Dreams Do Come True

by DragonoftheEastblue

Do you believe in destiny? I certainly do, and so do two young Huntsmen-in-training who are about to have their lives changed forever. A retelling of events from the end of the Beacon Dance where Jaune realizes and accepts Pyrrha's feelings, and takes the first step on a journey he never knew was waiting for him. World-building/Canon-Restoration. Arkos, Boop, BlackSun, Iceberg, etc

28. Chapter XXVIII: FAQ

FAQ:

Hey everyone! I hope you're doing well, and not freezing to death if you happen to live where we're getting record cold temperatures.

While I've done my best to be as clear as possible in my writing so that my readers understand my vision, I knew that people were still going to misunderstand and misinterpret what I wrote. It's why I took the time to write proper author's notes. Here I would explain, albeit a portion, the reasons as to why I wrote things as I did. Unfortunately, as I learned over the course of the year of publishing DDCT, many people did indeed misunderstand, misinterpreted, attributed, assumed, and invented things that neither occurred nor did I intend. This transpired with both people with accounts and guest reviews, who replied to my replies or ignored them even if they asked a direct question. I'm not sure what was the point of asking questions as a guest, for I wouldn't be able to answer them, or why ask and then ignore my replies if said person had an account. It is what it is I suppose.

Now, I have done this before. Another story I wrote called Pirates vs Ninjas: Battles of Love and Will, ruffled so many feathers that I felt it was necessary to address the repetitive questions and comments coming my way. I got much more hate for that story than DDCT, despite being much less popular; if more eyes were on DDCT, the hate would be worse—that I am quite certain. However, the nature of that FAQ was to explain why abilities and techniques had no effect on certain characters, and why the characters they adored where not as invincible as they thought they were. Of course to fully explain why I did what I did with DDCT will require something far lengthier than an FAQ, which is why I will leave that to my companion volume.

Instead, I shall do my best to answer the questions that I saw most often in reviews and in PMs. My deepest apologies for not being as clear as I could have been.

Without further ado, and in no particular order or frequency, here is the FAQ. Please let me know if you have further questions or if I missed any.

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Q: Will there be a sequel?

A: Yes, there will be a sequel, but not right now. Now that Project BICO is out, my entire attention will be dedicated to Project JADA. I have no clue how long it will take me to finish it, let alone how long the sequel to DDCT will take. Just like with DDCT, you will not see a chapter of it until I'm satisfied (enough) to release it, and that, as Treebeard would put it, "It would take a long time" and "We do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to". I wish I could go about things faster, but this is the issue with having a full-time job and very little free time.

Q: Why isn't this going further? There feels like there's so much more story to tell. Wasn't this a full rewrite?

A: I never said that this would be a full rewrite—only that I wished it was in order to fix all the problems RWBY has. As I've told some of you in private, I have fully rewritten RWBY in my head, which served as the base for DDCT, though a full rewrite would take a decade (at least) to write. As fun as that would be, I would rather dedicate that time and energy to my own stories that I can make a living off of. Also, if this was a full rewrite, I wouldn't have started part way into V2. That being said, I may have begun writing the first volume of said rewrite. However, it might not see the light of day until the latter half of this century.

In regards to there being more story to tell—absolutely! I wasn't lying when I said that I've thought of everything. This is something that many people don't understand (though some obviously do); that RWBY is a fantasy epic. Look how long my rewrite of V3, which was a rushed and streamlined story, was. RWBY is a ten volume (minimum) fantasy series, 500 or so pages long a piece. The need to world-build, by its very nature, results in it being lengthy. If you don't, you get the show—rushed, hollow, and a waste of time. CRWBY doesn't understand that, they didn't understand it with V3, and to be very honest, I don't even think Monty knew what he was getting into. If you want to write simple fantasy, write children's novels. You want to write fantasy of the likes of Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time, and others, play hard and play to win.

Q: So what's next?

A: As I said, JADA is my current focus, but there is a lot in the works. Let's pull back the curtain just a little bit and show what's coming in order of schedule and readiness:

RWBY:

Project BICO: Was originally written in December of 2020, but due to my fears that it would spoil plot elements of DDCT, I made the decision to wait until the next Christmas season, as I hoped DDCT would be done. Obviously I cut it very close, but at least both a finished.

Project JADA: The next major story that I'm working on. It was developing in my mind at the same time as I was getting ready to start writing DDCT back in 2019. At the time of writing this, I have already written a hundred pages (that's about five chapters). I have a strong feeling in my gut that this is going to be much longer than DDCT. I know what you're thinking, "How in the fuck is that possible?". Funny, I asked myself that very same question. I thought it would be more simple and streamlined, but the more I thought on it, the more it grew—in the same natural fashion that resulted in DDCT growing by almost 12% (that's 57k words) from the first draft to the FFN draft. Only by writing it will I see how much longer it will be.

As for the subject matter, I don't want to spoil anything, but if you love JNPR, Jaune and Pyrrha specifically, and you like Oscar, and you aren't happy with what CRWBY have done, as well as what they've done regarding Pyrrha since her death, you will not want to miss this. I'm actually thinking of breaking my rule and start posting chapters before it's complete, and make the changes as I go. We'll see.

Remnant Reforged - The Forsaking and Rekindling of RWBY and the World of Remnant: So this is the companion tome that I've mentioned many times throughout the release of DDCT. Not only is it meant to explain how I wrote this story, as well as others, but to break down why exactly RWBY failed so miserably; both due to the incompetence and greed of CRWBY and Monty's own short-sightedness and shortcomings. Excluding the five chapters that I would consider appendices to DDCT, at the time of this writing, the companion book is divided into two segments: the "Reforged" section which is currently 41 chapters long, and the "Walk Through Dreams" section, which is a line-by-line commentary on the purpose and meaning behind what I wrote. Originally I wanted to do the second to cover everything I had written, though I want to do it given just how much went over everyone's heads—no offense XD.

My only issue—genuinely—is that I don't know if I should include my entire rewrite. What I mean by that is that while my full rewrite was the basis of DDCT, as well as all future RWBY projects, I've taken great care to not reveal everything. Unlike CRWBY, I've done the world-building necessary to make Remnant a living world. All the teasing and hinting I've done has not been empty or a mystery-box with no point. Lawrence and Octavia freaking out over Yang's family? All for a reason and fully thought out. What truly happened to Raven? All for a reason and fully thought out. The main religion of Remnant? Fully thought out. The origin of the Faunus race? Fully thought out. The list goes on and on.

So I hope you can see the issue with this. The "Reforged" segment is meant to break down the major issues of RWBY into compartments, in order to show just how poorly things were done, as the vast majority of critiques of RWBY only scratch the surface. Many of those ignored issues are addressed throughout DDCT, but only in part, as the story matters more than lecturing, though no doubt many of you would find it interesting. After all, a number of you have told me you hadn't noticed the issues I had, and after seeing that these very same issues have persisted since their introduction, you can't unsee them in the latest volumes. You can't put the milk back into the boob, as they say. The issue isn't exploring the flaws of RWBY, as I've had years to think upon them, but rather struggling with revealing the full extent of my work. It spoils everything, as it goes beyond simply answering the questions that DDCT creates with characters having conversations about things that the audience doesn't fully know. So do I hold back or go the whole nine yards?

I suppose this is a blessing in disguise, as the book is currently a mere 17,638 words long. Wait, didn't I say there were 41 chapters? That's correct. It's not due to not having things to say, but rather that I haven't had the time to say it. The chapter titles come to me when I think upon my stories, and I make sure to write them down with a small summary of where I want the chapter to go. They're arranged so that they all piece together like a story, to show that everything is connected, and each chapter flowing naturally into the next. So what this means for me and you, the audience, is that who knows when it will be ready. Not only do I have to write and edit it all, but I'm also citing my sources when I get into the details; for not only do I have to show proof to where CRWBY fucked up, but to fact-check their statements and their defenders, how much they've retconned Monty's work and their own, where they deviated from what was set up, how much they've deviated/spit on the source material, and much more.

That in and of itself is what worries me about releasing this as additional chapters to DDCT, as I can't use photographic evidence on FFN and Ao3, nor can I cite things with footnotes. My plan was to release it as a large single volume, with DDCT being Volume I, and the Reforged tome and Volume II, as an eBook. Given the number of people I've spoken to in private that really want to see this, I might try to create a version that works well enough on the aforementioned sites, but like I said, I have so much to get to, that I can't even guess when this companion piece will be ready.

Nevertheless, I wanted to give it a proper explanation, since I've mentioned it enough times to warrant it.

Project LitS: A one-shot/missing chapter from JADA. The events are meant to be a surprise, but given I know what transpired in those missing hours, I figured it would be fun to include separately.

Project ASOD/DOS: The sequel to DDCT, and probably what you want to see from me more than anything else. This will continue right where DDCT left off, and will cover the summer period before second-year. This will be tricky to write given the main story threads, but will be full of fun and answers to burning questions.

