Leah. She/her. 30s. // Always serving: Adorable animal videos, queer shit, Judaism, whatever nerdish pursuits haven't betrayed me lately. // Currently heavy on the: RWBY. // IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED, BLACKLIST '[SHOW] SPOILERS.' Tag used for first 24 hours after airing.
And then Weiss and Jaune are the LAST ONES ON THE BRIDGE. Pyrrha leaves. The others leave, at their own times, and return, but then they leave AGAIN on the bridge. And it’s just Jaune and Weiss. And what else is there for them to do? They run for the exit, because there’s nobody left to care for them, but there are so many people who need their care. (and then cinder says “sweet, hat trick”)
So fucking obsessed with schnarkos. local trio of hyper competent losers could not find a person to make out with with their own two hands and the help of someone who wants to make out with them.
LITERALLY EXACTLY THIS. THIS IS THE VIBE. THEY CANNOT FLIRT THEIR WAY OUT OF A PAPER BAG, THEY ALL WANT VERY BADLY TO BE GOOD PEOPLE AND MOSTLY ARE BUT ARE SOMEHOW TERRIBLE TO EACH OTHER, THE PEOPLE THEY CARE ABOUT MOST
“Blake has two hands” Sunnybees would be awesome because you KNOW Sun and Yang would be besties. two blonde himbos hanging out, going to the gym, and hyping up their hot goth girlfriend
also JaunexPyrrhaxWeiss is good stuff and we need more of it
BLAKE JUST DESERVES TO BE ADORED BY BRIGHT SUNSHINE PEOPLE FROM EVERY POSSIBLE ANGLE I DON’T MAKE THE RULES
and like. god the essays I could write about the Jaune/Pyrrha/Weiss dynamic. the Beacon era disaster of Jaune crushing on Weiss who’s crushing on Pyrrha who’s crushing on Jaune and NONE OF THEM TURNING AROUND TO REVERSE THE POLARITY. i started making White Knight Real jokes for the lolz but like. what if it’s true what if Jaune’s pubescent comphet obsession one day evolves into THE MOST PATIENT LONG GAME IN HISTORY she’s the reason he unlocked his semblance do you remember that SHE THOUGHT RUSTED KNIGHT JAUNE WAS HOT *starts frothing at the mouth* what if a mature relationship organized around the everpresent ghost of your missing third is just what it means to be an adult in this world what if
I’m Supermonaman from AO3 & I had a question about ships I think it’s clear that bumblebee is your favorite ship but what are 5 other ships you love if you don’t mind answering? Also what is your opinion/what do you think about the Sunnybees or Blake/Yang/Sun? It’s a guilty pleasure ship/crack ship I love that I think makes sense/works in my mind it’s similar to the Weiss/Blake/Yang in some ways.
I certainly do not mind answering! I thought about writing this out as a list of five and like, that sort of falsely put everything on the same level in a way that didn’t reflect my feelings, so.
We must begin with Nuts and Dolts. Honestly this might be my All Time RWBY Ship in terms of like– the scope! the themes! the longing! the intimacy the belonging the SCALE of it the TRAGEDY of it!! THEIR RELATIONSHIP IS THE SPINE OF THE WHOLE SERIES. But also like, while it’s So Big it’s also so terribly small, so dependent on the smallest and most innocent moments and touches. I haven’t had the ambition to tackle them the way they deserve to be written about but oh my god, iconic sensational perfect I have no words they are SO IMPORTANT
I adore Renora, and while I’ve rarely sought it out I’m very intrigued by every permutation and side-leg of the Weiss/Pyrrha/Jaune polycule. No polycule will ever do it as hard as whatever the fuck STR had going on bless their unhinged souls and bless Qrow for mostly staying out of it; Seamonkeys are delightful though I rarely seek them out on their own. I am an Emerald/Ilia truther and I am certain that as soon as they meet in canon it’s going to be OVER FOR ALL OF US, just you wait. Oh, and of course add full JNPR polycule and the Happy Huntresses group marriage to my list can you see I hate choosing and love togetherness
Which brings me to your final question! I don’t ship any bees poly ship as much as I ship the two of them with each other, but you’re very right about Sun and Weiss having very similar “beekeeper” energy. This is why my bee’s schnees tag has always been “ot3: the parent trap” because my primary conception of their dynamic will always be ‘weiss is on the outside looking in and trying to curate and help, and little does she know she’s not nearly as subtle as she thinks she is and also they’re noticing her right back.’ I generally tend to think of Weiss as aromantic and more looking for Her People than she is looking for partners, which I think comes across pretty strongly in Newsbees AU– a world in which Blake and Yang would JUMP at the chance to give Weiss her first kiss if only she’d ask them and meanwhile she’s got a spray bottle on hand to make sure they don’t. but who am i to turn down monochrome braintrust or freezerburn divorce?
as for sunnybees, I’m particularly partial to it in terms of like Blake’s Beacon Daydreams when she just. lets herself have fun and be a person and experience desire in the theater of her own mind, even if she’s not quite brave or secure enough to try and act on it in reality. I don’t tend to think of Yang as someone who’s attracted to dude-identified people, so that one is more of a “Blake has two hands” situation regardless of timing than it is a fully-balanced equilateral triangle (at least in my heart of hearts).
but also I’ll give just about anything a try if I like the author or if the summary seems promising, so!
