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56 – Volume 9, Episodes 5 and 6 | Table of Contents | 58 – Volume 9 Finale
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Alternate Title: Paper Mario & Ruby Lets 'Em Have It
Other Alternate Title: I Think I'm Going To Be Sick
Last week's episode provided us a lot of questions. Will the cat be an ally? Will Jaune be the hero for once? Will Ruby make any actual move towards developing as a character? Was all of this necessary? Will there be a gay wave that finances RWBY enough to greenlight Volume 10? The answer to all of these questions is no, but unfortunately, I've got to spork anyway.It won't come up until Episode 8, but please be aware that a character commits suicide in this recap. That's your forewarning, and a more substantial one than Rooster Teeth gave, which was merely about 'distressing themes'. I mean, it has those too, plenty of them. You name it, Episode 8's got it. Excessive violence, trauma, manipulation, suicide, uncomfortably rape-y imagery... I'll put another warning ahead of the actual episode.
P, A, R, C, P, C, P. CCRAPPP? I got nothin'.
We open up on a window to the outside of Jaune's house. Where in the Ever After this is in relation to anything else is unknown, but everything is made of paper, including an origami bird that twitters up to the windowsill. Daylight begins to pour in as we pan over the sleeping forms of the heroes, all of whom are still wearing their day wear. This works for RWBY, who just landed in this dimension recently and have nothing else to wear, but Jaune's been here how many years and goes to bed in full armor?
Ill Logic: 197
Everyone sleeps soundly, but for Ruby, who is struggling.
And perhaps I'd be more into this if this weren't the third or fourth time we've tried to have a plot about Ruby losing her upbeat innocence. You can only cop out of that shit so many times before it's no longer interesting, guys.
We get music--just a piano tune all by its lonesome, of course, but it is there--as the scene continues, including a lonely shot of Crescent Rose in its trunk. Then there's a thundering crash that scares the origami bird away and Jaune jerks awake, yelling in Miles' grown-up voice (which sounds hilariously unfitting) that he's late, he's late, because this is Alice in Wonderland and god forbid we not be forced to adhere rigidly to that at all times.
Jaune arms himself and runs outside, along with RWBY, who observe what Jaune is late for: the sun, which is just a paper lantern hanging in the sky, is aflame, as are some houses below.
Jaune insists there's no time to explain and hops on his rabbit deer, bidding RWBY meet him in town as another combustion goes off in the village below. Little sleepily rubs their eyes and makes a comment about sleeping because this mouse's entire personality is sleeping their fucking life away and eating cheese and being unhelpful and I hate them.
Ruby is caught unarmed, and runs back in to get Crescent Rose. Once they're down in the village, where more paper houses are randomly exploding into flame, Yang wonders who the hell makes a village out of paper. Up walks a small origami starfish which for some reason speaks like a computer-generated text to speech.
???: Hello, welcome to our village! We hope that it pleases you. Would you be so kind as to tell us what you are, so that we may serve you?
The paper starfish is quite unworried about the town being on fire, as they have a 'hero' to deal with it. Cue Jaune, leaping over buildings on deerback, throwing buckets of water to put out the fires. His entrance is quite glamorized, though his antsy behavior is unchanged as he insists that the origami starfish people, who are apparently very stupid, get away from the water before they meet the fate of wet Kleenex. One tries to greet the water and is promptly removed from the scene by Jaune.
When asked for an explanation, Jaune says fires happen everyday, and then we get this
Broke-Ass Clowns: 79
as Jaune realizes RWBY didn't get to hear anything about his village yet. He introduces the townsfolk as "the Paper Pleasers". Their purpose, as he explains, is to be the most polite and hospitable of all Ever After denizens, which is something that screams "SHUT UP MILES" given the way race and class elements of this show have been handled so far. He explains that the Paper Pleasers helped restore him after he was poisoned by Alyx, and its residents exist to make everything better and work tirelessly to improve things around them. They are clumsy in what is supposed to be a dorky way, and no real danger to anyone except themselves.
Jaune is caught referring to a passing starfish as "classic Ren", which causes some disconcerted responses from the others, who notice that Jaune has named things around him after members of his team, or as he puts it, everybody he knows. A red paper starfish walks up and introduces itself as Ruby, which creeps everyone out and Yang openly professes to hate it. Hey, Yang, let me know when you find the one called Blake--we can compare and see which one is made more out of paper and resembles Blake Belladonna less, the stupid origami starfish or your girlfriend.
Jaune hops on his rabbit deer, laying out the list of things he apparently needs to save these brainless Paper Mario NPCs from on a daily basis.
We then cut to a new scene, where Jaune lays out a hand-drawn map of the game levels, which puts them all a little too close to some place called "Volcano" and the Jabberwalker's abode for comfort. Jaune and RWBY are being served food by attending starfish as Jaune explains how he's been using his time in the Ever After to map it out while looking for any means of getting home. Jaune hasn't found much in that vein yet, albeit he's unusually excited about exploring a sector with some strange pyramids. According to Yang thereafter, he has no real leads.
J: I'm sorry I didn't solve all our problems by myself, but I can't just run off and let them die!
But they (he's referring to the origami starfish) don't die, they just ascend, remember? How exactly did these NPCs manage before you wandered in, anyway?
Jaune will hear no talk of advancing the plot, and tasks RWBY with preventing disaster around the sector, which amounts to a long list because these shitbrained burdens apparently will just get themselves killed en masse if not stopped, while he continues mapping the Ever After and looking for a way out.
RWBY are not enthused. Jaune starts out unusually upbeat about this course of action before slamming his fist on the table and repeating to himself that he isn't crazy, so it seems an eternity of isolation with video game vendors and their repetitive dialogue cues has made Jaune go just a little rusty in the head. Jaune realizes he's had a Moment(TM) out loud and tries to play it off, suggesting a tour of the sector.
J: How 'bout I uh, saddle up Juniper and show you around myself, point out some of the clumsier papers! Heh, just wait 'til you guys meet Neptune!
*removes glasses, rubs eyes*
You know, I really am wondering who this is for. The remaining RWBY audience doesn't care about Neptune because Miles, and it would seem Kerry as well, don't care about Neptune. They never have. They actively made him a laughingstock and tried to make people forget he existed. Him popping back up for exactly one scene in Volume 6's first episode was so out-of-nowhere it floored me. Who is this a wink towards? Nobody who gave a shit about Neptune is meeting MK's eyes and hasn't since Volume 3. The remaining RWBY fanbase doesn't care enough to even laugh at this, they're still mooning over Bumbleby.