Project LLAR: This is an idea that came to me one night at work out of the blue. It was just so obvious and interesting a concept. I immediately asked an old friend of mine—a major fan-fiction reader and writer—if he's seen anything like this, and he said, "It hasn't been done before...". My immediate response was, "I don't believe you XD. That's beyond shocking. I feel like I need to do something with that".

While the idea is indeed interesting, and I can think of many interesting scenes to be born from it, there are many elements and factors to keep in mind, and I will only know how well it will turn out when I put it on paper. The ending is where it really gets me, as it does change a lot. I can't explain why unless I spoil the premise, so we'll all have to wait.

I guess I'll give a small hint: a small but significant change seventeen years prior to Volume I occurs, and it's something that makes a great deal of sense. Focuses on Ruby and her family.

Project FOSAD: Now this is a bit of a doozey. If you thought that DDCT was a middle finger to CRWBY, then this will be that on steroids. This will be my first time-travel story, which is a big deal for me, as despite their popularity in media (especially in fan-fiction), I'm not a fan of them due to their stupidity and terrible plot (Back to the Future and Terminator are the exceptions and they're glorious). This story will be very guttural and vulgar, for a lack of better words, as while DDCT was a brutal death by a thousand cuts and still had a story to tell, FOSAD will be a "Go Fuck Yourself" approach—raw and unvarnished. It's more for me than anything else, but I hope to entertain others as well.

Project AAH: This story came to mind before FOSAD, though it is in the same vein. Here the villains actually do some horrific damage, and Salem's hellish devilry is on full display—cruel and unrelenting. Again, not sure how well this will be taken, or if I'll even write it, but we shall see.

Project ABAH: A crossover between RWBY and Shadow of the Conqueror. I've mentioned this book before, and it's fascinating how many similarities it has with RWBY, or at least themes and systems that were handled far better. Given the inclusion of SotC's main character, Daylen, would change a LOT in the story, it will require skill to make sure it all works. Daylen's personality and knowledge will be both very helpful and very conflicting, but it should be fun to write.

Project Unfinished Dreams: If things don't go as well as I hope, this will be a collection of scenes and small stories that couldn't become full stories a la Unfinished Tales by Christopher Tolkien. This is if I can't find a better solution, so we'll have to see what happens.

Non-RWBY:

Project IMEIMB: So this is a rewrite of a previously abandoned Avatar the Last Airbender project. It was honestly the forerunner for my first "criticism" style fic, Pirates vs Ninjas, but it never got past the first chapter. It wasn't that I hadn't thought it through, as I had it fully written in my head for at least two years before completing the first chapter in 2012. This was when I had more ideas than I knew what to do with, so of course I thought it would be smart to write the first chapters of these stories, post them as if to stake my claim, and get back to them when I could.

A decade has passed since then, leaving most of my stories permanently abandoned. This one I never let go, and after completing DDCT, and seeing the legacy of ATLA survive through the downfall of Korra and rise with a new generation discovering the first series, maybe it's time to try this again. A lot has changed since then, and I've already rewritten a great deal of that first chapter. What the Hel was I even thinking?

As for when it will be completed, I have no clue, but where things are now going in the first chapter, has a much greater build up to the plot threads I want to get to.

Q: Why did it take so long to give any attention to Ruby?

A: Cuz Ruby sucks. I kid, I kid...partially. As I said at the beginning, this was meant to be a love-letter to RWBY and Arkos, which then grew into something much more, as the opportunity to show everyone off was too much to pass up.

But to get back to Ruby, the main reason is that she's arguably the hardest to write...if you treat her like the main character. I strongly think that she makes a terrible main character on paper, and as the later volumes have proven, a horrific one in practice. Letting her be her own character with her own likes, dislikes, and goals—there's something workable. I tried my best to show that off, though there were indeed bigger fish to fry. All I can promise you is that there will be more of a focus on Ruby in JADA.

I used to think I was the only one who thought that she wasn't main character material, but if the reviews and private conversations are anything to go on, I'm not alone. I was glad to see how many people reacted positively to the small but important changes to her character. Like Jaune and Pyrrha, I went back to the source and took an obvious path. While not a diamond, she will shine brightly in the days to come.

Q: Is Raven supposed to be dead? How is she working for Salem?

A: So this ruffled more feathers than I was expecting. Yes, as it's now been confirmed, Raven was assumed to be dead after disappearing two days after Yang's birth. I had left some hints that Raven was thought to be dead before her grand appearance, but I can admit that there may have not been enough. Sure, Qrow says it, but it was meant to sit a while, with Raven and Adam's scene occurring the following chapter. Nevertheless, I should have made it clearer.

As I've explained before, I never knew about what exactly was going on with Raven until recently. I assumed back in the day that Raven was thought to be dead, and it was a surprise that she wasn't. I kept going with that belief for a good long while, and I've built a story on it. When I learned the truth of the matter from Ravell Aqim's story, Fallen Maiden, I laughed my ass off. All I could see was the stupidity that CRWBY had created, the plot holes, the pitiful attempts at character depth, and once again failing to portray heroes as virtuous and villains as selfish. I might as well say it plainly here and now: Raven in the show is right, but she's a coward.

That being said, nothing from the show is being used in regards to Raven, Qrow, Tai, Yang, and the Branwens in DDCT, or just about any story going forward. The rest speaks for itself, as it's been covered in the story.

And as to how and why she's working for Salem. The Branwens are a powerful tool for evil in the world, so Salem would have a need for them. As to how this came about...you'll have to wait and see.

Q: Why does Angus (Jaune's father) hate Jaune so much?

A: Even after I had Lawrence and Octavia inform the others that Angus only wants the best for Jaune, I still had people asking me why Angus hates him. There are even people who think Jaune's been disowned, despite the fact I never stated such a thing.

To put it simply, Jaune is experiencing what a lot of people go through: thinking that their parents hate them, and don't want to listen to their advice. He then gets into his own head thinking that he's a failure, and it lead him to try to do things on his own, with rather mixed results. As I've said before, he will need to speak to Angus to clear things up, but I can assure you that Angus does not hate his son.

Furthermore, I am very much tired of the "bad dad" trope in modern storytelling, which if you haven't noticed in DDCT, there are very few—or at least an alternative father figure is present if the actual father is bad. I admittedly wrote Angus as a much harsher man years ago, but as I refined his character, he became the kinder man he is now. So have no fear.

Q: Wait, you're calling Ozpin Sam? Does that mean that Ozma isn't part of the story? What does that mean for the overall story then?

A: While I was hoping that people would come to this conclusion more naturally, yes, Ozma is not part of the story.

But how, you must be asking. He is so vital to the story, so can it really happen without him? Yes, very easily. Don't forget that I dropped out at the end of V4, so I didn't learn of Ozma's existence until a few years later. In that time, I rewrote the story in my mind, making Sam a fully fledged character with his own past, personality, values, desires, flaws, and destiny.

Since so many of you were very happy with how my version of Ozpin turned out, I don't think you'll mind in the long run.

As to who was speaking through him before Cinder's death...JADA.

Q: So what happened exactly to King Alexandre and the other monarchies? They seem really popular, so how did the Councils come about?

A: King Alexandre and his sons were killed in battle during the Great War, leaving no heir to the throne. Queen Aliénor also died under strange circumstances not long after her husband and sons. With no heir or family strong enough to fill the power vacuum, and being the last living monarchy in the world, it was decided to expand the election process from Mayors and other positions to the same Council system as Mistral.

It was because of this sudden loss of King, Queen, and Princes, that bolstered the dislike of the Council, as well as prolonged loyalty to the House of Vale. They were the longest ruling monarchical House, hence why the Kingdom bears their name, though there is debate as to when the Vale family gained said name.

Regardless, there are many in Vale that are still unhappy that this new Council did not do a thorough enough investigation in the death of the Queen. People die in war, despite as invincible King Alexandre seemed, but how could Queen Aliénor die in her own castle? No Kingdom claimed responsibility, and to this day is a mystery. Some still accuse the Council at that time for just taking advantage of a national tragedy to take power, and they rushed whatever investigation that took place to install the new government. The original Council claim they were trying to stabilize a grieving and vulnerable Kingdom, and did what they did for the greater good of Vale. In any event, this sowed the seeds of distrust, and even today there are people who yearn for the return of the king.

As for the other monarchies, each have their own stories that I'm fine-tuning, though Vacuo was the outlier, as they had three Kings.

Q: When will Jaune awaken Majesty? What's blocking it?

A: This is a question that gets asked even in my full rewrite. Even my OC who leads Team RWBY and JNPR, was at the end of his rope, having no idea how to help Jaune. He's forced to use drastic measures, and while it does work, Pyrrha gets very angry at him for it.

So when will it happen for Jaune here? Given that the circumstances have changed, I see him awakening Majesty in a more natural way. I'm undecided if that will happen in the sequel to DDCT or not, but I will have an answer by the time I start writing it.

As to what is blocking it—Jaune's nature for the most part. He has years of self-doubt to overcome, and he needs to fully come into his own—which he will.

Q: How come you didn't ship Yang with anyone? What about an OC?

