What Defines Us - Commentary - Ch. 35-36 (Patreon)

Welcome back to another commentary!  The further we get into this story, the more surprised I am at all the things I have to talk about!  A growing part of me is concerned that I won’t have this level of detail in any of my future stories, mainly because I’m aiming for shorter stories (and by shorter, I mean around 100k words instead of 400k - that’s significantly shorter!).  My goal is to be more concise, but also focus on a more ‘typical’ novel (which are more like 70k words, I think…).  So, this story might be the longest one I ever write - which is both a nice and a scary thought!

These two chapters mark the end of our third quarter of the story, leading us into the last quarter - which is really the ending/wrap up/lead up to the rest of their lives.  As such, hopefully you noticed that we closed the door on The Beacon Invite and are now dealing with the emotions caused by Weiss finally telling Ruby a piece of their past.

With that said - let’s get into the details!

Recently, I noticed another peculiar thing about the way I write - I don’t often think about what the characters are wearing in a scene!  Clothes just aren’t very important to me, and I don’t want to come up with their outfits every day, so I leave it up to you to decide what they’re wearing.  Obviously, if the clothing is important to the plot or something, I’ll write it in.  Otherwise, I honestly don’t even think about it.

(Interesting note - I went through Rush recently and was shocked by how many times I described what Weiss and Ruby were wearing.  I think that’s the only story where I put so much effort into clothing.)

This writing blind spot comes into play at the beginning of this chapter, when we learn that Weiss and Ruby fell asleep in their combat outfits.  I actually added this part after the initial chapter was written because I didn’t think about what they were wearing or how they fell asleep!  Actually, I think in the first draft, Weiss magically had a set of new clothes to wear when she left.  

Again, this is why editing is so important!  If she didn’t go home and didn’t change in the previous chapter, how would she be wearing anything but her combat outfit?

And I just realized...I don’t think Weiss ever gives Ruby her clothes back.

See?  Sometimes I just forget about clothing.  Maybe I’ll surprise myself and have it already written into a future chapter.  (Or maybe I’ll add it in!  Now, if you see it, you’ll wonder if I added it or if I had it there to begin with.)

Ruby doesn’t seem to mind potentially not getting her clothes back though.  If anything, she’s more than willing to share with Weiss - she also gives Weiss an extra toothbrush and uses the phrase “What’s mine is yours” in the process!  This wasn’t a phrase Ruby came up with on her own, however.  This is her repeating the phrase back to Weiss, after Weiss used it wayyyy back in Chapter 19 when they were at the Dust factory.

I think it’s interesting to think about what that phrase means to each of them in these situations.  For Weiss, she was speaking to her fiancée - her future wife - and of course she’s willing to give Ruby everything that she has.  Ruby’s a bit unaware of the depths of the phrase, but she’s still willing to use it and means it.  From what we saw from her at the end of the previous chapter, she knows she’s willing to do anything for Weiss, including going through all the pain and memory loss again.

I feel like Weiss doesn’t quite understand where Ruby’s coming from with that statement - or at least, she doesn’t understand just how much she means to Ruby.  That’s why she spends the morning trying to figure out how Ruby’s taking the information from last night.  How did she really feel about Weiss being her partner?  Was she mad?  Really mad?  

The feeling I tried to convey through Weiss in this chapter is that she’s beginning to accept that Ruby might be ok with them as partners, but she doesn’t want to push too hard or too far out of fear that she might unravel what they still have.  She’s cautious.  Tip-toeing around the topic instead of facing it head on.  As we’ve seen from her for the majority of the story, she’s analyzing the situation and a little skittish about the results - but analyzing just the same!

From Ruby’s questions and reactions last night, she was far more open-minded and understanding than Weiss had expected.  Under similar circumstances, she imagined she would be a stubborn mess and nearly impossible to deal with.

Part of this analysis is comparing herself to Ruby and realizing that her initial fears might have been overblown.  When I wrote that second line - about how Weiss would react if their roles were reversed - my mind spun on the idea that Weiss lost her memories instead.  Can you imagine it?  That would be a completely different story.  I don’t think Ruby would run away, but she’d beat herself up for the mistake.  And Weiss would probably be super difficult to pry out of her shell again, especially being injured and confused.