Not to mention Jaune apparently named an in-universe creature that's particularly clumsy Neptune, when a) Neptune wasn't known for being clumsy and b) Jaune has met Neptune exactly once and spent that scene being an asshole to him. So mostly this just feels like Miles making a dig at people who aren't even around anymore because that's how much spite he has for anyone that was into SSSN. He can have this point on me.
Love To Be a Part Of It Someday: 106
"Haha, can you believe those people that cared about Neptune eight years ago? Kerry, what's that look for?"
Yang expresses frustration with being provided a chore list, and Blake puts a hand on hers
How To Piss Off Gay People: 102
in an incredibly obvious pollen spritz for the buzzing bee fandom, a trend which I am sure is not going to stop any time soon. She says Jaune's obviously been through a lot. As the others chitchat about being there for Jaune (W: We just can't count on him), Little takes a curious look at Ruby, being the only one to notice how down she seems. Don't worry guys--when Ruby has her meltdown that everyone keeps insisting she have, Little will be there to heal her and restore her drive with the power of her innocence. Right?
Weiss is just complaining that they have no real guidance and no real options, when Ruby pipes up, but is cut off by one of the starfish people.
W: It's obvious we need someone to guide us, or we could end up thrown back in time, or killed by the tree, or worse.
R: Well, if that's how everybody f--
???: The Great Tree does not kill. That is what we keep trying to tell him.
R: Well, if that's how everybody f--
???: The Great Tree does not kill. That is what we keep trying to tell him.
This remark comes from an origami star with dark coloring, and I swear if that's the one called Blake (i.e. the one playing butler to the heroes right now) I will literally snap.
The star laments that Jaune insists they never ascend, and says that the stars' work in this area is basically complete, but the land, like themselves, is delicate. They want to create something pleasant that will last, and to this end want to "merge with" the tree and hopefully be remade as something that can accomplish that. We then get the return of the art-deco as the starfish explains the many ways they've tried to circumvent their "hero" and how Jaune has foiled each attempt, thus explaining the starfish people's self-endangering "clumsiness" as intentional attempts to hara-kiri themselves back to the tree without hurting Jaune's feelings.
For a change, Jaune is actually being cast as the asshole we've always known him to be, although I'm not sure how I feel about that because his latest role as the guy who exposed the Cheshire Cat for being a lying manipulative shithead was one I was actually kind of into.
Since the starfish's point of view is reasonably similar to the one the Cat expressed, can it be trusted? When Weiss asks what makes the starfish so sure about this course of action, it just happily says "nothing!" and walks off. Is Jaune a crazy person trying to be an abusive mother to kids who want to leave the nest? Or is this a house elf style thing where what's going on is definitely horrible, but we're not supposed to be upset about it?
Weiss points out that the tree being a big "rebirth" machine should be taken with a grain of salt considering they don't know what happened to Lewis. I've already seen someone positing that Lewis became the Jabberwalker, but this is RWBY and nothing quite that interesting ever happens. Yang, emphatically against "babysitting" these villagers (her words, not mine) is all for convincing Jaune to let them go.
Weiss is just saying aloud that Jaune ain't got all his marbles in place when the man himself is revealed to have been present, and stalks off in anger. RWBY follow him and confront him about the destiny of the starfishes, Blake in particular delivering an impassioned defense of their freedom to, uh, do whatever it is that they're wanting to do. Jaune responds by insisting the starfishes don't know what's best for themselves, because...
J: After-ans are either too clever, too crazy, or too stupid to trust!
Yeah, Jaune is most definitely supposed to be the bad guy here. I'm getting Volume Six Qrow, where I don't like his behavior or attitude but at least they aren't being presented as good anymore.
All the starfish people get saddies because Jaune insulted them, and Weiss asks why he cares so much about these ones if he's so at odds with After-ans, and Jaune, with all the pathetic self-loathing of someone who was detrimental to the survival of those around him more often than not, yells the following:
J: Because I can actually protect these people!
This reeks of more 'Miles trying to be self-aware about his writing by having the characters react to how fucked up their situations are' and perhaps it might hit if...no, actually, I take that back, I can't see it hitting even in the best of cases. It's hard to care enough to even consider it a band-aid, because nothing about this volume has been a band-aid, just a petty jab at critics on the internet.
Anyway, just when the distraught Jaune yells that he can protect the origami folks, a house in the distance explodes. We get music again! This time a fast-paced drumbeat that spells 'fight scene'. It's another troop of cloned Jabberwalkers.
Oh gee, I wonder if that's a coincidence?
On seeing the Jabberwalkers, the starfish people flee in terror. Jaune springs into action, riding his rabbit deer into battle, and Weiss says that if the enemy makes it down to the village, the starfish people won't ascend.
B: Then we won't run this time.
Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge: 50
Band-Aid Brigade: 57
Because I saw a few people pointing out that RWBY were kind of being hypocrites the last time this happened, running away while the Cat and his mind-controlled minion fought off the Jabberwalker horde, when Ironwood had previously been skewered by the narrative for doing essentially the same thing. And I'm sure I wasn't the only one.
In prior volumes I'd have argued this isn't the case, but I must impress upon people: the RWBY fandom is a lot smaller than it used to be. Miles and co clearly trawl through fan reactions (which I'd imagine started in pursuit of ego stroking that, once upon a time, was readily available) and in the grand old days, that was a massive pool of people, and criticisms had to be either voiced by a lot of people very loudly or, in the later years of suffering, especially long-held. But there's just not as many people talking about RWBY as there used to be. Takes like "RWBY are hypocrites and left the Ever After-ans to the wolves" would ordinarily be the domain of over-focused people with unusual, uncirculated complaints (don't ask me why I cast this that way, it would take too long to explain), but today it's a lot easier to find and thus read as the whole room's worth of analysis. As for how easily responses to these complaints can be written in on the fly...I mean, if in the span of only three episodes, Blake Belladonna forgets what the Jabberwalker is and has to have it explained to her, it's looking almost depressingly likely that RWBY episodes these days aren't even getting their usual monthly timeslot and are scripted and recorded literally on the fly. So who really knows.
Everyone springs into action. Ruby is the last to get moving, after serving a frustrated expression on her face. The battle begins to the tune of more metal music from Casey and friends.