A: So I knew that people were going to ask this before I even started writing this story—the same goes for Ruby. If I didn't support Wasp, Lancaster, or Dragonslayer, or any of the other creepy ships like Enabler (YangxRuby), Twin Suns (YangxTai), Summer Sun Harvest (YangxOscar), Disabler (YangxMercury), or Xiaodipus (YangxRaven), who will she be with?

Ever since I started watching the show, I never shipped Yang with anyone. Unlike most people, I look to see who the character is interested in before supporting a ship. I supported Arkos because Pyrrha liked Jaune and she's a much better match for him than Weiss. I supported Boop the nanosecond Nora tapped Ren's nose. I supported BlackSun when I realized that Blake returned Sun's feelings (despite what CRWBY and the cultists say). I supported Iceberg as a counter to White Knight, but then gave it the love you saw in DDCT and BICO. I supported RoseGarden on paper, but then turned it into Guns & Roses in my rewrite. I even support Thief and Butcher (MercuryxEmerald—that's not a great name, is it? I always called them Black Gems), as they reluctantly fall in love in my rewrite; they fuck to finally get rid of the sexual tension, but realize there's more between them. And yet, nothing for Yang. She never showed interest in anyone (the same case for Ruby until Oscar turned up), so I never saw the need to ship her with anyone. I just expected that some guy would turn up sooner or later, as she had every right to be happy too.

Some of you asked if I would go with Forest Fire (YangxSage). Of course I addressed it that Yang didn't feel any sparks between them, but it took a while before that conversation came around. That being said, since I went through so much effort rewriting Neptune, why not do the same for Sage to make him a better match for Yang? Is it bad to admit that I really don't care about Sage? While there is so much to work with with Sun and Neptune, Sage and Scarlet aren't even in the same league, sadly.

With that said, you guys started asking about an OC; and since I don't see any previously introduced character being a good match for Yang, then an OC was the only option. And you're totally right.

There are two OCs for Yang depending on the situation. What I mean by that is I have one OC for a full rewrite, and one OC if we keep what's been written and just try to build off of it. The former is a character with history with Yang's family, and because of that, they hate each other until Yang does a bit of growing up and realizes that he was just trying to help her. It takes them a long time to get together, never willing to admit that they have feelings for one another, even though Blake and Sun start getting suspicious. They of course get together properly by the end and get married.

As for the other OC, he is a character they meet on their journey, and ends up being a mirror to Yang, going through what she did. It's there she sees how selfishly she acted after losing her arm and insulting her father, and they leave on bad terms. It's only later that they meet again and make up, to which he revealed he spoke to Tai and asked for permission to date her before regrouping. Only the latter OC can work in the DDCT-verse, as the former can't without the back-story. I've thought of how this latter OC can turn up in Vale, but that will take time.

The plan was to tease Yang with how bad her luck is, first not finding a guy during the school year, and then finding no one during the tournament. Originally she was going to fight Ivoire in the Singles bracket, and after "beating" him, she hopes that he doesn't have any hard feelings since she thinks he's hot. I cut that fight, but I still gave a hint to her attraction to him at the karaoke bar.

I hope the running gag that Yang is single didn't come across as hate towards her. While I do hate her in the show, she was once my favourite character, so I've done my best to return her to her old self and guide her towards the person I believe she would become. The teasing will get worse for obvious reasons, however, I have every intention to give Yang a chance at happiness as well. I could go into more detail here, but it would spoil too much.

Again, my apologies for no Yang ships *bows*

Q: Isn't Team SSSN from Haven? Sun's the only one from Vacuo.

A: This is hands down the number one question I get, and I also fully expected it to be asked. The problem is that the story explains it rather clearly, along with if you know the "canon" lore. And yet people kept asking. So, I replied with, "Read chapters VI and VII. They will explain everything, but if it doesn't make sense, let me know and I'll explain it further". And then I never hear from these people again.

So let's just go through it, shall we?

I had originally understood that Team SSSN were from Shade Academy of Vacuo. I had heard that Sun was from Vacuo, and it made sense that X characters are students of the schools of their native Kingdoms—plus I thought it explained why Neptune couldn't swim given he came from a desert Kingdom. Pyrrha and Weiss are the outliers of course (they have legitimate reasons, though I did a much better job), but doing it this way helps with the world-building—and it's the Vytal Festival. Having characters just go wherever they want, ruins the point of having separate Kingdoms with past history coming together and working together. It's why I had Jaune and Weiss talking about the lack of loyalty to their homelands; I'm commenting on how the whole "fighting to gain honour for their Kingdoms" comment by Port during the tournament has no meaning as no one seems to care about their home Kingdoms. It also makes the world seem smaller than it is.

But here is where the real issues come to light. When I realized that SSSN where from Haven, the Cinder plot breaks entirely and shows all the flaws of the show. If SSSN are from Haven, that means they went to Sanctum and graduated with Pyrrha...so why don't they act like they know each other? There is nothing to indicate that Neptune, Sage, Scarlet, and Pyrrha know one another in the show, nor do they have any interactions that allude to it. This plot-hole gets significantly worse as time has gone on, as CRWBY have retconned it that Neptune is from Argus. So not only did he go to Sanctum with Pyrrha, they grew up in the same town together—probably went to the same grade school before Sanctum too. So why didn't they act like it? Because not a bloody thing was thought through, and the retcons are only making things worse, though CRWBY know they will not be held accountable for them.

And that brings us back to Cinder. Cinder and her team are meant to be from Haven. Why doesn't Pyrrha talk to them as a fellow Mistralese? Why doesn't she ask them why she never saw them back home during her days at Sanctum? Why doesn't she ask Team SSSN about them since they're supposedly Mistralese as well? This is why I had Pyrrha ask these questions in DDCT and figure out the truth. This is also why I disagree with people—including critics like HeroHei and Adel Aka—and stress that Cinder was never a smart character. I'm very critical of the stupidity of the inner circle and the heroes, but that doesn't mean that the villains are clever—they're also dumb as a bag of hammers, only slightly less so than the "heroes".

Just compare her to Roman—that strangles the baby in the crib right there!

Does it now make sense why I made the changes? How CRWBY (and Monty unfortunately) went about it makes the characters stupid, the story stupid, ruins the world-building, and ruins V3—not that it needed help.

At least with this change it fixes the plot holes and gives Team SSSN more to work with, as well as match their theme. Sun and Neptune growing up together and leaving near the sea, Neptune being the son of a fisherman, Sage's clock design to play off "the sands of time", and Scarlet's Peter Pan inspiration. I admit I might be reaching, but at least everyone seems to like how I handled Sun and Neptune, which is what matters most.

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And now for the more combative questions. I know you've all been very supportive of my work, which I'm incredibly grateful for, and you've told me not to pay attention to haters. While I've never allowed the negativity to reach my heart, I did use it as if it were a scientific experiment; dissecting the commentary and compartmentalizing the elements, seeing which repeat the most, and what their point of origin is. It's very fascinating (and quite disturbing) but I can say with confidence that it only affirms my beliefs, and makes want to double my efforts.

And with that, let's explore:

Q: Do you seriously think that you know more about RWBY than CRWBY do?

A: Yes I do, but that isn't saying much as many people know RWBY better than the current writers, who keep retconning core elements with great rapidity—try asking each writer the same question, for you'll get different answers from each of them. I honestly can't possibly know what Monty's full plans were for his series, but I can point out, objectively, that the characters (and Remnant) are nothing like they were. And the lack of explanation (or valid ones) to said changes, destroys the verisimilitude. I returned to the core of the characters and built them in the way everyone expected.

Are there things I changed that go against Monty's groundwork in the first two volumes? Yes I did—because they are fundamentally flawed.

Furthermore, if you think it's arrogant of me to say that I know more than CRWBY, just listen to them admit it in their own words. Listen to how they are unable to answer basic world-building questions. Listen to the commentaries where they cover how they wrote each volume; they're even dumber that D & D from Game of Thrones, admitting how much they have to scramble to come up with a story for the volume, how they want things to happen and have no justifications for them, how much is copied from other series, and how little the rules matter. At least D & D tried to come up with explanations for their bullshit—and had the self-awareness to stop releasing those behind the episode videos when critics on YouTube used them to validate how bad the show was.

RWBY fanatics keep telling me CRWBY know what they're doing and everything's been planned, despite what the writers say. It's sad, really. My author's notes are better than that at least.

Q: Do you seriously think you know Monty's vision better than his friends?

A: To a certain extent. There are major departures from what Monty established in the first two volumes. These departures have made the show unrecognizable, genuinely feeling like it is an entirely different show; the fact that they had to include a trigger warning card towards the end of V3, signaled that things were fundamentally changing, and it was going to be abrupt. The Newville letter confirms well enough how much things had changed, and how the future was now shrouded in darkness, as Monty's vision no longer mattered.

