Hmm 🤔

on second watch, I've realised Volume 9 feels like a love letter to not just early fans, but also to Monty

the focus on Neo and her relationship with Roman

acknowledgement of Pyrrha's sacrifice and the guilt Ruby feels over it

reversed Whiteknight dynamic

Ruby breaking down for the first time since V3

RWBY using their team attacks

and his specialty: fight scenes with story and character

an emphasis is put on Blake and Yang fighting side-by-side, because their feelings are finally out in the open and they're more in sync than ever. Weiss using all sorts of glyphs and dust and summons, because she no longer cares about being prim and proper and noble, she will be as loud and chaotic as she likes so long as it keeps her friends alive

and Ruby,

Ruby doesn't fight at all until the finale, because she doesn't feel like she can. she stays out of the way and never really tries to defend herself. even when she's being tortured by Neo's illusions, even after her Aura breaks, she doesn't fight back until she's right on death's doorstep. but then she speaks to the Blacksmith, and she hears that her mother loves her, and she knows that she is enough. she always has been, since the very start

so, she goes back to the start. whirling and spinning, using her Semblance, zipping around with her scythe in a way reminiscent of Monty's choreography, as if reliving the Red trailer in her mind. and once she's had that chance to show her newfound confidence, what she's truly capable of, her teammates step in to help her, because now she finally sees that they are there, and they finally see that they weren't there enough. they don't even have to talk to understand what's changed. Ruby grew the most, but they all learned from this, so she takes the lead at first but they finish it together

I just think Monty would've liked this volume

huh, okay, that shouldn't be too hard

oh. fuck

AU where one of the computers just doesn't turn on. Workaholic sitting in the hallway waiting for the blackout and it just never happens. Incompetent, Posh and (a probably unconscious by this point) Renegade leave the archive and see him there on the ground, sopping wet and handcuffed to a pipe. "well this is awkward"

when one of them is trying to change the law to help people and the other is acting outside the law to help people

no idea what the dynamic's called but please give your own examples, I'm starving

better idea. he was absolutely the kid to DIY pierce his own ear and since that worked out he tried to do his eyebrow too

that one did not work out

Matthew's ears are slightly pointed like that because of the Gormotti ancestry

oh and he definitely got that scar doing something stupid as a kid. that or Na'el punched him

of course Dylan's tattoo is a fucking wolf

he called there being something suspicious about Chris, he's hyper-aware they're living through a horror movie, he's the first to figure out you need to amputate to avoid infection

the man's a walking augury, of course his tattoo is a wolf

any chance of there being clean versions of Abi and Dylan's tattoos in the textures?

it kinda sucks bc the textures get cut off when the skin is covered by clothing but this is the best i could get for both of them! abi's tattoo

dylan's tattoo

hope this little bit helps! wish i could get more but this is all that exists sadly.

Matthew's ears are slightly pointed like that because of the Gormotti ancestry

oh and he definitely got that scar doing something stupid as a kid. that or Na'el punched him

so is NO ONE gonna talk about Raine's Belos goop scars being their own tears

it's so funny to me that Monolith Soft saw people confused about Juniper and decided "never again"

people tried arguing Juniper's gender was never specified in-game so this time they just had Rex look directly into the camera and say "A is not a man or a woman"

based