Thankfully, that didn’t happen!  (Should we be thankful for that?)  But thankfully, because things are starting to look up as Team RWBY gels back together.  The breakfast scene is one of my favorites (I know...I say that a lot) because it shows how far they’ve come together.  That scene was meant to be a direct comparison to the first meal they had together - the dinner when Weiss first showed up.  

Compared to that night, she’s no longer on the outside looking in.  She might still be on the periphery, but she’s this close.  And, with Weiss being a bigger part of the group, they have a much more comfortable morning filled with laughs and some witty banter.

(I hope I’m not the only one who loves the idea of Team Bumblebee working together to pry information out of Ruby.  I love that Yang pretends not to pay attention while Blake asks the sly, unassuming questions, and Ruby falls for it every time.  Those bees...so sneaky!)

(I also hope I’m not the only one who loves that Yang just flips the pancakes out of the frying pan and hopes people catch them.)

Over the course of their breakfast together, I slipped in a few moments that hint at Ruby’s expanded feelings for Weiss - moments where Ruby goes out of her way to take care of Weiss or look out for her best interests.  Ruby had started doing this before The Invite, but now I think she has a more defined reason to do so.  She wants to take care of Weiss - she’s thought many times about how she wants Weiss to be happy.  I like to think that finding out they were partners actually gave her silent permission to be even more caring than she already was.  Because Weiss is her partner!  Of course she’s going to look after her partner!

Before we leave breakfast behind, I have one small things to point out:

“I feel fine!” Ruby quipped before shoving another big bite in her mouth.

“Of course you do.  You’re basically a rubber band - doesn’t take you long to snap back.” 

Sometimes, I randomly come up with things that I’m pretty proud of.  This line is one of them!  Because rubber bands snap back into shape, and...well, I’m sure you get it.

Whenever you notice a particularly clever line, you might also notice that I write a congratulations to myself into the story (when I can).

Ruby raised a fist and bumped it into Yang’s.

In this case, I wrote myself a fist bump for my success.  So when you read something witty or funny, and then the characters high five or something, just think that I was giving myself a high five!  And then you can laugh and shake your head because it wasn’t that funny.  (But sometimes they are, right?)

Another contrast found in this chapter - Yang’s treatment of Weiss.  With their...disagreement...behind them, Yang has opened up and become more of the person we expect her to be.  I love basically everything she says in this chapter, but there’s one thing I want to point out, which I also mentioned in the last commentary…

The hair rustle is back!  

Yang rustled Weiss’ hair!  Just like she did in the two memory chapters - Chapter 7 and 33.  Last time, I mentioned that this is something she does with Ruby all the time, and she used to do it with Weiss before everything fell apart - now she’s doing it again.

It’s probably subconscious on Yang’s part (almost typed ‘unconscious’ there - that’d be weird), but it’s a measure of closeness that we can use to check their relationships.  Because we don't read from Blake or Yang’s POV in the story, we have to use these little gestures for a closer look at how they’re feeling and what they’re thinking.

With Ruby and Weiss, we know much more of what’s going through their minds.  This is probably a good thing, otherwise everyone would be really upset that Weiss feigned ignorance when Ruby tried to ask her IMPORTANT question a second time.  You might’ve still been upset about that, but at least we got to see why Weiss did that. 

One, she was surprised and caught off guard.  (Personally, I’ve done the same thing before.)  Two, she just started to accept that Ruby wasn’t mad - and then Ruby tried to push them even further forward.  I guess that second one could be lumped into the surprised/unprepared category.  Basically, Weiss wasn’t ready for that, even though Ruby is.

And Weiss is still a bit of a coward.  That’s ok though - she’s working on it!  I thought it was important to show that she wasn’t magically cured by telling Ruby the truth.  No, she’s still uncertain.  She found the resolve in that moment at The Invite, but that didn’t automatically fix everything.  She still has a ways to go and a bit more to learn.