That being said, I have been very clear that Monty was not guiltless in the failure of RWBY. 20% of the blame falls on his shoulders, as his lack of foresight and planning resulted in the inevitable collapse of his story. It is very evident to me that Monty was an animator rather than a storyteller, able to choreograph cool fights and had interesting ideas, but unable to see where the road went. He was very much akin to George Lucas, who had great ideas but clearly needed a Gary Kurtz to keep him in line and refine his ideas. Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross were not Gary Kurtz, nor was his then wife, Sheena, or even Shane Newville. The only difference was that instead of getting a Prequel trilogy, which had great ideas poorly executed, we got the Disney Sequel Trilogy, something that destroyed George's original vision, ignored his notes and warnings from those who knew better, insulted the fans, is considered not canon to the majority of the fanbase, killed the franchise, and cemented permanent mistrust between the company and the customers.

Lastly, from what I can gather, I don't think Monty himself knew where the story was going. He didn't have enough time to plan this out, and that was before his premature death. Since the entirety of V3 was such a departure from the first two volumes, it's clear to me that not enough was shared with Luna and Shawcross, and the constant interference from the higher ups, confirmed that RWBY was doomed to fail.

So while I may not know the vision Monty had for RWBY, I can certainly see the flaws from the get-go, as well as how far the show has strayed. At least I remembered that Dust doesn't work outside of Remnant's atmosphere.

Q: Do you have any idea how entitled you are? Just because you didn't get what you wanted? Grow up.

A: This one I hear a lot, even before I started writing this story. I guess that yes, I'm not happy that I didn't get what I wanted, but that's because what I wanted made sense, whereas what we got was in an insult to Monty, the show, the fans, and my intelligence.

What I would like to know, is how is my decision to quit watching the show, write this fan-fic, or simply disagree on reddit, me being entitled and immature, but you screaming death threats on Twitter to the writers for "queer-baiting" is a-OK? Because you're a "real fan", gotcha.

What I've heard way before 2019, for everything from Star Wars to Star Trek to Doctor Who to Marvel Comics and others, is that I and people like me are "entitled"; that we aren't entitled to getting what we want and that the creators owe us nothing. Well, here's my question for you: are creators entitled to my enjoyment? Allow me to remind everyone how this works: creators/companies make products, and if we, the customers, like the product, we buy it. When the creators/companies start making a bad product, and choose to blame the customers rather than themselves, we, the customers, have the full right to close our wallets and walk away. This is the unwritten bargain for all mediums (film, television, comics, Manga, Anime, video games, sports franchises, politics, streaming services, ISPs, firearms, lawnmowers, etc), though many new fans, as well as young and old creators/companies, are unaware.

Nothing screams "fake fan" when someone cannot comprehend why someone cares so much about something like a book, game, or TV series. When someone asks, word for word or any variation of the question, "Why do you care so much?", you know they are not a geek or a fan. This is how we've been since the beginning—and that's not with Doctor Who or Star Trek. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes, over twenty thousand Londoners marched through the streets dressed in black in mourning, and bugged him for eight years (with letters and fan-fiction) until he retconned Holmes' death. If it doesn't make sense to you, then don't ask, or at least answer our question, "Why does it matter to you?".

Just to add insult to injury, nothing encompasses the consumer and fake-fan mentality that you don't care what the product is or its quality, so long as it has the logo or brand. There is a reason we call RWBY fans cultists.

And since I've already committed heresy by speaking the names of two heretics, allow me to quote a third—the dreaded Long Man himself, MauLer:

"When they subvert me and say that it turns out it wasn't anything, that can be pretty disappointing and frustrating. You took my investment and laughed at me for having it. You laughed at me for caring about a story you were telling. You can't take all of these elements, be aware of what everyone is excited for, and turn it into a brown shallow sludge, throw it in people's faces and laugh at them—claiming that it is great because it subverted your expectations by doing nothing innovative whatsoever."

Whether you like MauLer or not, and I have my disagreements with him, I wholeheartedly agree that subverting expectations just for the sake of it does not equate to good writing. You can't punish your audience for paying attention and caring about the story, not can you be angry at them for keeping you accountable, or even walking away if they no longer see any value in staying.

And finally, I don't get how RWBY cultists can tell us off for not liking were the story went, and also lose their minds when QrowxClover didn't happen and attack CRWBY on Twitter. Never mind, I can: you have no standards.

Q: You do realize that V1 and V2 were flawed too, right?

A: Yes—when have I ever claimed otherwise? Throughout the posting of DDCT, I've lamented in the author's notes, if not in the story itself, that there are problems I can't fix unless I start from the beginning (Blake, religion, and Team SSSN's Kingdom of origin come screaming to mind). I've also said multiple times that 20% of RWBY's problems are on Monty's head—the difference between his mistakes and CRWBY's is that his come from putting the cart before the horse, whereas CRWBY's are from incompetence, political ideology, and disdain for the genre.

The great characters made up for the plot-holes and lack of world-building, and V3 onwards took away what good remained. I don't worship at Monty's grave, saying that he was flawless and could do no wrong. There was simply better bedrock with what Monty controlled than his poor stewards, though I firmly believe that the long defeat was in play even if he was still with us.

Q: Why do you go into so much detail about everything? It's so long! Why put so much effort?

A: There are several ways to answer this question. Firstly I should say that not all who asked this were angry with me. Some were genuinely curious, so what I say next is not at all aimed at you (those whom I spoke to directly already know that, of course). The not so kind folk on the other hand: how unoriginal of a complaint.

It's an understandable issue for fan-fic readers, as fan-fiction is a very unique form of storytelling, for every piece that is written is already known by the readers. An author doesn't have to describe characters or locations, for all that is needed is to say the name, and we know who and what they are talking about. For those of us that want to become writers, this is not acceptable, and a habit that needs to be broken fast.

The problem with the written medium is that the author has to do a lot more work in order to bring his or her vision to life; not only to make it fully realized, but to get the readers to see what they see. Of course that isn't objectively possible, but there are certainly those who are better than others. Any author worth their salt knows exactly what their characters and world look like, and will take care to make sure you can see it too. I treated DDCT as if it were a proper novel, writing it from cover to cover, writing several drafts, and constantly editing it with the help of two friends before its completion online. If I didn't feel pressure to start releasing it before V8, I would have waited longer before posting. Either do it right or not at all.

Then there is the nature of OCs. You would think that writers here and elsewhere would want their OCs to be fully described for us readers. To my shock, it's a mixed bag, which only gave me more incentive to get into the most minute of details for all of you to visualize my characters. It was my OCs that prompted this question to be included, as I had several people asking what was the point of going into such detail for OCs that wouldn't play reoccurring roles. I'm sorry to say that I can't give you a better answer than, "That's the only way to do it". I couldn't imagine doing it with less detail, and even remarked in a couple reviews of other fics I've read this year on the lack of descriptions.

The same goes for locations. Many writers just want you to fill in the blanks if they mention where the scene is taking place. Again, that is a habit I can't allow to situate itself, so I went the extra mile to look up maps of Beacon and Vale, as well as made my own to make sure the world-building was solid and consistent. Don't forget, we go to many new locations, so I have to describe them in detail.

You know what's particularly funny about this? I've been reading nothing but older stories recently—as early as 1820 and as late as 1955—and going into great detail to describe characters and settings was the standard. From America, to England, to Ireland, to Scotland, to France, whether it be a short story, a novella, or a full-blown novel, these authors all took the time to describe their characters from head to toe, and the worlds they inhabit from the heavens to the soil. How far we have strayed from the path of quality for the arts, all for quick and cheap thrills.

So what I'm saying here is that, if you're criticizing the length of my story(s), try to be more specific, because that alone isn't really an argument, and it's not something that I can sympathize with. And besides, you have to consider girth ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).

In the end, questions like these come from a place of impatience, which is not a shock given this is fan-fiction. Furthermore, this is a rewrite, so I have no choice but to explain in great detail all the things I changed. I'm honestly shocked I didn't get more comments like this aimed at the couples and how long it took for them to happen.

Moreover, one of the major problems with RWBY is the pacing and the runtime. The original episodes are shockingly short, with story arcs that could have been a simple standalone episode, were instead divided into three parts. Instead of treating this TV show like a visual novel, with seasons being volumes and episodes being chapters, RWBY was, and has been, treated like a Mad Libs. It's just disjointed and not at all a single story being told over the course of years—each chapter and volume flowing into the next. Instead of taking the time to world-build, Remnant and her people felt vague and underdeveloped—and still do. If this doesn't scream that things were not thought through, planned, and cemented before production began, then I don't know what does. DDCT was completed before posting, and its flaws are due to me having to rush as I have very little time to work on it, as well as research for things I don't have enough knowledge on.

I'm just a fan-fic writer with a day job. What's CRWBY's excuse?

Q: Why do you have so much fluff in your story? Just get to the point!

A: That doesn't mean I didn't get any questions about that. The best way to answer this question is to divide it into definitions.

What is the definition of "fluff"? In the context of fan-fiction, fluff is romance, whereas the definition that I follow these days is, "entertainment or writing perceived as trivial or superficial".

I bring this up because the questions (as well as comments) I've received on this subject have been a mixture of both, so for the sake of brevity, we'll focus on the latter mixture.