Naturally, the first real fight sequence is a Bumbleby duet kill because these chicks aren't even separate people anymore and them doing things separately doesn't get the beehive buzzing with money so why should they?
How To Piss Off Gay People: 103
The first two kills of the actual fight sequence, as it happens. From 11:49 to 12:29--forty of the supposed sixty seconds allotted by Paula Decanini's animation team by the time of Volume 6--is all Bumbleby action. You'll notice how it fits nicely into two gifs that, if I were a stan, I would've already posted to the timeline with a stupid quote caption.
How To Piss Off Gay People: 104
Marketing, how it amazes. I'm giving it another point too, for how it's aggravatingly framed. The left-right rule is not that hard to follow, guys.
Your Fight Scene Sucks: 160
Well, Ruby's all #sad lately, so of course we're not gonna get any similar duet action on the part of her and Weiss. Naturally, Weiss makes do by teaming up with Jaune for some fucking reason.
And you know what, fuck you. If Miles is petty enough to carry "you cheated your way into Beacon" into Volume fucking 8, I'm absolutely not giving him any leeway on the Jaune/Weiss interactions.
Jaune: 85
Weiss not being able to properly land on her own glyphs is a point, too. Like, c'mon, a man shows up and Weiss suddenly can't do the thing she's done consistently the entire show?
Fauxminism: 62
Ruby is not fighting. She's just staring at the battlefield because MK are not going to let up on how broken and devastated Ruby is by
She reflexively dodges a Jabberwalker with her semblance,
LuLaRwe: 72
but begins having flashbacks to the fight with Cinder at the interstice.
*tapping knuckles on desk* I'm so sick of this. When all this bullshit and derailment was happening in Volume 8, Ruby was not permitted to have reactions like this then, when they would be appropriate. I know you all saw me recap it. Ruby saw her sister fucking die before her very eyes but didn't get to react to it because Blake shrieking the death of her girlfriend was more important.
We have not seen Ruby have flashbacks or other PTSD symptoms since Volume 4, despite Volumes 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 all playing with the idea of Ruby losing her innocence and experiencing the emotional fallout from what she's been through. Never committing to it, just playing with it like a toddler plays with their food.
Like everything else with this volume, none of what's happening now gives the impression of actually being a logical extension of prior character and story arcs--it just feels like it's trying to fulfill a vague checklist of what's "supposed" to happen. People asked "how is Ruby going to react to
When Yang was having nightmares about Adam advancing on her with a sword, it sent a clear message: Yang is traumatized and has been robbed of her strength, and feels helpless and scared. What we're getting now just communicates "yeah a lot of fucked up shit happened".
Ruby is too overcome with Dragged Kicking and Screaming Aftershock, and the Jabberwalker she's fighting gets the better of her, its mask breaking to reveal a mouth ready to eat her. Her teammates are forced to save her.
The Jabberwalker with the open mouth spasms and reverts to a Neo clone, which then gives a satisfied smirk and shatters to pieces.
The topic turns to Neo again, and Yang wonders how she's able to replicate the Jabberwalker not only into an army, but into individual shock troops that can fight effectively and possess both the powers and behaviors of the original, when previously her semblance simply extended to conjuring movable but fragile holograms . The answer is *jazz hands* plot! Neo basically needed god powers for the plot to work, so now she has them!
Jaune decides to accost Ruby, getting angry with her completely dropping the ball.
J: I know you may not care about protecting this village, but you could at least help your friends when they're in danger--
Again, not sure whether to award him a point or not because I can't be sure if we're supposed to side with him or against him. Ultimately this isn't the important part, though, because when Jaune tries to shove the still-folded Crescent Rose into Ruby's hands, she jerks back and it hits the snow.
God help us, Crescent Rose has shrunk worse than Gambol Shroud has. That thing's supposed to be thick and heavy and enormous. Even in its folded form it was a good deal bigger than Ruby's arm, where now it could probably fit between her shoulder and palm.
LuLaRwe: 73
Ruby's reaction causes concern, but there's no time to address it. Down in the village, the starfish NPCs have taken advantage of Jaune's distraction to try and seppuku themselves to tree-dom.
The little origami stars are flooded with water, becoming too soggy to exist on this plane, and Jaune runs up and delivers
J: NOOO-HOOO!
the most fucking hilarious wrenched cry of despair I have ever heard, I'm not kidding, I busted my ass laughing. I think Miles either forgot to stick to his deeper adult-Jaune voice or couldn't pull it off convincingly in the studio, because it sounds like Jaune got jolted right back to his gangly blond noodle era. It's funny as shit.
R: Why are you asking me?
B: Um, we just--
R: Because I'm 'the leader'? Because I'm just supposed to have something to say? ...'Cause I don't.
B: Um, we just--
R: Because I'm 'the leader'? Because I'm just supposed to have something to say? ...'Cause I don't.
There's a joke in there about Miles saying exactly this when people question him about his plot points.
R: I mean, why do I have to be the leader anyway? Why do I always have to be the one to pick people up, what about me? [accusing, looking back over her shoulder at WBY] No time, right?
Hey, you said it, not me. Miles tried to make that 'silver eyes' nonsense work and realized way too late it didn't really give you things to do that he could work with. That just left you with the same old 'be the heart' angle he's stuck you with since Volume 1 since being a decent thinker on the fly and coming up with crazy plans that actually work was a trait of yours that was swiftly absorbed into Jaune.
This is a band-aid, by the way, intended to patch the whole thing with fans wondering how Ruby would finally break after the plot was run aground and she was left with the in-story responsibility. This wouldn't be getting written at all if MK didn't feel it was necessary to ply fan response.
Band-Aid Brigade: 58
R: ...Gotta get home! Gotta help Jaune! [getting in Weiss' face] Gotta find someone who isn't just going to screw everything up!
You know, as refreshing as I should find this Ruby who expresses an actual struggle and feels anger and resentment, it's bouncing off of me the same way Sun's Volume 5 gunchucks action against Ilia bounced off of me. Sorry bud, I didn't have four or five years to wait for this to kick in way too late. Might've enjoyed it back when all the focus was on Jaune screaming at Cinder or something, but by now that train has left.
R: [advancing on Blake and Yang] Gotta stay positive, right? Smiles all around! Maybe even get our feelings sorted out!
