black out the sky

visually, it draws them nearer, sort of cementing their place in the story, orbiting the main characters, and that opens the door for everything else, from parallels to ideological differences to bitter rivalries.

like i'm surprised how easy it all comes to me. no other villains are this easy to write and weave into the story. not even salem, as she lacks the same peer level with team rwby that cinder and adam have.

when you look at V1, there are very clear story and / or character arcs with set episodes. there's practically zero overlap; the initiation is about the initiation, the badge and the burden focuses on ruby and weiss, jaunedice on jaune, and the last two episodes on blake and weiss. each arc solves its "problem" within it; for example, after the badge and the burden, weiss doesn't have a problem with ruby being made the leader, two episodes and one in-universe day, and the problem has been solved.

V2 moves away from this a bit, but not enough for the "this character gets the focus for this specific arc" angle to completely disappear, more so the problems aren't solved within five minutes; team rwby's investigations didn't stop blake's situation from getting worse. the writing is still focused on specific characters and their development, leaving others to wait for their turn. . . though you do get a bit more of setting things up for those in the waiting room.

V3 is centered around the tournament with very little room for actual character development to take place, prioritizing moving the plot forward.

V4 and V5 take a bit more on their plate, but thanks to the main cast being separated, you still get the "this character gets the focus for this specific arc" feeling from it. this effect lessens the more reunions there are, but blake practically has her completely own story for 99% of the time.

from V6 however, this changes. the gang is back together, the plot is on the move, and there's no room for more episodic, character driven and focused arcs. every character should get something to make their presence justified, but with limited time available it's never going to feel enough compared to the early days of the show.

so, those who through V1-4 were waiting for the story to get to atlas so that weiss and her family could get their time in the spotlight, playing the central role in specific episodes and such, are left disappointed when the focus is given to fresh faces and storylines with no prior set up.

and when not that long ago blake got two whole volumes for her story with no one else upstaging her, weiss' story getting crumbs while the writers introduce relationship troubles for ren and nora out of nowhere is going to sting. to be clear, this isn't just about these specific characters, this feeling applies to the whole show in general—and might also explain why there are complaints of characters getting "too much screentime" even if their screentime in specific volume isn't much; they've already gotten their slice of the pie earlier, and any more is going to stand out against those who've gone neglected.

that's not to say the writers should have stuck with the V1 level of writing and focus on characters, some overlap was very much needed. but it does help to explain why fans were left dissatisfied with the handling of some characters and their storylines, as well as where their priorities lied; it didn't come from nowhere. the writers, unwittingly, set expectations they couldn't follow through with, mainly due to the amount of characters they decided to juggle at once.

compare that to how she immediately addresses ironwood as general ironwood, then follows it up with james, and the difference is noticeable. hell, with oscar you can actually see her switch up: "you can pretend, boy, but you're not fully him. not yet, at least." -> "well, perhaps you and i can have a better working relationship. oscar, was it?"

it feels like this weird mix of respect—or lack of it—and manipulativeness, depending on the context. she clearly knew oscar's name but didn't use it before the possibility of a "better working relationship" entered the picture, so no doubt she knows ruby's and yang's as well but doesn't bother to address them as such because they're not even a blip on her radar.

and it's like. does that count as salem underestimating them? is that going to be her downfall, not considering them as a threat, not taking them as seriously as she perhaps should? it's not like she outright dismisses them, it's more so that whatever they do, however they try to foil her plans, it won't matter in the end. time is on her side, after all.

but on the other hand, there's cinder, who is very aware of the thorn team rwby can be—"salem doesn't know those children like i do."—and it creates this weird situation of like. okay. you have two villains with two very different views of the heroes and the threat-level they possess. how do you handle that? salem doesn't feel like the big bad for team rwby—too detached for that, emotionally—, but cinder does, yet salem is still the main villain. unless the point of salem's downfall is that she has underestimated just about everyone, including cinder, it just feels. . . flat. at the moment i'd feel the same if they went with redeemed salem route as well.

each set of maiden magic has its own tree (think of the one in haven's vault, with its glowing flowers reacting to presence of people), and each tree is connected to the mother tree in the ever after, their roots defiantly existing between two realms.

their seasonal association comes not only from the appearances of their respective trees—winter is frosted all over and glimmering, spring blooms with flowers, summer is flush of vibrant greens, and autumn with leaves of red, yellow, and orange—, but from how the powers move from one host to another. instead of it being immediate, the powers will wait for their season to arrive before finding a new, young host to "grow up" with once more; for example, if the winter maiden would die during summer, the powers would return to its tree until winter comes, then seek a new host.

and all that information is delivered in the very first episode. it's only in the next episode that weapons come into picture, and it's also in relation to hunters.

i guess what i'm trying to get across is that it's less that ruby is a weapons nerd who's going to tinker with weapons on her own (building your own weapon seems to be the norm anyway) and more that she's a nerd about all things hunters.

the only problem. . . i'm writing it as if it's an animated show. unless i get a sudden burst of inspiration to start designing outfits, learning 3D modeling and animation, that's never going to happen, so now it remains to be seen whether i can translate it to something that's actually made to be read without losing the general vibe of it that i'm so far liking.

not too unlike what was done with salem and oz for the beginning of V1 and the end of V3, just taking the concept further and keeping the narrator unknown for much, much longer.

long enough that viewers would debate whether the narrator is important or not, whether it's simply a stylistic choice to frame each volume—and connect them—because of the fairy tale motif. there'd be several suspects for who it could be, too, enough hints and clues and red herrings to point at any direction you want. . . until V9 rolls around, and we learn it's been summer all along, right in front of us this whole time.

and she closes the book, goes on her mission, disappears, and you would think that was that, the storytime is over. . .

i've never watched doctor who so i have no idea lmao