The Winter Challenge - Commentary - Ch. 5-6 (Patreon)

Every two weeks, I tell myself that I’ll come up with a new way to begin these commentaries.  Every two weeks, I can only think of welcome back! I guess if it’s not broken, don’t fix it?

Anyway, another two chapters have fallen by the wayside, and we’re now almost halfway done with the story.  To me, this particular story doesn’t feel like much, especially in light of the more plot-heavy stories I’ve been working on recently.  But that is by design, I suppose.  The Winter Challenge is only supposed to be about Team RWBY having a nice winter break with each other while participating in a few fun challenges and maybe finding a couple in their midst.

In that sense, I’d say this story is...simple?  Or maybe it’s the lack of angst that makes me think it’s simple.  Either way, it was a nice change of pace from the angst/complications of Dream Theory!

Although there are a few wrinkles thrown into the story, mostly by Professor Ozpin (aka me) who thinks it’s funny to make Weiss believe she knows exactly what she’s walking into only to prove that she doesn’t.  For Chapter 5, I initially considered having the event just be a simple race around the school.  That would be fun, and Ruby could lap everyone repeatedly!

Can you imagine how anticlimactic that would be though?  Professor Ozpin says, “You may begin,” then you blink and Ruby appears on the other side of him.  “Done!”  The other racers haven’t even made it three steps away yet but see the trail of rose petals in front of them.  Weiss brushes off her hands and says, “Easy,” before slapping hands with Ruby and heading home.

Yes!  But also, no.  Because that doesn’t drag Weiss into the competition.

My next thought was to do some sort of relay race where they alternated laps.  But that didn’t further my ‘White Rose takes over the world’ objective.  So I tied them together instead.

And I used handcuffs instead of string or rope because handcuffs were just begging for the opportunity to make an appearance.  For the jokes, of course!  (Hey, Blake and Yang need those handcuffs, ok?  How else could I get them a pair?)  Also, I love that Yang bit the bullet and took them in the end.  Might as well, right?  They could come in useful, eventually…(considering Blake’s choice in reading material, probably sooner rather than later…)

Anyway, even though Yang ends up with the handcuffs, it’s Weiss and Ruby who are cuffed together at the moment!  My initial idea was to have Ruby carry Weiss through the race.  Or, even better, a piggyback ride.  Can you just imagine how silly that would be?  Not just to imagine, but to write.  Could I actually write Ruby giving Weiss a piggyback ride?

I mean, yes, I’m sure I could...but would I enjoy it?  That’s the question…

Fortunately, I remembered something pretty important - Ruby’s semblance!  I’m pretty sure most people suspected that Ruby could pull people along with her semblance.  I always thought that would be a possibility later on in the series, so I added it here.  From Weiss’ POV too, so we can see how she experiences it.

Obviously, she loves it!  I mean, who wouldn’t.  People who are afraid of moving really quickly, perhaps?  Is that a real fear?  (Just looked it up - it’s called Tachophobia.)

Well Weiss loves it for many reasons.  One, it’s awesome.  Two, she’s probably secretly wished that she had Ruby’s semblance.  Three, she gets to let go for a little while.  I imagine this last part like the difference between driving and being one of the passengers in the back seat (not the front passenger seat, because the front passenger has responsibilities to uphold!).

Giving up control can be a big deal for someone people (like Weiss), so I thought it was really nice to see her put all her faith in Ruby.  She was just along for the ride, and she loved that.  Can you imagine how freeing it must feel for her to have someone she trusts so much?  She’s made several comments about it before, but she knows that Ruby will try her best - if not for herself, then at least for Weiss.

And Ruby, knowing how important winning is to Weiss, will absolutely try her hardest!

That’s one of the reasons Weiss loves having Ruby as a partner!  And also maybe one of the reasons she gets jealous when she realizes she has to share this newfound ‘partner ability’ with Yang.  I thought it was sweet of her to think to herself ‘ok, well that’s reasonable, they are sisters.’  When Nora comes along, however...

That’s when Ruby’s extra sweet, and finds a polite way to tell Nora she has to wait (possibly forever).  It’s almost as if she knows that it should remain a partner thing...or maybe she wants it to be a partner thing.

Also, did you catch this little moment with Blake? 

“How was that?” Blake asked, nodding towards the trail of red petals left in their wake.  Looking at the visible reminder of their whirlwind race, Weiss sighed.

“It was...amazing.”

For whatever reason, Blake gave her a knowing smile, as if it made sense that she enjoyed the experience so much.  Which...of course she enjoyed it.  Who wouldn’t want the opportunity to feel what it was like to be Ruby Rose - the fastest girl at Beacon?

Maybe Weiss isn’t the only observant one, huh.

Think about this from Blake’s perspective though.  Ruby sweeps Weiss off of her feet (literally) and whisks her around campus.  They win (yay!) then just imagine Weiss with her windswept hair and rosy cheeks (from the cold, you see).  And then she’s all like *sigh* that was...amazing.  Blake probably strained her eyes from rolling them so hard.

Well you’re one to talk, Blake.   Not to be outdone, Yang then sweeps Blake off her feet and carries her bridal style back to the room.  I’m sure neither of them enjoyed that at all.  I’m so pleased that Weiss had the nerve to take a picture though.  Too bad we don’t have that picture to see for ourselves.

I would like a picture of that, but also of Weiss being adorable at the end of the chapter while sitting next to Ruby.  I really love what she thinks here: 

Secretly, Weiss loved when Ruby sat with her to do homework.  She loved whenever they sat near each other and shared the same space, but it wasn’t quite the same as sitting elbow-to-elbow tackling the same problem together.  To Weiss, it felt like a much less strenuous version of fighting - the two of them standing together to accomplish any task, be it Grimm or homework.