One of the really fun and interesting things about writing a polyamorous romance as someone who is ambiamorous/polyamorous is finding new ways to make sure the narrative hits the expected genre beats without just sort of… mushing it into a pre-existing monogamous romance mold, which is what I’m afraid happens a lot of the time.
Trust me, it was my job in the publishing house to make them fit that mold. I hated it.
Reading other poly-centric romances, I can always somewhat tell when someone is writing polyamory from a sexual fantasy aspect (zero shade; I’m here for all the group sex) without actually considering how it functions as a relationship dynamic, which can often come off as… well.
It’s lacking for me as a romance.
Erotica-wise, it’s fine. But it misses the romantic beats for me that I want as a polyamorous-leaning person.
There’s so much emphasis on the polycule and never the individual dyads within the larger relationship.
For example, in a triad, there are actually four relationships to handle.
The dyad between A + B. The dyad between A + C. The dyad between B + C. And the overarching relationship between A + B + C.
With monogamous-leaning authors or authors that’ve been pressed into conforming to the pre-existing genre beats, there’s a tendency to treat the relationship as a homogenous mass where everything is fair and equal, and you treat all your partners the exact same way.
And I get it. It’s easier to write everything as peachy-keen and to have external conflict be resolved with either acceptance or a brave confrontation.
But it doesn’t always land for me as someone who wants to see my style of love represented in the genre.
In healthy polyamory, either closed or open, each relationship is unique in its own way. Taking the example of a triad again, the way A acts with C likely differs from how A acts with B.
And that’s a good thing!
Because C might not want the same things as B, so trying to treat them both the exact same is a surefire way to make sure someone isn’t getting their needs met, and that will lead to conflict.
Polyamory isn’t striving for equality between partners but rather equity.
What are your individual needs, and how do I meet them, as well as meet the needs of my other partner(s)? What do you want from the larger relationship as a whole? How do we accommodate everyone without making someone feel neglected or uncomfortable? How do we show this in the narrative? How do we make sure character A isn’t just treating B the same as C in every interaction? Do they ever fall into that pitfall? How do they remedy it?
It seems like common sense when you write it out like that, but it’s a major pitfall I see time and time again. The characters never alternate their approach between partners, if there’s any focus on the individuals at all.
The other major telltale thing I’ve noticed is that taking time to be with one partner is seen as a step down from the “goal” of the greater polycule.
The narrative is framed in such a way that they might start out with individual dates, but the end goal of the romance is to eventually be together 100% of the time all the time, and wanting individual time alone with any one partner is somehow “lesser.”
Which is the goal of romance in monogamy, but it’s not the goal of romance in polyamory.
Granted, you do need to end on a Happy Ever After or Happy For Now for it to fit the genre requirement. And a nice way of tying that up is to have everyone together at the end as a happy polycule all together all at once. I’m not disputing that as a narrative tool. I’m just pointing out that there’s a tendency to present those moments as the sum total of the relationship when in actuality, there are multiple relationships that need to end happily ever after.
The joy of polyamorous love is the joy of multitudes. It’s the joy of experiencing new things, both as individuals and as a polycule. If you’re not taking care of the individual dyads, however, your polycule is going to crash and burn. You cannot avoid that. So why, then, is there such avoidance of it in stories meant to appeal to us?
Is it simply inexperience on behalf of the author? Or is it that they’re not actually being written for us? Is it continued pressure to meet certain genre beats in a largely monogamous-centric genre? All of the above?
Either way, I’m having fun playing around with it and doing all the things we were warned against in the publishing house.
I’m having fun with Nathan and Vlad enjoying their own private dynamic that is theirs and theirs alone. I’m having fun with Ursula and Nathan being so careful and vulnerable around each other. I’m absolutely 100% here for the chaos of Vlad and Ursula without a chaperone. And I’m here for the chaos of Vlad and Ursula together and Nathan’s fond, loving eye roll as he trails after them, too enamored to tell either of them no because where would the fun in that be…
Anyway. Don’t mind me. Just getting my thoughts out while everyone else is in bed.