Does Lindsay Jones actually sound like this in real life when angry? I dunno, I feel like she wasn't able to turn off the squeaky puberty Ruby. Like Miles, this stuff is getting delivered in familiar tones.
R: [up in Yang's and Blake's faces] Good for you, by the way, we're all sooo happy for you!
Oh, you know what? I change my mind, this isn't too late. It's right on time. She's saying exactly what I'm feeling about the Bumbleby bullshit from last episode. And the weird part is, a part of me thinks that it's supposed to ring that way. I know damn well Miles, Kerry, and Rooster Teeth at large weren't playing that card until they absolutely had to and resented having to write it to keep an audience.
Y: Hey!
R: I'm sorry, is this a bad time?! Are we supposed to be mourning Jaune's make-believe friends?!
And she's not giving Jaune's bullshit the time of day, it's delicious!
But because nothing Ruby has can stay hers forever, Jaune swiftly gets in on this meltdown action, getting up in her face and saying his little starfish people are gone because of Ruby, because Neo hates Ruby, and they're all here because of Ruby's stupidass plan that didn't work, which again fails to hit because as I've already explained before, I derive no real enjoyment from characters having to bear responsibilities for derailment--hence no Reliable Leader points.
I do, however, note that Miles just. Can't. Stop. Himself. This moment, as with so many others, is supposed to be about Ruby, but ultimately it has to be about Jaune. It has to swing around and become about his pain and his suffering. Miles, sit down and shut the fuck up already.
Ruby simply looks angrily up at him with tears in her eyes, and Jaune swiftly tries to backpedal and apologize, but that quickly falls apart so he can rant that he's "been alone, for so long!"
(We're not going to clarify the exact amount of time, in case Miles decides the time is ripe for Weiss to get the Jaune dick he thinks she's always deserved. Is Jaune forty-five or just a very hairy and unkempt 23? We'll decide that when it's convenient!)
Jaune's pathetic and annoying rage boils over onto the subject of Penny, a burden he has evidently carried for some time.
J: On that bridge... [fighting back tears] I was the only one who could do it, I WAS THE ONLY ONE!
Ill Logic: 198
And don't tell me he couldn't have saved Penny because of the Grimm, either, not when he could've also boosted Ren's masking semblance. But let's cut to the chase: Miles, the Penny fans aren't going to forgive you, no matter how much Jaune screams and cries about it. You wrote it when you didn't need to. You were the one that threw the tantrum and wrote right through Penny when trying to force Winter as the freakin' winter maiden. You got away with shaking down your viewers for emotion via Penny's death the first time--it doesn't work a second time.
Y.A.S. Queen: 20
For lack of a better point to give.
J: And I... [crying] And now I have to live with that forever.
Oh, and the Pyrrha fans aren't interested in this either, by the way.
All of this is just not working. We've been through it all before--the girl dying, Jaune crying, woe is him because he can never save people, etc. None of this is new or fresh, and having to go through a frustratingly banal Wonderland setting to get there doesn't beget patience for the reruns of the Jaune Show. Which is why it's getting the point--because we've once again entered that territory where the story grinds to a halt to try and plead with the viewers to feel sorry for Jaune instead of hating on him.
B: ...Guys, I know things are bad, but--
R: Shut. Up.
R: Shut. Up.
You know what? She's right. Shut the fuck up, Blake. You got your girlfriend and your happy ending and it's not like there's anything in this story left for you to care about beyond that. You got yours, so sit down and be quiet and let somebody else feel things. You and the crowd of people tangentially interested in you mostly as Yang's arm candy.
R: Don't...do that. [crying] Just don't.
Ruby flies off with Little on her shoulder.
LuLaRwe: 74
The episode fades out over the sounds of sloshing water as Jaune looks out over the destroyed paper village and WBY look off into the sky after their friend's trail of rose petals.
The episode ends.
A character commits suicide in this episode. And does it after a very lengthy, drawn-out, and deeply uncomfortable torture scene. Please view with discretion.
CCRAPPPT.
I have to admit I'm not looking forward to this. It never says good things when the main antagonist of the volume doesn't show up until four episodes in and only at the end, and then doesn't reappear until the eighth out of ten.
We open up with another POV shot like that which opened the volume, as Ruby runs through the papery forest, then stops to sit down against a tree and catch her breath. Naturally, Little pops out from her cape and gets her attention. Prediction coming true in 3...2…
I have to admit I'm not looking forward to this. It never says good things when the main antagonist of the volume doesn't show up until four episodes in and only at the end, and then doesn't reappear until the eighth out of ten.
We open up with another POV shot like that which opened the volume, as Ruby runs through the papery forest, then stops to sit down against a tree and catch her breath. Naturally, Little pops out from her cape and gets her attention. Prediction coming true in 3...2…
L: Why did you yell at everyone like that...?
Well, not quite yet. As it happens, Ruby looks off to the side, seemingly staring at nothing, and simply asks where she is. Little merely says that they can guide her back (which is still not true) and chastises her for running off. Ruby is not paying attention, and there's some BGM that amounts to an odd shimmering tone to create something of an eerie effect.
R: Why are you still here?
My thoughts exactly!
L: [obviously hurt] W-What? I...promised...
R: I promised to serve Atlas as a huntress. That I'd keep people safe. That I'd be there for my friends.
R: I promised to serve Atlas as a huntress. That I'd keep people safe. That I'd be there for my friends.
Little tries again to protest and get Ruby back to her friends, but...
R: I SAID GO!
The strange darkness from the market overtakes her again as she walks, though she continues on. A blue butterfly flutters around the scene, and if this means the Cat's back I'm gonna break something.
Ruby walks in silence, depressed and self-hating, with a montage that I can only assume means the marketplace's Advanced Darkness isn't actually back and this was just a way to cheap out on animation again by removing the background. Bleh.
LuLaRwe: 75
Eventually, she comes to a bridge to another sector...
...and ends up in front of some ritzy house with Christmas lights strung up along it.
Darkness swallows her up again, which I guess is supposed to be a cheap way of telling us "she went inside the house" because why the fuck not at this point. Something tells me this is where the crunch started to catch up with the product. Who am I kidding, evidence of crunch is all over this volume.
Anyway, Ruby sees portraits and paintings along the walls which tell a very condensed form of Neo's backstory from that stupid comic book E.C. Meyers wrote. This includes a picture of Neo with Roman, with the two corpses of Neo's parents visible by their legs. Ruby finds this distressing--as do I, given Neo is in her V6 getup and not her classier V2 outfit. Then painting-Roman speaks and leaps out of the chair he's on--Ruby, naturally, draws her scythe even though she's been seemingly unable to muster the will to fight since she got to this place.