Ok, but a funny (kind of funny?) moment as Weiss leaves - you might have noticed this passage and thought nothing of it: 

“Heading home, Miss?” the driver asked, directing the vehicle towards the main roads that led to Winter’s home.

“Yes.  It’s been quite the day already,” she replied, quickly checking the address on his screen to make sure they were heading the right way.  

What do you think?  Did you think it was strange?  Or were you like ‘ah, that makes sense for someone in Weiss’ position to be extra cautious’?

This moment didn’t happen originally.  Weiss didn’t even speak to the driver (one might wonder how he’d know where to drive her then, but thank god for editing…).  However, when I reached this part of the chapter, I suddenly got super paranoid that some random taxi driver would try to kidnap Weiss.  

You know those people who create drama out of nothing?  Well…*raises hand*  that’s kind of my job as a writer.  So, in the midst of editing this story about feelings and redemption and forgiveness, I suddenly found myself in an action story where a group of evildoers holds Weiss for ransom, and the rest of RWBY save her.

Talk about a tone shift, right?  Well, I didn’t go that route, but I added that sentence in the midst of my paranoia.  

...you probably think I’m crazy, right?

Probably am by now!  That’s ok - let’s get to Weiss and Winter’s talk.  Winter is the silent runner-up MVP of this story, in my opinion (Blake being the real MVP).  I love that she called after seeing that Team RWBY was at The Invite, and says that she would’ve been there if she’d known.  Such a good sister…and we even saw a bit of Winter’s version of teasing, which I think is so adorable...

“‘Of course?’  Where are the complaints about how I’m being ‘overbearing’ or my presence is ‘unnecessary?’  What happened to my surly younger sister who never wants me around?”

Teasing about a serious topic, but teasing all the same!

Also, I just wanted to point out a similar speech pattern between the two Schnee sisters.  Winter uses ‘alright’ instead of ‘ok’ just like Weiss.  I know this probably doesn’t apply to their canon characters, but I wanted to give them a different vocabulary to make it clearer who was speaking - ‘alright’ is just one of those ways.

So we can look forward to Winter visiting in the near future - which I’m excited just thinking about!  Also, we finally learned what Ruby wrote on the inside of Weiss’ ring.  Did you forget about the inscription?  Weiss has had the ring for quite a long time now - long enough for some people to forget that was a question they wanted answered!

‘Believe’ is what Ruby chose to write inside Weiss’ ring - and I think that would’ve been another good title for the story!  Titles are such fickle things though.  Sometimes they only fit for like a week, sometimes a day...and some of them you’re stuck with for good!  (If you’ve noticed, my general ‘rule’ on titles is three words or less - and for titles that are three words, I love acronyms that look nice.)

Alright - on to the next chapter, which is probably the one you’ve been waiting for this entire time.  We start off with Yang following up on her offer to Weiss - checking in on how Ruby’s doing.  

Can I say again how cute Yang and Ruby are as siblings?  Like, seriously so cute.  I love Ruby’s ‘practicing my active camouflage’ comment, followed by Yang seamlessly responding in the same vein with her special ‘camouflage busting glasses.’  This just shows how familiar they are with each other’s sense of humor, which we’d expect since they grew up together.

Blake also shows up with some advice in this chapter, so we have the opportunity to contrast Yang’s method of giving advice versus Blake’s.  (This is yet another thing I didn’t notice until just now.)  

For Yang, I like to imagine that she (and Ruby, to some extent) need to be doing something while talking.  That’s why she’s throwing slow motion punches at Ruby - a little mini training session in the midst of an important conversation.  She tends to fluctuate between some jokes and then serious moments where she really wants to know what Ruby has to say.  

Blake, meanwhile, is more of a ‘I put my book down and you have my full attention’ type of person.  Not only that, but she’s much more results driven - she helps you fix the problem.  When Ruby wants to ask Weiss the question again, Blake has a solution - go ask now, in person.

Two very different people, two very different methods of helping Ruby!