What people have to bear in mind is that I am doing three volumes worth of character development and world-building and plot in one. Not only am I doing that, I've had to correct as many mistakes that Monty and CRWBY made as possible. Of course there was no way to fix it all, minus starting from V1Ch1, but I did my best. Because of this, every single line of narration and dialogue serve a crucial purpose. Everything from Weiss accepting Ruby as leader, to Weiss, Jaune, and Pyrrha reconciling over their love triangle, to how all the couples work, to the characters explaining their back-stories, weapons, abilities, fears, and desires, to how they become close friends, and so much more, all within a single story. None of this is fluff; it is vital.

As I've said before, I was waiting for people to complain how long I was taking for the characters to get together, but I instead got people excited at the change of pace in comparison to other fics. That being said...

As I said earlier, a lot of these kinds of comments come from impatience. I'm sure that this was the longest piece of content they've ever read on this website (as well as others) or even a published work. It truly baffles me that after the release of series such as Aubrey-Maturin (Master and Commander), The Wheel of Time, Sherlock Holmes, and Middle-Earth (The Lord of the Rings), that people would no longer groan at long form content. Most of you grew up reading Harry Potter and A Series of Unfortunate Events, will read Manga series that are hundreds of chapters long, and binge-watch whole seasons on Netflix. So why turn up your noses at long-form stories like DDCT? Then again, books like The Lord of the Rings and Moby Dick still scare people, as does the LotR film trilogy.

You would think people would be happy with long stories given the lockdowns and lack of good content these days, but alas.

Q: Why do you still ship Arkos when all Pyrrha was good for was motivating Jaune? The couple doesn't even work anyways. There's so much copium here it hurts.

A: Right. I've had to deal with people like this for a long time, and boy has that sentiment not aged well.

Let's start with the "copium" comment. Several people have labeled this whole story as copium, as if I've been shaking like a drug addict after quitting the show at the end of V4. On that front, no, this wasn't to cope with RWBY turning to trash. It died with Monty, and if I don't consider any of CRWBY's content as canon, just like what's happened with Star Wars, Doctor Who, Tremors, Ghostbusters, James Bond, and other series I love, then this isn't copium—I'm annoyed at best at this point with every new volume, for I'm mostly apathetic.

In that same vein, this isn't copium for Pyrrha's death. I've been very clear that one of the points behind this story was to prove just how badly CRWBY fucked up by killing her—especially the way that they did. And before anyone says "Monty planned it", we'll get to that soon enough. Once again, I don't have to take copium because apathy has set in, and nothing shocks me anymore—slight surprise at best that the floor can be lowered still.

That being said, let's touch on Pyrrha's death. The claim that Pyrrha's death was to motivate and change Jaune doesn't hold any validity at this point, for he doesn't even act as if Pyrrha's death affects him most of the time. Then there's the confirmation that there is an afterlife, so the need to let Pyrrha's soul rest in peace by avenging her should be a major motivation. Furthermore, Jaune has remained stagnant as a character with a Semblance that makes him nothing more than a walking battery; he hasn't become a better warrior or leader, and the idea of him getting revenge against Cinder isn't even on the table. It really doesn't make sense since Ruby saw Pyrrha die, not Jaune, so that dog won't hunt, not to mention that CRWBY changed Monty's plan from it being Jaune to go after Pyrrha.

This finally brings us to the claim that Monty planned for this. I've read the Newville letter. I can believe that it was an idea in Monty's head (despite claiming no one would die until V8). I've also watched V1 and 2 three times back-to-back, and the setup for Pyrrha's death is diddly squat. I set things up for Pyrrha to be willing to fight and die for a holy cause like the Maidens, not CRWBY or Monty, especially given that the Maidens were a last-minute decision for V3, and they couldn't decide whether to scrap the idea for the artifacts, or toss out the artifacts for the Maidens. They kept both, and here we are with the mess we got.

Five years is a long time to think on the matter, so I can say with confidence that even if it was properly set up, Pyrrha is too good of a character to let die, and that would show in the long run. Case in point is Ironwood. While I hate that they made him a villain, they gave him a terrible Semblance to make him weak enough to defeat, when his Semblance should have been metal related. They obviously couldn't do that because he'd be too strong, and Pyrrha—or Jaune with a Magnetism Semblance—would have been a perfect counter—if the rank of Huntmaster truly means nothing. Given how little Pyrrha matters to the plot and the other characters, despite her murderer being a main villain, I do not believe for a second this was planned further than, "Wouldn't it be cool if?".

That brings us finally to the sentiment that Pyrrha and Jaune could never have had a good relationship, plus because Pyrrha's story ends with her death. How is that not copium? I've been hearing that nonsense since the end of V3, when the first mass exodus for RWBY began. It's hard to tell where this crap started, as White Knight, Dragonslayer, and Lancaster fans have their own reasons, though I could not and cannot, for the life of me, understand Arkos fans subscribing to that idiocy. To avoid a longwinded theory-crafting session, let's get to brass tacks. The claim that the ship is over when they get together, for it has nowhere to go, and that Pyrrha must die in order for Jaune to grow as a character, is pure fucking insanity.

Let's start with that the ship has nowhere to go, and is boring without the drama. They are seventeen years old, so they have their entire lives a head of them. They are on the same team, so they have a working relationship as well as a romantic one. They can get married after completing their training. They can have children—in fact, some of us believe the very point of marriage is to have children. Did you never sing the KISSING nursery rhyme as children? "First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage". If not that, then maybe the Frank Sinatra song, "Love and Marriage"?; "Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage. Dad was told by mother you can't have one. You can't have none. You can't have one without the other".

The fact that I have to sing nursery rhymes to make my point means that I'm dealing with children—or aliens, since these are basic human concepts for the past three thousand years. Gods help us all.

This idea that the ship is now boring because there is no longer any drama, speaks far more to the immaturity and immorality of critics with such takes, than it does about the characters. It also shows the lack of imagination, which is shared with many people these days, though I blame bad rom-com Manga for this—plus bad parenting. I have a feeling these people loved what happened to Ren and Nora as well...sick bastards. Is a healthy relationship really out of the question these days? I know RT is filled with weirdoes, but their fans as well? Well, these are the same people who want Pyrrha to die so Jaune can "grow" and Wasp to be canon, so I'm not surprised.

And that is the other issue. Jaune's growth was because of Pyrrha training him. Why can't she, now being his girlfriend, be his motivation to improve? Gee, that's almost the bloody point of this fan-fic. No wonder you people adore this show so much, given that you don't like to think on it past the surface, which explains why you were so glad to leave the school setting behind. Funny how none of you complained about Harry Potter taking place at Hogwarts 90% of the time.

What it all boils down to once again, is the small attention span of my generation and the ones beneath mine. People want things to be fast and dramatic, full of flash and thunder, or else they lose interest and go watch something else. I also can't let go at the comments that Arkos has nowhere to go, not only for what I said before, but the lack of understanding of what these characters could become. I lost track with how many people said, "Wow, this works really well for Jaune/Pyrrha. Makes total sense. Why didn't this happen in the show?". Cuz RWBY is as wide as an ocean and as deep as a puddle.

I'll finish this on the overall sentiment of the use of the word "copium". The intention from people who use the word, insinuating that this is my coping mechanism with how things turned out, to make it all OK since I can't handle not getting what I want.

This is hilarious. DDCT is not a pacifier to get me through the day. DDCT, as well as any other stories I write in the RWBY universe, do not make me think any better of RT, CRWBY, or the show. My fan-canon does not repair or uplift the terrible canon. My work doesn't change the reality that RWBY died with Monty, and that the foundational problems of his story are his own fault. I've seen enough of this coping through fan-fiction with the Naruto cultists, where their arguments about Naruto's superiority comes from fan-fiction; there was a reason why so many Naruto fans were so mad at me for my cross-over, and that was that I used canon and rules taken from the wiki sourced from the Manga itself and not what fans thought the canon was. So DDCT isn't my way of coping with the reality that RWBY sucks, but rather a direct admittance of that fact. It's indeed a love-letter, but with tough-love mixed in.

If claiming it's copium is what you need to get through the day, have at it.

Q: Who cares about Jaune and Team JNPR? Their names aren't in the title, so they don't get anything more than what they get in the show. How the fuck is Jaune the main character? He doesn't even deserve to be at Beacon.

A: Ho boy. How do we approach this one?

The hatred towards Jaune is rather fascinating. I can't exactly pin down why the RWBY community hates him so much, as this goes all the way back to the beginning with disturbing rule34 cucking, but I have a couple of theories.

The first is that Jaune is a man, and since RWBY is considered a girls show to inspire girls with strong female characters (insert laugh track here), he's perceived as a threat.

That threat continues in the second theory that Jaune is the real main character—or could have been. He's a tall, blond, blue-eyed knight; that's standard fair for the fairytale hero, isn't it? Furthermore, given he's less than skilled with the sword, he's set up perfectly for the underdog story where he then rises to become the hero the world needs. And then you have his quest for revenge for the murder of the woman he loved. His story is more compelling than Ruby's, and fans like myself were far more invested in the avenging of Pyrrha than the war against Salem. RWBY cultists are dumb, but they aren't so dumb to not recognize a threat when they see it. This here is also why I suspect why CRWBY keep Jaune from growing as a character.

