Penny for the character thing?
How I feel about this character
I love Penny. Sheās an amazing character and she was a great introduction to a lot of Atlas stuff. Her existence brings up a lot of questions with James, as well, which I think weāre going to get discussed this volume.
She was sweet and kind and adorable and thatās so, so good. I love that she was Rubyās first non-Beacon friend, and the first person Ruby very viscerally lost. I think her kind personality was important and thereās so much of her we never got to know.
Why was she with James the day Qrow showed up?
Who were her other teammates? Why didnāt Ciel fight? What did they know about Penny?
Was Penny set up to be a maiden? She wasnāt Fall. Was she meant to be Winter?
What was her plan to stay at Beacon? Thatās the one that haunts me the most. We never got to know the plan. And I doubt we ever will. This girl, this tiny, sweet, baby girl, had a plan to escape her destiny and ended up dying instead.
And that. Fuck man. That stillĀ hurts, almost four years later.
All the people I ship romantically with this character
Penny/Ruby is the obvious one. They had amazing chemistry. I think Penny/Weiss has some good potential as well, and You and Me kicked off the Penny/Mercury ship in a big way. But Penny/Ruby will always be my fave. Itās just a bummer I ship Qrow/James more and that makes Penny/Ruby hard to write in most AUs.
My non-romantic OTP for this character
Penny and James, which should come as no surprise to anyone who reads my writing. I have been making Penny Jamesā daughter for the last four years and no amount of [spoilers] is going to make me change that. They had such an interesting, implied relationship and I really, really wish weād seen them interact like, at allĀ outside of her death.
Because James saysĀ āabout the girlā notĀ āabout the robotā notĀ āabout the soldierā. James keeps her close-by after everything in V1. James cares.
And we never got context outside of her death how much he cared.
My unpopular opinion about this character
I donāt think sheās coming back. And if she does, I donāt think sheāll be Penny.Ā Pennyās death served a very specific purpose and while I know Ruby needs to deal with her death, I donāt think bringing Penny back will fix that.
She had an aura. She wasnātĀ ājustā a robot. Her soul is gone.Ā And I hope V7 confirms one way or another.
Alternatively: sheās coming back, but not because sheās a robot. Sheās coming back because theyāre gonna go find the Life relic, and you know for a fact that if Ruby gets the choice sheāll wish Penny alive. If itās a 3 deal, I imagine sheāll go for Pyrrha as well. The third is where Iām up in the air.
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.
I wish weād known her plan. I wish weād seen her interact with James. I wish weād gotten confirmation if Ruby had a crush on her, like I suspect. I wish weād seen her team. I wish weād seen her more in general. V3 shuffled her offscreen until she died.
I wish weād seen her with James.
I wish weād seen her with Qrow.Ā Because if anyone in the inner circle knew what she was, it would have been him.
Mostly, I just wish weād had more time with her.