Backing up a little bit, this chapter shows us where Ruby’s at in terms of Weiss.  She’s still a bit confused, for sure, but she’s figuring out how she feels while thinking about it more.  I think I mentioned before, but I never even considered that Ruby would be angry that Weiss kept that secret from her.  I just don’t see her as having that type of personality.

Instead, I see her working through it like she does in this chapter.  Did their past, which Ruby doesn’t even remember, wipe away the time they’d already spent together?  Why would it change anything?

Ultimately, Ruby comes to a bit of a conclusion, which I think is super sweet:

Her partner wasn’t a loner - her partner was awesome.

And that brings us to Ruby’s conversation with Blake - which, obviously Yang debriefed Blake on the new ‘talking about the past’ policy after the conversation Yang and Ruby had in the morning - that’s the reason why Blake answers Ruby’s questions so honestly.

Which brings us to a little easter egg I’ve waited basically the entire story to tell you about!

You specifically told me - ‘Blake, it’s your job to know these ‘ninja things.’’  So I make sure I know.

Ok, this moment is another good example of why I like to write the entire story before posting anything online.  When I reached this point in the chapter, I wanted Ruby to go over to Weiss’ place for the first time.  The only problem was...how did they know where Weiss was staying?  There were a few options - Weiss could give her address to them or mention where she was staying.  Ruby could ask for the information, which Weiss would have gladly given.  Or secret option number three - Blake, the resident ninja, follows Weiss home so they can keep tabs on her.

The third option sounded funner than the others, so I went with that!  Of course, that led to some other issues that needed solving - most importantly, when did Blake follow Weiss home?  She could have done it ‘offscreen’ - a moment that we didn’t see - but I thought it’d be more fun if it was a moment we all overlooked as ‘normal.’

Can you think of when it was before I tell you?  (Or you can stop reading this to go check!)

Ok, well, it was at the end of Chapter 2!  Remember it now?  After Weiss rushes out on dinner, Blake offers to go get ice cream, which Ruby’s really excited about.  I went back to Chapter 2 after I finished Chapter 36 and wrote in that moment with the ice cream to give Blake an excuse to leave and tail Weiss home.

One issue solved, but it left me with another - wouldn’t Weiss be really surprised when Ruby arrived out of the blue?  She would be, which I thought would...ruin the mood, I guess?  For the end of Chapter 36, however, I wanted her to be calm and ready for her conversation with Ruby.  Shocking her would have the opposite effect, just like we saw at the end of Chapter 35, when she dodges the question because she’s caught off guard.

So...to keep Weiss in a more mellow mindset, she’s already aware that Blake followed her home.  Not because she spotted Blake or something - I imagine that’d be pretty impossible - but because Weiss knows Blake’s tendencies.  Which meant I had to explain how/why that was Blake’s tendency.  Which meant I had to make up the backstory about Blake being curious as a cat, and Ruby proclaiming that they needed Blake to be in charge of sneaky things.

All of that came out of one issue - needing Weiss’ address so Ruby could pop over unannounced.  So much more came out of it than just an address - we also got a glimpse into how Ruby was as team leader, and how she might have been a perfect fit in that role.

“There was a reason you were named team leader,” Weiss said fondly.  “You understood how to get the best out of everyone.”

I believe that’s true, too!  Ruby seems like the type to be unconventional, but willing to give up control to help her teammates grow.  Not power hungry, jealous, or vain...she’d make a great leader.

Ok, another admission I have to make!  Along with restaurant scenes, I don’t like writing tours of houses.  Especially Weiss’ houses, which are always so freaking big!  Ugh…(I realized this because Rush also has a house touring scene.)  I guess this technically isn’t Weiss’ house, but you get the picture!

One note on Winter’s house, from Weiss’ comment:

“I think at one point she expected to move here, but her plans changed.  Now it’s just another investment.” 

If you guessed that I was implying something from this comment, well, I was!  In my mind, Winter planned on moving to Vale to be closer to Weiss and Ruby, so she bought this house.  When Ruby was hurt and Weiss left for Atlas, Winter ended up not moving. 

I really like the idea that she wanted to be closer to her sister and made arrangements so that could happen.  Just another missed opportunity when Ruby got hurt, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t still happen in the future!