And then there is this idea that Jaune doesn't deserve to be at Beacon because he lied to get in; that he stole the spot from a more deserving student. While I did cover this in the story itself, and is quite funny a statement given the small number of Huntsmen in the show as it is, let's counter this claim by forcing it to maintain its standards. Jaune indeed lied to get into Beacon, thus a spot for a student that graduated from either Signal or Pharos was presumably lost. So what about Ruby? She didn't graduate with her year, meaning she too took a slot from Yang's graduating year. What about Pyrrha and Weiss? They're foreigners who could have stayed in their home Kingdoms, but instead decided to study abroad, taking two spots for Valian students. What about Ren, Nora, and Blake? They also forged their transcripts, and according to the show, all three of them are foreigners too—so that makes three more spots taken from Valian graduates. So if we stick to this standard, it means that the only character that has any right to be at Beacon is Yang. Why do I have the feeling people will abandon this argument real quick?

While we've covered why we care about Team JNPR—more relatable as characters, their romance, the traditional archetypes, and the quest to avenge Pyrrha's murder—let's go after the "they aren't in the show title" argument.

So because Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren and Nora aren't in the title RWBY, they don't matter? Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Boromir, Gandalf, Gimli, and Legolas aren't in the title The Lord of the Rings, as that's the title of the enemy, Sauron, and yet their stories are told. Ron and Hermione aren't included with Harry in Harry Potter, and yet they are heavily involved in the books. Jonathan, Mina, Lucy, Dr. Seward, Arthur, Quincy, and Abraham Van Helsing aren't included in the title Dracula, despite being the main characters.

I hope you can understand my point, as the idea that if a character is not in the title, they don't matter, is beyond asinine. As hyperbolic as this next statement is, I really wonder if RWBY cultists, or Gen Y and Z for that matter, have read books or seen good movies. The basic formulas of heroes and villains, the three-act structure, world-building, pacing, the qualities of a hero, the Hero's Journey, all of these and more seem completely foreign to people—that, or they have disdain for them, so they go out of their way to shame them, or subvert them if they're in the writing/directing chair.

And the further we walk away from the classics and tradition storytelling, the more we long for it.

And finally, to cut people off at the pass that are baffled at the statement that I care more about JNPR than I do about RWBY and the Salem story, yes, I meant that. Every word of it. Team JNPR were/are more compelling as characters, more likeable as characters, and their story to avenge Pyrrha has more weight than the Maidens/Salem story. When your main characters suck and are unlikeable, when Ozma is impossible to trust, when every ally is either an idiot or turned into one, along with inexplicably becoming a traitor, and everything can and will be retconned, if you have two brain cells to rub together, you cannot be bothered to care.

To avenge the murder of one of the few good, kind, caring, and innocent people in RWBY, put me in, coach.

Q: Why don't you just write your own story since you retconned so much?

A: I...what? Yo-You do realize this is FanFiction-net/ArchiveofourOwn-com, right? The entire point of these websites is to write our own fiction of established properties. Are you seriously asking me this question?

So to humour this if but a little, putting aside the fact that this comment has been leveled at all fan-fic writers since the start as a form of insult, DDCT was written to play within the framework of RWBY in order to improve it. The point was to show how much potential this property had, as well as the insane amount of errors it has and continues to accumulate. Everything I have written wasn't some wholly original lore, but simply building up from the pre-established bedrock towards what I and others expected.

This is something that modern writers that have been given the reins of series (Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, etc) have no ability to do. There is no respect for the world and the source material, retconning at will in order to write the stories they want to tell. This results in some form of political allegory and preaching, all for the purpose of insulting the audience—fans of the original property specifically. Why do they do this? One, they can't create anything themselves, so they have to ride popular properties to survive, and two, they want to destroy the past.

Unfortunately this is how the vast majority of fan-fiction is written; people twisting the fiction to tell their own stories without any regard for the source material. Sometimes it can be fun to see characters in a different world, though most of the time it's nothing more than senseless shipping, resulting in characters achieving nothing like their canon counterparts.

So I say it back to you, why don't you write your own story? I can separate fan-fiction meant as a rewrite to show what could have been, fan-fiction that tells a new story in the world it originates from without breaking the rules, alternative universe stories, an original story using characters of other series, and garbage that doesn't care. Funny enough, I did start writing a fan-fic with a (somewhat) original story using characters that were not my own, and boy am I glad I abandoned it, because I would start it all over if I still cared XD.

And here's another thing. Telling me to write my own story is hilarious enough given we're dealing with fan-fiction. However, I, as do many others, see current RWBY as fan-fiction, as Monty has (obviously) no involvement with the show anymore. The writers have been telling their own story rather than what was previously established, retconning everything and anything at will, where we now find ourselves with Miles no longer as head writer, but a newcomer taking charge. And to top it all off, RWBY, in and of itself, is fan-fiction. RWBY is a fan-fiction story with characters taken from fairytales, classic literature, folklore, and religion. That's not an original concept on its own, with famous examples being Fables by Bill Willingham, the Once Upon a Time TV series, and Shrek by DreamWorks.

If you must know, I do have my own original stories, and because of working on DDCT, I've regained my love for writing and have begun making treatments for them—two standalone novels and two fantasy series, actually! I'm one of those weirdoes that actually use FF as practice for writing.

And before any of you call me a hypocrite, I must say that your comment that the changes I made are so extensive that I should have just written my own story, are an exaggeration—tremendously so. Have I changed things? Certainly, but you can still tell what everything is. This isn't some AU world (only in technicality), this isn't me jamming the RWBY characters into another series, the genre didn't change, and I didn't turn the characters into polar opposites of themselves. In fact, I reinforced what made RWBY RWBY. The Huntsmen have more importance and history in the world, the schools have more going on with their own forges and armouries, the Faunus have more grounding, the Atlassian military is a formidable force, the heroes are formidable, the villains are formidable, the Maidens are more valuable and important, etc, etc. Even in my full rewrite, I didn't wholly abandon the story and world and change it beyond recognition, only making changes that made more sense of the world and how it functions.

That's more than I can say for what CRWBY did.

Q: Why did you get rid of Saphron? You did it because you're a homophobe, isn't it?!

A: I had a feeling that this sentiment would arise, given I planned on going into Jaune's family and familial issues. And while it was far less of an issue than I feared, there were still some adamant buggers in my PMs that wanted answers. Since they didn't like my answers, I might as well share them with you.

As I've said before, I stopped watching RWBY at the end of V4. That means that I never saw the introduction of Saphron. What I did do in the time between sitting down and watching the show, and learning of Saphron's existence (4-5~ years), was think of an explanation for Jaune's family situation. It was here that I made it that he comes from a military family with an ancestry of Knighthood, that his father is an officer, and since Jaune is the only son of eight children, he thinks his father is disappointed in him. To further that feeling, Jaune's eldest sister married an officer, giving Jaune a template of what kind of son his father wanted, and how he failed in comparison. Since he failed to awaken his family Semblance and make it into the army, he left home to do something with his life to maybe win his father's approval.

I thought that all of this fit rather well, and made Jaune a more relatable, or at the very least, a more understandable character. As you saw in DDCT, this new back-story helped him with Pyrrha, as well as connect with Weiss. Thankfully, the vast majority of you thought so as well.

Some were not so understanding, however. I was called a homophobe for getting rid of Saphron, Terra, and Adrian, and replacing them with Bridget, Bruce, and Jacob, as there could be no possible reason for doing so otherwise. Of course, when I did give my explanation, that I thought of this years ago before ever learning of Saphron, and that the cast meeting her did nothing to help the story and was just a virtue signal, I either got no answer or that "it revealed something even more sinister" about me.

So here is the explanation as to why Saphron sucks and meeting her was detrimental. We've had questions about Jaune's family situation since he kept mentioning that they don't care about him. And since out of plot convenience one of his family members is in Mistral, it would be a good time to learn the truth. That never happened. We never got a better understanding of Jaune's family issues, other than he was bullied by them and was feminized. Even worse, Jaune and Saphron didn't even act like family, with Saphron offering not an ounce of comfort to Jaune, despite the fact that his teammate/friend/girlfriend was killed. The fact that anything of importance to develop Jaune's character—why he left home, explain whether or not his family truly hate him, condolences for Pyrrha's death—was never on the table, leaves me to the only viable conclusion that it was solely done to show how virtuous CRWBY were for having a married lesbian couple with a kid in the show. The convoluted plan implemented to move the plot and justify their existence only made things worse, as not only was the plan a poor one, but it put their child in danger.

In storytelling, everything must happen for a reason with clear consequences to the story and characters—for better and for worse. I came up with my own story for Jaune, and it was a much happier and relatable one. And since I went through all the trouble of not only naming his parents and sisters, but his entire immediate family, I clearly care more than CRWBY. But no, let's just chalk it up to me hating the gays, eh?