Roman, re-cast because Gray Haddock is long gone but now bearing a subpar replacement, addresses Ruby. Ruby just wants to know where Neo is, and Roman draws her attention to how "everyone" came to see Ruby, Then a bunch of dead people pop up behind Ruby.
Well, dead except for Ozpin, who can't die. But there's Penny, Pyrrha, Lionheart, Ozpin-from-Volume-1, Ironwood, and Clover, which goes to show how little impact Ruby has had on the plot, because I don't even remember Ruby speaking to Lionheart at all, and certainly she had minimal interactions with Clover that we saw.
All her dead, uh, affiliates beckon Ruby to take a seat. Ruby demands to know how Neo is doing this (the answer is plot. Hallucinations are the domain of Emerald, who Miles decided should be redeemed because he was horny, and this is a power Neo has never had before.) and receives only jovial laughter in response. Ruby protests that this isn't real, and Roman, who has leapt out of his painting entirely, mockingly tells her reality doesn't hold much weight given recent events.
And, there it is. I knew we'd reach this point eventually--"It's Alice in Wonderland! It's not supposed to make sense!" Yeah, no thank you, clowns.
Roman starts expositing.
RT: You know, once Neo realized where she was, everything changed. Always loved the idea of a place to run away from it all. Do whatever you want! I offered that to her back on Remnant.
Roman takes a cup of multicolored tea, then frowns, bitterly saying they all know how that ended.
Ruby speaks both for herself (to Neo) and for me (to the clinging fans): is Roman dying seriously worth all of this? Actually, I'm starting to quite like this new Ruby who tells it like it is.
R: Is that seriously what this is all about?! You still blame me for what happened to Torchwick? If you're looking for an apology, you've wasted your time!
Read them, gurl, read them to filth! Keep speaking!
Little, who has followed Ruby, watches from the rafters as Roman reacts poorly to Ruby's shutdown. All the dead folks get pink-and-brown Neo eyes and evil smirks as he speaks.
Rm: Everyone thinks they're the hero of their own story.
Well, maybe so, but it's not like Ruby was ever the hero of this story. It took six volumes for her to save anyone, with the entirety of the plot being moved outside her actions up until then. Ruby hasn't done much hero-ing because the writers of this story largely don't have a compelling arc to give her, which is why she's only Going Through It now, in 2023, ten years after the show started.
Roman walks across the table, crushing a teacup underfoot, and unveils one of the multicolored leaves that made the tea--those from the Great Tree. Roman offers it to her as a means to 'reset' seeing as deep down, she knows she's a failure. Ruby says that if Neo wants her dead, she should get the lead out, roughly paraphrased.
Rm: You don't deserve to die, Red. You deserve to be broken down...torn apart...wiped from existence.
No, she doesn't. She deserved a better story to be in, one that actually respected her motivations and skills, rather than running roughshod over them to blow up two city-states and leave her with the aftermath to deal with.
Just as Roman manifests a cup of tea from the leaf, Neo lunges from behind Ruby, who hears her and forces her to dodge and block rifle shots.
Only for Roman to shoot her from behind. In unison, all of the gathered attendees stand and say they're going to enjoy watching Ruby break. We fade to the next scene, which is JWBY looking for Ruby.
Yang is frustrated, which of course necessitates Blake (and only Blake, while Weiss stands still) moving over to pat her shoulder because They're Girlfriends Now.
How To Piss Off Gay People: 105
Blake's condolences amount to the same redundant and meaningless observances I've kind of started to grow tired of, while Yang continues to be upset that people who are upset don't talk to her, which I recall annoying me in Volume 5. Yang, have you spared even a single thought as to the countless civilian lives that were lost because of your team's actions? Weiss has. You and Blake haven't.
W: Ruby's always been the one to get us through hard times. We say things like 'we believe in you', 'we can count on you'... I know we mean well, but...
Even this somehow becomes about Jaune, who looks at the rabbit deer he named Juniper and gets saddies because no one ever says those things about him.
Actually, do they say those things about Ruby, either? I'm curious. I can't recall anything off the top of my head. Mostly her team seems to treat her as part of the background. Volume 7 was kind of an exception, which was pretty cool, but we all know Volume 7 is something Miles and Kerry hated.
Nobody really has an answer to Ruby's current issues, which makes sense enough because again, this train got derailed and crashed. This is a trainwreck, is what I'm saying. The consequences that have left the heroes in this situation were things that would realistically have been thought out before crashing Atlas, and thus triggering extra baggage in Ruby Rose, not after.
The content of the recap from here on out gets very uncomfortable. Aforementioned upsetting topics kick in here. This will be your last warning.
The sounds of combat make it to the team. We cut back to the mansion, where Ruby is flying around in her semblance blob
LuLaRwe: 76
As all of the assembled apparitions attack her, berating her for her decisions.
I: You thought you knew what was best for Atlas...
Pr: I was the best and brightest Beacon had to offer! I traded my life so that my friends could live!
Pr: I was the best and brightest Beacon had to offer! I traded my life so that my friends could live!
*sigh*
Guys, Ironwood was going to blow Mantle off the map. You wrote him doing that. Ruby Rose's decision to crash Atlas was wildly out of character and a massive idiot plot move, but they make about the same sense. I'm not really willing to feel the drama in this, when you have Ironwood right up next to Pyrrha, who Ruby famously just wasn't fast enough to save.
Ill Logic: 199
Speaking of, that's another one. No, Pyrrha didn't give her life so her friends could live. She gave her life because it was her time to die, and as I outlined here, she accomplished quite literally nothing and saved no one when she fought Cinder. That was stupid bullshit back in 2015, and it's still stupid bullshit now. To say nothing of how Neo shouldn't even have known that about Pyrrha. There's a lot like that in this scene, just Neo's apparitions spouting off about shit they shouldn't even know.
Ill Logic: 200
That count finally hit two hundred points, oh god.
Pyrrha-N crashes the chandelier Ruby latches onto, breaking her aura,
Your Fight Scene Sucks: 16
which is a new peak for the whole 'let's make sure to account for aura but have it break after a pathetic few hits' that started up in Volume 7 as a way to dodge having to actually make extensive fight scenes. We didn't even see any fighting up to this point, Jesus.
