Ilia, May, Saphron and Terra and others. They have LGBT employees like Lindsay and Arryn and Kdin, and thatâs just RWBY voice actors. RWBY especially has a massive LGBT fanbase. The idea that the writers would deliberately choose to queerbait the bees knowing all of this as well as how important it is to the community is ludicrous. I canât even put in to words just how cruel the writers would have to be purposefully queerbait bumbleby. Especially when the only thing that could be gained from it is a few homophobic fans that were already pissed off just by the existence of characters like Ilia and Saphron and Terra. And I doubt any of that gain can outweigh the huge loss of support theyâd see.
But even if you still assume Bumbleby isnât happening I want to talk about what that would mean for a lot of the outside teasing of it from cast and crew etc. Specifically, I want to talk about Arryn. Arryn, who is an openly bi woman. Arryn, who until the end of volume 6 had always been very clear that she shipped Blake and Yang as a fan of the show and not to take that to mean anything. Arryn, who was the one person to tell us that BMBLB wasnât something the writers knew about so that we wouldnât be expecting something that might not happen. If Bumbleby isnât endgame that means that either a) Arryn suddenly changed her mind and has decided that sheâs perfectly fine queerbaiting people which goes against all of her previous actions or b) the writers straight up lied to her about her character, which not only could lead to backlash from her but also would affect how she plays Blake (because whether or not Blake has feelings for Yang is going to change how Arryn voices her in scenes with Yang!). Neither of those scenarios makes any goddamn sense.Â
What Iâm trying to say is that the idea of Bumbleby being queerbaiting at this point is ridiculous. It requires a level of pointless maliciousness from multiple people that frankly isnât realistic. I get being cautious, I do. But at some point you canât believe the worst in everyone, because that means believing the writers would be cruel for cruelnessâs sake even when they gain no benefit at all. The writers arenât conspiring to hurt people; they have a story to tell and theyâre telling it. And that story is team RWBY saving the world and includes Blake and Yang falling in love.
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