This is just one in a series of typical ad hominem attacks, trying to attribute more sinister motives to my work. I don't blame these people, as they look at everything through dirty lenses in order to see ghosts, not to mention fill series they control with their politics. I've been called a racist and no different than Adam, despite chapter XVIII blowing that apart thoroughly. I've been called a sexist for claiming Jaune would be a better main character than Ruby, that I can't handle a "strong, independent, female main character", despite my bitter criticism of the horrible treatment of Pyrrha, Nora, Yang, Weiss, Raven, Winter, Penny, and yes, even Ruby.

Don't misunderstand my tone as resentment. These are all feathers to add to my hat, and I look forward to add transphobe and Islamaphobe soon enough, though I very much doubt I'll earn them.

This has been a great warm-up for what I'll be getting from Project JADA.

Q: How could you kill one of, if not the, major villain of the series like that? How could you write Cinder being so stupid? Just...why?

A: Because she's always been stupid.

Just as I had to throw cold water onto people regarding Qrow—that as bad as he is now, he wasn't much better from the get-go—I did the same for Cinder. A fair number of people—including major RWBY critics—lament that Cinder used to be smart but is now an idiot. She was never smart. Just as the heroes were beyond stupid, so much so that CRWBY themselves mocked it in RWBY Chibi, so too were the villains.

From the get-go, Cinder was a terrible villain. Not only was she an idiot, but she wasn't even close to being threatening. It didn't help that her voice actress, Jessica Nigri, couldn't (and still can't) voice act to save her life. It always came across as the girl's version of how dudes talk shit to seem tougher than they are. Ever since then, she has shown to be incredibly terrible in combat, which only makes Pyrrha's death even more insulting and unearned. Having her being the main villain is hilarious, and it was only tolerated because we believed that Jaune would be Hell-bent on killing her. Since that will never happen, she deserves nothing. Why do you think I had it that the more experienced characters (Qrow, James, Adam, and Roman) thought that Cinder's plans were terrible? It makes them more credible as much as it critiques the poor writing with Cinder; belittling her is just a fun bi-product.

It's the undermining of Adam that bothered me more, as every moment required to show why he was a threat, only resulted in his humiliation, culminating in his death at the hands of two wounded and out of shape teenagers. Don't misunderstand me, I am not a fan of Adam in any way, but at least there was something to build on with him (until he was suddenly turned into the second-in-command instead of High-Leader).

Just because the writers have it that Cinder is the main villain, doesn't mean we, the audience, buy it. In the end, we got more competent and threatening villains, along with more Roman, so I'd say that was a more than fair trade.

Of course, there was a special reason why Cinder's fate was what it was...but you'll have to wait for JADA to learn what.

Q: Why do you have to go into so much detail with the fights and the weapons? It's not important to know all that!

A: The irony in that is amazing. So many RWBY cultists claim that what makes the show so good, are the fights. While that might have been true when Monty was still alive, that hasn't been true for seven volumes. Even then, that in and of itself is rather insulting; that the story of the show that you like so much and think is so important because of its "representation", doesn't really matter. How easy are you to please?

Getting back on topic, the original fighting choreography of RWBY was very impressive, showing off just how talented Monty was. While I'm fearful to re-examine those older fights and discover flaws, the fights of V3 were terrible, and have only gotten worse since. I've commented before that the tournament fights were filled with pointless comedy and dialogue, which only undermined the characters, as well as the story. This was without question done to compensate for the remaining animators lack of talent, as not only were the fights poor, but so were the weapons—also, note the lack of Semblances. If you take a look on the RWBY wiki, you can see the tournament brackets and how they make no sense. Miles has admitted that so much was cut and missing, which filled in the gaps in Newville's letter. Which is why I spent so much time trying to make sense of the Vytal Tournament, fixing the brackets, having athletes like Pyrrha comment on the problems, having characters we care about counter the stupidity with their skills, not undermining Weiss, Neptune, Sun, and others, and more. If you go back and watch V3, you'll see for yourself how bad it was.

Not only are cool fights great to see, they show the competence and flaws of characters. You can call Pyrrha a champion all you want, but if you don't show her fighting like one, it has no merit. It was why I had to properly train Jaune by going into detail on weapons, armour, and stances—where I also showed Jaune's progress. There's always been this assumption that Weiss is a "sword master", but she's never shown that. So I did: proper stance, proper form, used her abilities and gear tactically, and she fought like a Lady. Neptune got no respect in the show, so I had him fight as best he could while afraid of water, and then really pop off in his second fight. Lawrence and Octavia's fights were to show how good they were, but also how good Jaune will be once he awakens Majesty.

Every line served a purpose, and going into detail about how the fights worked, was to serve the story. I'm sorry I can't animate the fights myself, but you know I would if I could.

To hammer this point home, let's take a look at the scene where Yang attacks Olivier:

"Before anyone could stop her, Yang vaulted over the table and threw a punch right at the rapierist's face, hair ablaze. Before it connected, Olivier fired his sword from its scabbard, catching it with his right hand, and turned it clockwise so that the flat of the blade blocked the enraged Huntress-in-training's attack. Just as quickly as the punch was blocked, and just before Yang realized what happened, her vision was filled with the points of swords and the muzzles of pistols. During all of this, Olivier had not even flinched, nor had the attack moved him or his weapon. When Yang registered what had just occurred, she immediately felt a cold sweat forming on the back of her neck."

This was important for several reasons:

I) It shows just how strong a fully trained Huntsman is in comparison to a first-year, which continues with Olivier beating Pyrrha, showing just how good HE is.

II) It shows that for as strong as Yang is, she has a lot of room to grow.

III) It shows Olivier's control over his emotions.

IV) It shows Olivier's speed and reflexes.

V) It shows Yang realizing she bit off more than she could chew, and how much trouble she's in.

VI) It shows that being a Huntsman isn't for shits and giggles, and one has to take it seriously.

Do you see what I'm getting at? I didn't do this to gloat that I wrote a half million word long fan-fic. I did it because it required it.

And since I've already committed blasphemy by insulting the fights of RWBY, let's go all the way: I'm not a fan of transforming weapons anymore. I've already been questioning about how these weapons even work for a while, but after working on that chapter and the one about the military in my companion book, it's gotten SO much worse. I've written over 5600 words, with 2500 for Crescent Rose and Myrtenaster alone—and I haven't even finished Myrtenaster's review. I know too much about weapons to accept things as they are, which I've done my best to correct the mistakes made by Monty and CRWBY—and simple does not mean boring.

This goes beyond subjective feeling towards what's good and what isn't. There are objective flaws with weapons sure enough, but then there's the verisimilitude of certain weapons in the hands of certain characters.

I recently read a book called The Writer's Guide to Weapons by Benjamin Sobieck, and while I didn't learn anything new and disagreed with some of it, he did write two great chapters on matching weapons to characters—one for firearms and one for knives. He explains that the tools used by a character tell their own story, and must be then paired accordingly in order for the audience to believe what they are watching/reading. Firstly, you determine the role of the character: sniper, cop, hunter, spy, barkeeper, drug dealer, etc. Secondly, you identify the physical attributes of the character: small and stocky, tall and thin, overweight, peak condition, old, young, male, female, etc. Thirdly, you assign the type of firearm they would use given the two previous steps: a McMillan TAC-50 for a sniper, Glock 22 for a cop, a Browning A-bolt for a hunter, etc. Fourthly, pick the right calibre for the firearms and size for knives. Fifthly, pick the weapons. Sixthly, get all the correct specs of said weapons. And seventhly, put it all together.

With that settled, you must then take care to show that the character(s) knows how to use their weapons with the appropriate level of skill. Sure you can give a character a cool and exotic weapon, but if they're clearly using the weapon in stupid ways, it becomes clear that it's all for show and has no real weight or significance.

Does it now make sense why I went into such detail? Ruby is a sniper, therefore I made it so that she knows the right terminology, has the tools to go alongside Crescent Rose, and has ballistic charts and reloading tools near her bed. Weiss is a highborn Lady rapierist, therefore I made her carry her sword correctly in a scabbard on the correct hip, fight with a proper rapier engagement stance, and keep her cool against provocateurs. Pyrrha is a champion gladiatorial fighter, so I made her fight like one, recognize the tournament system, teaches Jaune properly, understands the battlefield, sees the strengths and flaws of her opponents, and knows how and when to deploy her own strength. Nora is a grenadier, therefore I had her carry extra grenades in a bandoleer, use them accordingly, and looks to use new types of ammunition. Oscar is a farmer and rancher, so I gave him a revolver of the appropriate type and calibre, one that he uses for pest control and self-defence, and is very proficient with rifles as a means of supplying game meat and protecting his livestock.

While it is a trope to give little girls giant weapons in Anime and Manga, that doesn't mean that it works all the time. At least series that do this will show these girls fighting with competence. Ruby has never shown to use Crescent Rose well, hence why I always assumed that it was her mother's weapon. That isn't the case in the show, so I made it so, that she wants to feel close to the mother she never knew by wielding her hunting arm—which explains her not using it as well as she could just yet.

There are many little elements that many would call "nitpicking", but when these small elements go against the character that the writer(s) presents, you break the world you are trying to bring to life.

Either you do it right, or not at all.