Ruby is also separated from Crescent Rose (of course) and Penny-N makes sure to keep Ruby from getting to it.
Pn: Just like you were too late to save me at the Vytal Festival.
Just like it's too late to save this stupid show from that cancellation that's drawing inexorably closer!
Pn: I died in Atlas, too, didn't I?
Technically you died in the interstice, but it doesn't matter. This is all just Neo trying to mentally torment Ruby, so it's not like it's worth getting enraged over, but by god, Penny's second death still pisses me off so much.
Neo goes in for the real kill by having her Penny-N walk up to Ruby and tearfully ask if she knows what it feels like, to be completely and utterly failed by someone who meant the world to her. The beatdown resumes as the clones start whaling on the aura-less Ruby, who in pain and exhaustion protests that she's trying to save everyone.
I: [slamming Ruby into the wall] Have you ever stopped to wonder if you're doing more harm than good?!
Okay, now I am officially pissed off. Because this is entering that same utterly sick sort of sadism that was oozing out of the Penny Trauma Train in Volume 8. Ruby's just getting the shit ceaselessly beat out of her and her aspirations crushed and mocked, which if you will remember, I shredded for being a completely dishonest, ineffectual, and cruel way to try and prepare the audience for a character's death knowing full well it will upset them. I chewed the living daylights out of these assclown writers for doing that and thinking that, well, if they just make Penny so miserable she begs for death, the audience will be as relieved as she is!
Which, I will remind you, is what Neo is actively trying to do in-story.
This would be the only appropriate point even if it weren't stemming from derailment in Volume 8.
Dragged Kicking and Screaming: 54
Congratulations, you shitheads. You successfully un-retired a count I didn't expect to have to use for more than one volume.
Ironwood throws Ruby to the ground as Little looks on in horror. Ozpin, in a display that is so dramatically brutal it made me wince, starts whaling on Ruby with his cane, yelling more of the same--that Ruby is a terrible person who gets people killed. Ruby finally grabs Crescent Rose and swipes it, but of course, Neo has an answer for that too.
Ozpin changes to Oscar, bleeding from the wound, and collapses, as Ruby finally breaks.
I'm recording and providing these gifs because I want you guys to see how sick this is. I firmly believe no in-story scene is fully free from author liability. If a show is putting a character through excessive, uncomfortable, and uncalled-for-trauma, I will castigate the writers for it the same way I would if a female character is put in impractical, uncomfortable, skimpy titillating outfits. Nothing is every free from the author's hand, so I will accuse Miles and Kerry now of literary sadism the same way I accused them of being horny idiots.
Rm: Do you really think you can stand to watch more of your friends fall?
R: [crying] Please stop...
R: [crying] Please stop...
Dragged Kicking and Screaming: 55
Roman taunts her, asking if she's ready to admit the world would be better off without her, as all of the clones shapeshift into the loved ones Ruby still has left.
Neo strolls up, offering Ruby that deadly cup of magic tea that will either erase her, rewrite her, or kill her, they haven't really settled on one yet. But Ruby is saved, by the intervention of that fucking cat, and the scene we just finished was so gross and sickening that I almost hate this stupid fucking animal a little less. But that's definitely about to change.
R: I... I'm sorry. I don't want to be me anymore.
Ruby rolls over and begins crying. The cat, seemingly trying to comfort her, says something very disturbing.
CC: It's okay, little huntress. I can be you instead.
What...?
CC: I have been trying to wear you down for so long!
The cats claws--no, its paws entirely--sink into Ruby's flesh, and she cries out in pain. In what is a deeply, deeply uncomfortable display given the cat is positioned atop a prone Ruby's chest, it explains that when a "poor heart is broken, I can fill it with mine."
Again, if you can stomach it, you need to see how upsetting this is. So many alarm bells.
The cat describes themself as "cursed with curiosity", and the one thing they desire to know more than anything else is why their "makers" left them here in the Ever After, before...well, they get cut off due to what happens next, but it's pretty clear the cat's about to say "leave and make all of you" implying the brother gods are at play somehow.
But then Little intervenes, biting the cat's tail.
Little is knocked away, and Neo arrives on the scene, and she and the cat begin duking it out for the right to keep hurting Ruby Rose.
Well, that's what I thought they were going to do. Neo knocks the cat away, and as Little begs Ruby to get up, in a vile move, she stomps on them. One last deathblow to Ruby's heart. Naturally, JWBY run into the mansion just in time to find Ruby relenting and drinking from the teacup.
Even more typically, they stand there and do nothing to stop her.
Dragged Kicking and Screaming: 56
We've used Fight Scene and Jaune points for that before, but there's really no better point than this one this time. It's infuriating.
Neo does not look pleased, though. Roman's voice addresses her as the surroundings start to crumble.
Rm: You've done it! Little Red's gone... With your semblance stronger than ever now, we could take over this whole absurd place!
Neo shakes her head, something starting to crack within her. Roman takes notice and asks what's wrong, since offing Ruby can't have been all that Neo wanted, right? Meanwhile, JWBY look on. Yang and Blake are, of course, holding each other.
How To Piss Off Gay People: 106
The cat panics, clawing at the vines that manifested where Ruby sunk into the ground, protesting that they needed her. It looks up to the tree outside, then at Neo, with an evil smile growing on its face.
Jaune points his broken sword at the cat, telling them to take the group to the tree and Ruby.
CC: You still don't get it, do you? 'It's not a place you go, it's a place you know'... But no matter... I've actually found a much better solution to my problem.
The cat eyes Neo, who would appear to have finally become burdened with the knowledge that her grudge against Ruby was really not founded on anything substantial, not remotely worth killing her over, and not enough to suffice for her character in total. Or, in Miles-and-Kerry-speak, she is now "broken-hearted" and will suffice as a potential host for the cat's heart.
It unleashes a huge blast of energy that repels JWBY, and then goes in for the kill. It grows big, gets a scarier face, and pins Neo against her chair.
Okay, you know what, maybe we do need an extra warning: what happens next is something straight out of Alien vs. Predator.
...Got it?
...Still here? Okay.
Then the cat shoves itself down Neo's throat and takes her over.
I am so creeped out and not in the way Miles and Kerry want me to be.
The cat speaks through Neo, claiming to be tired of Jaune's sob story, and says he can't even accept his own futility.