I like to think that she’s expanding her horizons as her ‘friendship’ with Ruby blossoms.  At first, Ruby is just her partner for fighting and training.  Now, she sees Ruby as her partner for everything, and she loves it.  Not only does she have a partner to face Grimm with, but she has a partner to face life with.

At the end of Chapter 5, we start to see how her mentality is changing even in regards to winter break.  Chapter 1, she’s ready to train and study the entire time.  By the end of Tuesday, however, she’s ready and willing to take a break and spend more time with Ruby.   

Of course, Chapter 6 begins with her sniping at Ruby’s game because she sucks at it.  What do you think - would Weiss be good or horrible at video games?  I’m leaning towards horrible.  Or inexperienced and easily frustrated.

Oh I just had a funny thought.  I also imagine Blake to be inexperienced with video games due to her life in the White Fang.  But I could totally see her and Weiss practicing when Yang and Ruby aren’t around, and getting good really fast.  Then, when the sisters are baffled at how good their girlfriends - I mean partners - suddenly are, Blake and Weiss are like “Well, these games are easy…”

I guess, in conclusion, I think Blake and Weiss would be good with practice.  I don’t know how we got on that, but did you notice the Red Carpet Romance reference in Chapter 6?

Yang held up a magazine to show her a picture of some actress.  “Sky Redd - what do you think?  Hot or not?”

Sky Redd being the name of Yang’s character in Red Carpet Romance, which means that Sky Redd is blonde.  Which means that Yang can now make this comment:

“Knew it.”  Yang turned the magazine around and grinned at Blake.  “She’s into brunettes.”

Do you think she said that just to tease Weiss?  Or maybe she said it because she’s noticed Weiss sending some not-strictly-friendly vibes a certain brunette’s way?  Maybe she also has some skills in observation.

She does, although she’s not fully aware of what’s happening with Weiss and Ruby at the moment.  If she did, she would be teasing Weiss far more.  She’d probably tease Ruby a lot about it too.  So I think it’s safe to say that she doesn’t completely know what’s going on there.

She does, however, understand the sticky situation she gets herself into for the third challenge.  I thought it sounded like fun (for the upperclassman, at least)!  

I have no idea how Blake found out who had the keys, by the way.  My initial thought would be that she somehow got the information from Professor Goodwitch or whoever was in charge of handing out the keys, but she knew that one of the team captains was playing basketball - which meant she’d already found him and knew his location.  With that information, we’d have to assume that she actually tracked down the keys one-by-one.  Right?  That seems right.  Why else would she know where he was?

Unless she figured out who received the keys, then went a step further and found each captain.  But that doesn’t work either because she didn’t know where Coco was!  They asked Velvet where to find Coco.

The logic has been broken.  Clearly, I didn’t think this through while writing the chapter.

Ok, here’s what happened.  Blake snuck into the offices and figured out who the keys went to (Professor Goodwitch writes everything down), then hurries straight back to the room (because she missed Yang already!).  While on the way back, she happens to pass the basketball game and spots one of the captains.  Then she’s like “Ah, there’s one for later” and continues on her way home.  She doesn’t pass Coco, however, so she doesn’t know where Coco is.

Solved!

That would have bothered me otherwise...

Anyway, you probably noticed that the first two boys don’t have names or descriptions.  That’s because I don’t think we know any other non-freshmen teams at Beacon outside of CFVY?  If there were, I don’t remember them.  But I needed two boys for Yang to flirt with!

Poor Blake has suffered through quite a bit of jealousy recently.  First, Neptune.  Now these random, unnamed boys?  These boys were probably worse because it’s actually Yang flirting with them, not the other way around.  Yang senses it though - she’s observant like that!  Fortunately, Weiss does too, and has the brilliant idea to find Coco instead.

I just realized that I could have used Coco as the Ultimate Flirting Challenge.  Why didn’t I??  That would have been great.  Weiss thinks, “Let’s find Coco so Yang stops flirting with boys” only to walk them right into the Flirting Master’s lair.  Coco is like, “Oh, what do we have here?” and it probably only takes one look at Yang and Blake to figure out what’s going on.  (Hmm...maybe Weiss’ observation isn’t so unique after all…)

I could totally see Coco deciding that a little push might be necessary to get Yang and Blake on the same page.  Why can I only think that she’d make Yang kiss her?  (Is there a name for a Coco x Yang ship?  Because I might be imagining it.)  

That would make the situation even worse!  Blake would probably just walk away.  

Ok that’s sad.  And it didn’t happen!  It would have been so dramatic though...but also didn’t involve Weiss enough.  And this story is as much about Weiss as it is about Bumblebee.  Also, since Coco is older and wiser, I thought she’d be a good person to provide a bit of wisdom.

“You don’t get it, do you?  The Winter Challenge isn’t about winning - it’s about growing closer as a team.  That means sometimes you need to loosen up and go with the flow.  Which you, of all people, need to do.”

This is what everyone’s been hinting at, right?  (Especially Professor Ozpin with his lack of rules and clarity.)  We’ll see if Weiss actually learns this lesson or not over the remainder of the story.  In the meantime...she kissed Ruby on the cheek!  And she’s not dwelling on it at all.  (Sarcasm.)

And she’s so fixated on it that she basically throws in the towel on the rest of the challenge and of helping Blake and Yang.  She’s kind of like “I am way too distracted thinking about Ruby to do anything else right now.”  So the chapter ends, and we’ll have to catch back up with them later.

The chapter actually ends because it got really long and I didn’t want to create more imaginary team captains for Yang to flirt with.  (I feel like such a lazy writer sometimes.)  But we’ll see more of the aftermath next week.  And the week after, and the week after…

Ok, you get the picture.  I should go write some other things now!  

Until next time, 

Miko