Q: I fucking hate X fanboys like you! All you do is repeat what they say! If you hate the show, STOP WATCHING IT! And go wipe your ass with that damn letter!

A: Less of question and more of a statement, but repeated almost word for word more than a few times.

I've been accused more than once of being a fan of some RWBY critic on YouTube, and all that DDCT is, is a parroting of their views. The funny thing is that I don't know who most of these people are. I won't deny and say I don't know who HeroHei and Adel Aka are, but I've never even so much as heard of the others listed, nor do I have any interest in seeking them out.

As I explained in the foreword, I cut ties with RWBY and everything Rooster Teeth after V4. I never went looking for information on them or the show, and if ever YouTube recommended me something, I'd tell it to never do so again. It was only after V6 in early 2019 that I stumbled across a video essay about what's been going on within the company, and the now infamous Newville Letter. I hadn't been aware of the shady things RT had been up to since I stopped watching and listening to their content, and had NEVER heard of Shane Newville or his letter until 2019. In fact, though I can't show proof of it here, my copy of that letter has a download date of "March 29th, 2019, 8:52 PM". And while we're here, that letter has proven more and more accurate as time has gone by, both in regards to the awful behaviour of RT and CRWBY, and my own suspicions that Monty had gone about RWBY less than half-cocked.

Returning to YouTube, it was here that I stumbled across HeroHei and Adel Aka. They provided a great deal of insight in regards to what's been going on, and have done an admirable job in reviewing the show and other RWBY related content. However, I am not a fanboy. I have disagreed plenty with them on their takes, and even think they are being too easy on the show. There have been many times that Adel Aka has said, "That wasn't bad" or "I enjoyed that", to which I proclaim just how terrible it all was in the comments. Adel thinks Cinder used to be smart, when I explained in detail in DDCT why she wasn't. And with all due respect to HeroHei, the boy is too click-baity for his own good. I can say with certainty that I could give them both a run for their money—if the 500,000 word fan-fiction wasn't enough of a clue. Even that 2 hour video essay only scratched the surface.

This is how my journey through RWBY criticism has gone: I found two one-hour long videos breaking down why Pyrrha's death was a mistake before V4 dropped, then nothing until 2019, I found one video on RT's bullshit and the Newville letter, then I found HeroHei and Adel Aka and I watch some of their content, and then decided to try writing this story after some interesting conversations on reddit. That's it. I don't raid the RWBY subreddit, I don't pick fights with the paid shills that write articles that RWBY is the greatest thing ever made, I don't go after fans or CRWBY or the VAs on twitter, nor do I even go looking for negative or positive reviews on YouTube. How I choose to go about things, is to put my money where my mouth is. I write stories that critique the show and show what could have been, and share my ideas with people. I didn't force you to click on my story, I didn't force you to read it, I didn't force you to write reviews, and I'm not trying to stop you from enjoying your terrible show. You are free to enjoy whatever you want, and people are free to critique it.

Just don't make it so obvious that those YouTubers live so rent free in your heads. At least accuse me of being a fanboy of the YouTubers I actually do adore XD.

Q: Why did you even write this? Why did you spend so much time and effort to write a story based on a series you clearly hate?

A: Ah, yes. The number one question from my detractors I have received; not only for DDCT, but for my Naruto fics. I've answered this question many times before in private messages over the past year, so I figured I should answer it in the open.

To get the Naruto portion out of the way, yes, I hate the series, and yes, I wrote fics for it. My defense for this is that I used to be a big fan of it, and I wasn't happy with how it fell apart—doesn't that sound familiar. I then began to write stories where I heavily modified things in order to make the characters likable and the world believable. I was no different than the next Naruto fan-fic writer, as none of us followed the canon. The terrible lore and world gave us carte blanche to do as we wished, resulting in pretty wild stories. Things went well for a time, and I wrote many Naruto fics simultaneously. However, people's tone towards me changed when I wrote Pirates vs Ninjas, as I did stick to the canon for the most part, and made sure that I followed the rules through information in the wiki that was cited from the Manga. The point behind it was to criticize the series in comparison to One Piece, and Naruto fans were not happy with me for doing that, as it shone a light on the major flaws of the series; everything from lore, to characters, to plot holes, and many common myths.

While I wrote Naruto fics to tell a better story, by the end, I realized that there was nothing good about the series. With my passion gone, I canceled all my Naruto stories, as I could not be bothered to force myself to complete them.

RWBY on the other hand is a horse of a different colour. While Naruto was flawed from cradle to grave, RWBY was a series that was bursting with potential. The characters were likeable, the world was both new and familiar, and we were excited to see where things would go. The loss of Monty destroyed those dreams, and CRWBY's handling of it turned it into a nightmare. By the end of V4, I realized that fact, and decided to walk away. That never stopped me from thinking upon the show, imagining what could have been, and how I would have written it if given the chance. After seeing what CRWBY had done while I was gone, I finally decided to share what my hyper-analyzing mind came up with.

Yes, I hate what the show became, but that doesn't mean I hate it in its entirety. The people who can't stand my work, are unable to realize that being a fan means being critical of the things you love. You want it to be the best it can be, and you never lower your standards for love or money. I saw the major problems with RWBY, it was clear that nothing was going to be mended, so I walked away. I didn't attack anyone, I didn't raid the subreddit and forums, I just walked away and occupied myself with other series. I've mentioned before how the RWBY cultists react when they don't get what they want, and it's far worse than anything I've ever done. For them, it's all or nothing. It's perfect, and you must be destroyed if you dare disagree, whilst only they can criticize. It's very silly and cultish, hence why I call them cultists.

But let me ask you this: how was this story written with hate? If I hate RWBY in the way you think I do, why did I write the characters with respect—even the ones I never liked or the ones I hate what they've become? Why did I make the characters more likeable, relatable, and believable? Why did I strengthen the old lore and tweak it so that it made more sense? Why did I make this story a hopeful one? Was all of that hateful to you? The fact that I didn't belittle and bring down some characters to uplift others, is actually bad? I actually had someone argue that, and I was floored. Instead of treating characters equally, I should have played favourites and ruined the characters I didn't like, is that it?

This is why I say that these sorts of people—not only RWBY cultists—are not fans.

And let us end on another blasphemous statement that no one has yet countered: how is my work worse than any other fan-fic? The vast majority of stories have no respect for the original source material. Characters personalities vary wildly, relationships are broken without sympathy, characters' sexual orientations are changed without care, crack-ships dominate over all logic for the sake of having masturbatory content, crossovers occur in incomprehensible fashion, and alternate universes make even more radical changes and are clearly done to facilitate original stories. Why is that all OK, but DDCT is verboten? How are all of those authors still fans, but I am not? I went into this to try and preserve the original world of RWBY, bringing the characters back to their roots, and make changes that fit. Most of you agreed with me on that front, whereas only those whom adore the latest volumes claim my work make it unrecognizable from the show.

While the latter is actually a form of flattery, I still scoff at the absurdity of it all. From where I'm standing, the average fan-fiction writer is much less a fan than I am. That is blasphemy indeed, but if you have any standards at all, you know I'm right. That doesn't mean you can't write those weird fics, nor does that mean you aren't allowed to enjoy them. All I ask is for some self-awareness and honesty.

If my hate results in stories like DDCT, I do not want to know what you think stories written with "love" would be. I'm not going anywhere, and we are just getting started.

---

And that will just about do it, I think. Of course there are many questions left to answer, but if I were to, it would spoil the larger plans I have for my stories. Even correcting people on their predictions and theories would give too much away. Nevertheless, I hope that my answers were satisfactory, but please let me know if you have any more questions.

While we're here, I might as well ask you guys some questions. As I've said before, this is the first RWBY fan-fic I've ever written, and my experience reading them only began when I started posting the first chapter. Thus far, I haven't been impressed, but given how I wrote this story, that shouldn't shock anyone—not to mention that I stopped reading any and all fics due to their poor quality years ago. That being said, there have been a number of things I've noticed that appear rather common, but I cannot for the life of me understand their origin.

I. Why do people use the word "Dust" as an expletive? I've seen this in several fics and it doesn't make a lick of sense. That's like us using "Gas" or "Electricity" the same way we use "Shit" or "Damn". I came up with expletives and curses that made sense to the world of Remnant (Gods, Light, Son of a Grimm, Blacken, etc), and thus far, I've seen nothing even close to that in other fics. I don't remember that happening in the show, so please enlighten me.

II. How stupid are the characters meant to be? A number of people have said, "Huh. You didn't write Nora as a retard", and I've been wondering just how dumb she and others have been written in other fics. Thus far, Nora seems to be about right in the fics I've read, with nothing major occurring for the rest of the cast (other than trusting Ozma in any shape, way, or form), so I'm just a bit curious.

III. How close do people keep to the canon? I know that's a rather dumb question given this is fan-fiction, but RWBY is unique in that it has such a messed up canon to begin with. Is it as bad as Naruto was? Is it worse? Who am I kidding, it's gonna be worse.

And with that, I'm off to pick up a new humidor and some more cigars, and then it's full steam ahead with JADA. Cheers and see you all next time.