Bearing its own powers and Neo's as well, it flies off to the tree, and the episode cuts to black.
Before we move on, let's just assign some last-minute points, because what did we just watch happen?
We had the female characters who have already died beat into the viewers' heads how tragic and ultimately pointless their deaths were.
Fauxminism: 63
We had our main female protagonist ruthlessly beaten and broken until she chose suicide.
Fauxminism: 64
We had our female antagonist violated, having her body invaded, parasitized, and used against her will.
Fauxminism: 65
We had Neo, previously by far the most proactive of the villains in the show, sit there and do nothing while a character (who is ostensibly nonbinary but presents as male in all the ways that matter) swept in and took her role as the main villain of the season.
Fauxminism: 66
Our female heroes stood by and did nothing but look vaguely concerned. When it came time to act, Jaune was the only one to try and move against the cat.
Fauxminism: 67
Oh, and speaking of nonbinary? Both of our nonbinary characters, besides literally being animals,
How To Piss Off Gay People: 107
Are now a) a villain and b) dead.
How To Piss Off Gay People: 108
I don't know where this volume is headed now, but I really, really don't fucking like it.
But I have one more thing to say before we leave off.
Das_Sporking might've deleted my posts, but I archived pretty much every comment made on them before they did, including this one:
As you can see from the image, I was accused of essentially using my spork as a stage to attack RWBY fans. Per the quote:
"Okay, this crossed a line for me. I am a firm believer in "attack the product, perhaps the creator, but leave the fans be". It is not a crime to enjoy something I do not enjoy or like something I do not like. This post is filled with vitriol and scorn towards the people who still liked RWBY at this point, to an uncomfortable level. It tapers off once you get into the episode proper, but it's a manifestation of a recurring problem I have with your sporkings. I admit, I mostly skim them, but it sometimes feels like you're using your critique of the show as a staging point to attack the fans of the show. I agree sometimes this may be warranted (the Season 3 harassment squad) but you're going past that point and attacking people for... not siding with you on the animation quality?"
You know, in retrospect, this just looks like my ban was already in the works and excuses were being made to make it happen. It was a rather impassioned defense to make in response to...just me commenting on RWBY fans eating up anything and having their minds made up about the show before it even airs.
I didn't name names, I spoke broadly, and I never said anyone was a bad person for behaving that way. That's not vitriol and scorn. That's not attacking fans. And even if it was, frankly, I don't care for any sort of standard imposed about not attacking fans, because that's horseshit when fans are a regular subject of mockery on pretty much the entire sporking comm. It dates back to the days of old with the Twihard Idiocy sporkings. It was only a problem when I did it.
But you know, it really doesn't matter at this point, because I definitely should've been meaner. RWBY fans still clinging to this show in Volume 9? They absolutely deserve vitriol and scorn, because you know what they did?
Look at that nightmare up there. Look at all the torment Ruby Rose endured, literally being thrown against walls and being beaten so hard the building was shaking. Look at all the manipulation, the emotional abuse, the hideousness of what Neo did to Ruby to hurt her, including stomping a small animal to death. Look at Neo openly announcing that she wants Ruby "broken down, torn apart, and wiped from existence"...and managing to do exactly that. All the suffering she puts Ruby through, she does it with the goal of wiping Ruby out of existence by forcing her to drink the tea, and she does. She succeeds. She tortured a teenager into suicide.
And yes, it is suicide, but not according to the fans! According to them, all of that? Did not happen. None of that happened. It was onscreen, but it sure didn't happen!
No, no, you don't get it! It's all a big metaphor! See, the tree doesn't kill you, it just makes you a better version of yourself! So since Ruby doesn't actually physically die, it's okay! It's actually therapy, since she's going to heal!
*fucking livid*
Yep, stans took their insipid and thoughtless defenses of this show, this writing, and the guys who wrote it to a new level and essentially tried to gaslight critics into believing that this was all something healthy. The facts that Ruby a) would inevitably undergo death of personality since she would become someone completely new with no memory of her prior existence, b) was literally tortured into despair until she felt no other option than doing this and c) that therapists don't typically beat their clients nearly to death while telling them how awful they are in order to successfully engage with them were completely skated over.
Stans, as they had done for years, took this show and completely invented a different, better version of it just to defend it against people who had valid issues with it as a product and story.
And you know what, fuck that. Fuck RWBY stans. Fuck anyone who defended this.
I will never cling to a moral highground if that means letting shit like that pass without saying anything about it.
Counts:
I will never cling to a moral highground if that means letting shit like that pass without saying anything about it.
Counts:
- Jaune: 86
- It Was Right There: 64
- Fauxminism: 67
- Hypocrisy: 57
- Reliable Leaders: 80 + 17
- Prowling Wolf Fallacy: 17 (RETIRED)
- Threatening Enemies: 59
- Love to Be a Part of It Someday: 106
- Your Fight Scene Sucks: 161 + 35
- Evisceration Evasion: 35
- Ill Logic: 200
- Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Veil: 115 + 108
- Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge: 50
- Band-Aid Brigade: 58
- Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge: 50
- RSVP: 73
- Road to Nowhere: 43
- Dragged Kicking and Screaming: 56
- Y.A.S. Queen: 20
- Rooster Tease: 37
- LuLaRwe: 76
- The Lovegood Fallacy: 17
- How to Piss Off Gay People: 108
- Invisembl: 14
- Broke-Ass Clowns: 79
- Shut the Fuck Up: 24
____________________
56 – Volume 9, Episodes 5 and 6 | Table of Contents | 58 – Volume 9 Finale
56 – Volume 9, Episodes 5 and 6 | Table of Contents | 58 – Volume 9 Finale
Tags:
- fandom: original,
- fandom: rwby,
- fic type: multi-chapter (4 or more),
- rwby vol 9,
- series: rwby,
- spork type: anime/manga,
- sporker: surgeworks,
- status: in progress,
- status: incomplete,
- warning: abuse,
- warning: abuse (emotional),
- warning: abuse (physical),
- warning: abuse (sexual),
- warning: body horror,
- warning: extreme violence,
- warning: violence
no subject
Date: 2023-11-25 11:55 pm (UTC)From:What. The. Fuck. This is some of the most HORRIFIC shit I have ever seen in a show, and that includes Breaking Bad! Passing off suicide as something that was ultimately a choice Ruby made and not her reacting out after severe torture (because that's what this is, torture), severe torture being used to fulfill a cheap plot point, the suicide eventually being all for the best (in light of episodes 9 and 10). This is disgusting. Fuck this show and the people who came up with this. And then the Curious Cat violating Neo in a way that evokes sexual assault. Wow.
