What Defines Us - Commentary - Ch. 5-6 (Patreon)

Wow, time flies.  Has time also been flying for the rest of you, or is it just me?  It doesn’t feel like it was very long ago that I was lamenting how this story would take forever to post, but we’re already through Chapter 6!  There’s still a long way to go, but we’ve made significant progress so far.

Speaking of progress...we may be seeing some from Weiss.  She’s still in Vale, right?  Baby steps, baby steps...and, as you might have seen from the way she’s coaxing herself from one item on her checklist to the next, she needs to move in baby steps right now.  She needs to break this huge challenge down into bite-sized pieces that she’s more capable of handling - which, in and of itself, is rather depressing to see.  

Doesn’t Weiss strike you as the type who can handle immense situations without batting an eye?  I can still remember her preview trailer - where she’s singing in front of that enormous audience.  That’s Weiss - poised, composed, unflappable.  Yet in Chapter 5 she’s...convincing herself to go buy a box of cookies?  Mentally tricking herself into taking those cookies over to Ruby?  Arguing with herself over whether or not she wants to go inside?  This isn’t Weiss - at least, not the one we know.  These are incredibly small steps, yet she’s barely convincing herself to do them - all in the name of seeing Ruby once more.

Thankfully, she’s able to convince herself to go back over and we’re rewarded with their first real interaction - their first time together in over a year, their first time having a conversation of their own, their first time being together since Weiss left.  It’s completely unassuming and nothing extraordinarily special, but does that diminish the significance?

At this point, Ruby and Weiss are on completely separate paths - both in their lives but also in their relationship with one another.  We know from Blake’s conversation with Ruby the day before that Ruby really wants a friend - and she also really wants Yang and Weiss to be friends again.  Isn’t that quintessential Ruby?  She just wants everyone to be happy.

Meanwhile, Weiss is silently atoning for the mistakes she made - can you imagine how difficult that must be?  Not only has she made mistakes that she feels the need to repent for, but she can’t even say that she’s sorry.  She can’t ask Ruby for forgiveness - because Ruby doesn’t know what happened.  

But at the same time...Weiss is also getting to know Ruby again, isn’t she?  New likes (hand-to-hand combat with Yang).  New dislikes (no more snickerdoodles).  Weiss’ path here is definitely the more complicated of the two.  She’s dealing with all these memories and built up regrets while Ruby is forging a new path forward.

My favorite part of this chapter is Weiss’ offhand comment about how she prefers that her hands be referred to as ‘delicate’ instead of ‘small’ - something that Ruby finds really funny.  I hope you guys noticed that moment, because to me it was something special.  It was special because it was offhand.  Weiss didn’t think about it - she just said it.  There was no over analysis in that moment...and she was rewarded by making Ruby laugh.  This type of positive reinforcement might be key in helping her move forward from here.

But Ruby isn’t the only one who Weiss needs to salvage a relationship with - as can be seen by Yang’s continued hostility.  And then Blake...I really don’t think I can say enough about Blake in this story.  Yet again, she shows her worth in playing a very subtle peacemaker.  Leading into Chapter 6, we find out that her invitation to Weiss wasn’t discussed with Yang beforehand - most likely because Yang might’ve changed their plans or somehow avoided allowing Weiss to meet them - yet Blake extended the invitation anyway.  Even though she knew it might make Yang unhappy, she decided that it was worth it - because Yang can’t just avoid the problem forever.

When writing Yang’s role in this story, I tried to have her internal conflict show through - as you hopefully saw in her brief conversation with Ruby.  She’s angry at Weiss, for reasons that we might know or at least be able to guess, but she’s trying not to let that anger cloud Ruby’s chance of having a friend.  If you’ve ever been mad at someone, you know that sometimes this is easier said than done.  There are moments when you can sweep it under the rug and pretend that everything is fine, but then there are moments when you just don’t want to see that person at all.  And, of course, there’s no way you’d pass up the opportunity to force them onto a ride that might make them puke, right?  Right??

Honestly, this might be my least favorite chapter in the story, but I think it accomplishes its purpose of getting Team RWBY out of the house and into a more laid back environment.  In a way, this is perfect to take some of the pressure off of Weiss and allow her to spend time with Ruby without the two of them being alone together with nothing to do.  

They do have their moment together on the ferris wheel late in the chapter, which is when Ruby get to open up about her past.  And the necklace, which was so important to Weiss in previous chapters, is revealed here to be important to Ruby as well - although she doesn't really know why.  We can probably guess why, right?

***Random side note - I have no idea how I came up with Smushed Grimm ice cream, but I think that should totally be a thing!  Honestly, I think my thought process might have gone something like…

‘I need a new flavor of ice cream.  What things are unique to the RWBYverse?’

‘Grimm!’

‘Ok, but how do you make Grimm into ice cream?’ 

‘Uh...you probably don’t want to think about that too hard…’

‘...you’re right.  Then how are Grimm and ice cream related?’

‘Well...they’re black like chocolate.  And have red eyes - cherries are red…’

‘Black Forest ice cream!  If a Grimm got smushed, it’d totally be Black Forest ice cream!’

Yes, I’m pretty sure it went exactly like this.  I have no idea why I decided on ‘Smushed Grimm’ though.  I guess it could’ve been Melted Grimm?  Smashed Grimm?  Mashed Grimm?  Ok, I’m going to stop there...Smushed Grimm it was!***

One last thing I want to leave you guys with - and it involves the inscription on the inside of Ruby’s ring.  There were several different story titles I tried out, with some lasting longer than others, and ‘Eternity’ was one of them - basically, how long it took me to write this story.  Or, more seriously, Eternity was supposed to symbolize that life doesn’t just stop - not even when something terrible happens.  Life goes on, and love goes on.  

Besides Eternity, this story was very plainly titled ‘Amnesia’ in my computer for the longest time - bet you’re glad I didn’t stick with that one!  It was probably only a month before I started posting that I settled on What Defines Us.  I ended up using that title because I felt it better encapsulated the feeling I was going for - that these lessons, these struggles can apply to all of us, not just RWBY.  We’ve been successes and failures.  We’ve made mistakes that we wish we could take back.  We’ve endured heartbreak and found a way to carry on.

What defines us in those moments?  What is it that allows us to bounce back - to press forward - to keep living when it feels like the world is falling apart?

That’s what we’re going to try to find out over the course of the story.

Until next time,

Miko