Right, back to the house tour, which was actually so short in the initial chapter (because I don’t like house tours), that I needed to add a few moments to make it feel like an actual tour.  The two moments I added were - Weiss scaring the bejesus out of Ruby, and the butterfly in Weiss’ room.  I thought the ghost thing was pretty funny, personally.  Imagine how scary that would be if you saw some white figure rush at you from across a dark room!

Maybe what I didn’t like about this particular house tour was that it was keeping me from the moment I really wanted to write - which was the moment you’ve probably been waiting to see since the beginning of the story!

Weiss finally tells Ruby everything!!  Like everything!  Then they kiss!  Yesssss!  

I’ve been excited about this chapter for a long time (if you couldn’t tell).  I love how Weiss tells their story - self-depreciating as always - and I loveeeeee this line:

“You were my f-first true friend,” she whispered, her voice wavering as tears clouded her eyes.  “And I...I fell in love with you.” 

I loved it when I wrote it, and I still love it now.  It’s pretty rare for that to happen (at least, for me!).

I really hope that this moment is - maybe not what you expected, but that it satisfied what you’ve wanted to see for so long.  Weiss admitting that she loved/loves Ruby.  Ruby understanding what the ring really means.  Ruby asking to kiss Weiss - and their second first kiss.

If you noticed, Weiss got swept up in that kiss and pushed a little too far - finally being the one to forge ahead - and Ruby was the one unprepared in the moment.  Of course, Weiss’ instinctive response is to apologize - thankfully, Ruby wipes away that worry by...apologizing, then getting embarrassed.

I’m so fond of the end of this chapter, maybe because the built up to it was a long time in the making.  Ruby also gets to tell Weiss something she needs to hear - probably more times than just this once - that their engagement ring helped Ruby through her recovery.  Whether or not Weiss wants to take credit for that, it still helped - a little piece of herself left behind.

I’m so happy for them.  I smile just thinking about how far they’ve come.  Obviously, there’s still further to go, but this chapter had some big steps forward!  And let’s not forget the ending - where another loose end was wrapped up.

Did you remember the lights in the upstairs living room that stopped working the moment Weiss arrived (in Chapter 3)?  And did you see how Ruby fixed them?

“Wait here,” she directed Weiss before running over and flipping the lights off.

“How did you turn those off?” Weiss asked in surprise, looking at Ruby like she’d just worked some kind of miracle. 

“Oh...uh...that light switch over there?  Was that not ok?”

Weiss stared at the switch for a long time before shaking her head.  “I tried that switch a hundred times…” she muttered to herself.

A lot of people probably aren’t going to get this, but that’s ok - I wrote this for me, not for everyone.  In Chapter 3, Weiss looks out the skylight at the moon, finds the piece that’s supposed to be Summer Rose, and apologizes for not being there for Ruby.  She says that she’ll try to make it up to Ruby, somehow, and that’s when the lights stop working.

I’m not normally one for the paranormal or spiritual, but the timing was supposed to be more than coincidental - it was supposed to be Summer’s way of saying that she was watching, that she was with Weiss as much as she was with Ruby.  Now, after they kiss, and after Weiss finally gets all of their past out into the open, Ruby just...flips the switch, and the lights turn off.

This isn’t to say that Summer is gone or no longer looking out for them.  It’s just that...she’s no longer needed in the way she once was, because they’ve figured things out and made their way back to one another.

The oneshot/omake I wrote for Patreon (called ‘Rich in Spirit’) alluded to this idea.  When the electrician can’t fix the lights, he mentions that his fellow coworkers call these types of glitches ‘ghosts’ in the wiring - little issues that seem to have no cause at all, then fix themselves after a certain amount of time.  

I feel about as happy as Summer does right now, watching Ruby and Weiss bond on a level they haven’t reached until now.  Weiss is so relaxed talking about stories from their past...and Ruby loves every second of it.  

I’m going to end this commentary with a happy glow - and I hope the last chapter left you feeling quite optimistic as well.  We’re in the home stretch now!

Until next time,

Miko