Not to mention, Neo has been characterized as someone who is cool, calm, and collected. She's the type to quickly kill someone, not draw it out. Also, killing Ruby is all she wanted to do? Really? What about getting revenge on Cinder?
You know, in retrospect, this just looks like my ban was already in the works and excuses were being made to make it happen.
That ban was a whole bunch of bullshit. Your spork was my favorite on the comm, especially because you aren't extremely nitpicky (like, some people complain when the main character has a flaw and isn't nice all the time, or they miss something that was explained, and they do that several times).
Your ban is the entire reason why I will not join Das-Sporking, which I was originally planning to. As an autistic person myself, calling android characters "autistic-coded" just because they're androids(which the mod did when giving the reasons for the ban) is really offensive, and nothing about Penny seemed autistic-coded, except it you associate childlike behavior and roboticness with autism.
Additionally, when someone disagreed with you, you calmly discussed reasons why you didn't agree, and there were extended discussions. Which is natural when disagreements happen. I saw the original posts on Das-Sporking, and you weren't rude in any way.
Fuck anyone who defended this.
Exactly. Suicide is not a cheap plot device. It is not something that should be used as quick character development.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-26 05:19 am (UTC)From:Did you know there are guidelines on how you're supposed to present suicide in media? Completely flouted, which appears to be a trend given Penny and Gen:Lock.
You weren't the only ones who noticed. I've spoken to some other ex-fans and we all agreed there was absolutely no need to frame it...like that, with those angles and expressions and positions and...gah.
Have remarked on this before and will remark on it again in the Final Thoughts. Neo joins Adam and Ironwood in villains who were completely twisted out of character to achieve their most villainous portrayals and deeds--though Neo is the only one who's going to receive something resembling redemption for it, which I'm sure is just because of the stunning depth of her character and not, ya know, because of other, more basic factors.
Thank you for believing in me 🤍 Honestly, I feel immature still bringing it up, but then again I also don't feel like I was treated fair. The day after I was banned, an enormous amount of activity started hitting unrelated socials of mine. I think they finally got the message that I can see them going through my shit, since it's finally come to a very sudden halt, but it still bothers me that I'm not allowed to exist in peace because I guess someone somewhere needs their dirt. Between that and friends I thought were on my side randomly blocking me and cutting off all contact out of nowhere, it seems pretty clear some snakery is still going on.
The whole reason I brought the RWBY spork to the comm was because I thought it would be safe from poisonous behavior, but I guess that was a mistake.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-29 01:40 am (UTC)From:Did you know there are guidelines on how you're supposed to present suicide in media? Completely flouted, which appears to be a trend given Penny and Gen:Lock.
There have been real life suicides due to depicted suicides in media. It's called the Werther Effect, and has recently showed up with 13 Reasons Why. This is incredibly irresponsible.
You weren't the only ones who noticed. I've spoken to some other ex-fans and we all agreed there was absolutely no need to frame it...like that, with those angles and expressions and positions and...gah.
The Alien movie was specifically meant to evoke sexual assault, which this scene is clearly based on, so it's quite apparent.
Here's a quote from an article on the subject:
"Dan O'Bannon specifically wrote this scene with the male's fear of penetration in mind and wanted the scene to operate as a payback of sorts for all of the times horror films have subjected weak women to male predatory monsters. His goal was to reverse the stigma associated with the sexualized violence against women in horror and turn the idea back on itself."
Source: https://screenrant.com/alien-movie-chestburster-sexual-assault-meaning/
To take a scene that was supposed to make a commentary on sexualized violence in horror dis-proportionally directed against women, (and I'm going to say here that sexual violence against any gender is wrong and fucked-up, and should not be portrayed for cheap horror) and use it for sexualized violence against a female character is just... wow. How much less self-aware can you get?
though Neo is the only one who's going to receive something resembling redemption for it, which I'm sure is just because of the stunning depth of her character and not, ya know, because of other, more basic factors.
Benevolent sexism at work. Idealizing women is just another way of keeping them down, by not treating them as people. I can feel the objectification through the screen.
Thank you for believing in me 🤍 Honestly, I feel immature still bringing it up, but then again I also don't feel like I was treated fair.
You have screenshots backing you up, and I've seen your posts with my own eyes. Anyone would be an idiot not to believe you. You're not immature, you weren't treated fairly. Half of those reasons were obvious bullshit from the start. I mean "calling for violence against characters"? Come on. At the end of the day, they're fictional. It's not morally wrong to call for them being put in a meat grinder.
The day after I was banned, an enormous amount of activity started hitting unrelated socials of mine.
That's bizarre. What the heck do you think is happening?
no subject
Date: 2023-11-29 05:38 am (UTC)From:I don't know, but I want it to stop.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-26 12:03 am (UTC)From:Our female heroes stood by and did nothing but look vaguely concerned.
And Yang and Blake were holding each other the entire time. Why can't gay characters be treated like characters and not just props for a relationship? Gay people are people. I'm decidedly not straight, and it annoys me how this homophobic company is claiming to be inclusive when it makes a halfhazard, phoned-in relationship reluctantly, while treating employees who are LGBT badly.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-26 04:55 am (UTC)From:Characters take effort.
You and me both. I'm still gobsmacked by how the Bumbleby canonization could clip through the floor and affect basically nothing, to say nothing of how two weeks later it was immediately overshadowed by *waves hand upward* this.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-29 01:17 am (UTC)From:Characters take effort.
Ren and Nora got to remain themselves after getting together. Really shows how much they respect the straight relationship vs the gay one.
You and me both. I'm still gobsmacked by how the Bumbleby canonization could clip through the floor and affect basically nothing, to say nothing of how two weeks later it was immediately overshadowed by waves hand upward this.
This could have been a turning point over a volumes-long slow-build romance. But the relationship wasn't integrated into the story, and was just like a side quest that needed to be checked off. I wonder what ex-employees said about this volume, or what the reaction was to this.
no subject
Date: 2023-12-24 08:12 pm (UTC)From:The worst part is that this is the scene that spawned all those insufferable "Homophobic Ruby" memes.
no subject
Date: 2023-12-24 11:18 pm (UTC)From: