Queens of Remnant - Commentary - Ch. 33-34 (Patreon)

Two more weeks have bitten the dust, and two more chapters have had their time to shine.  Life has been busy, but what else is new?  I’ve managed to fit in as much writing as I could despite the craze, with Violet taking up most of my mental energy recently.

Poor Violet got an infection months ago that has so far not responded to two different types of antibiotics.  When her vet says, “So I’m a little concerned…”, I get super concerned.  So there were more vet appointments, lots of tests, and now she’s on a third antibiotic that I have to give her as a shot two times a day.  I’m scared of needles, so this has obviously been a great experience.

I get so nervous every time!!  I don’t want to mess it up, and I don’t want to accidentally hurt her or jab myself in the eye.  (One of those worries is a little more realistic than the other…)  So far though, she’s been such a good girl and sits really still whenever I need to do it.  It only goes into her skin too, so I’m pretty sure she hardly feels it.  I, on the other hand, am an anxious mess.

Only two more weeks of this, then hopefully she gets her checkup and they say the infection is gone!  After that, she’ll need to start new medicine for her IBD because the current meds are keeping things stable but not improving anything.  The poor girl just can’t catch a break.

In writing news, I’ve been chugging along on Click, Click, Boom.  I have 12 chapters left to go, give or take, which feels really doable but also like soooo much work.  I guess the end of this year is still a reasonable timeframe to finish by, considering I’ll have to take a break soon to edit the story I wrote for Bumbleby Big Bang.

Bumbleby Big Bang will be out sometime at the end of October!  I’m not allowed to share with anyone until the posting date they give me, and then I’ll have to post it everywhere at once.  Consider it a bonus story, I guess, in the midst of our regularly scheduled Queens of Remnant chapters!

I’ve been thinking that I should switch up the posting schedule for what comes after Queens of Remnant.  I’ve been prepared to post Diva for a while since that’s the oldest story sitting on my bench, but I think it might actually be better to post Flashing Lights (WR prequal to Click, Click, Boom) next.  Then I could post Click, Click, Boom, which is a heavy Bumbleby story, and then I could post Diva.

This way, I can break up the White Rose stories so they bracket Bumbleby versus having a huge string of White Rose in a row and then a long string of Bumbleby.  I know a lot of people probably wouldn't mind that, but I love Bumbleby so I mind!  I think I’ll have to make that decision closer to the end of Queens of Remnant though, when I’m comfortable with where I’m at with Click, Click, Boom.  I’ve been making good progress!  But I’m also just kind of tired of it.  Writing in general, too.  Perhaps, I should give myself a few days to play games and not worry about any stories…

Can’t do that now, of course, since I’ve got a commentary to write!  And this is a White Rose commentary, so obviously important.  Just as important as the Bumbleby chapters, I’d say…

Now, I’m thinking about what it’ll be like to go from Weiss in Queens of Remnant to Weiss in Flashing Lights…that will be a huge difference.  They’re practically polar opposites.  Timid and unsure to cocky and too sure.

I love them both, but I’m especially loving Weiss at this point in Queens of Remnant since we’re finally seeing her character growth!  You know how I feel about character growth.  It’s so rewarding.  Like, yes, my little flower, you’ve done so well.  I know I put her through the wringer and then made her pull herself out of it, but it feels like she accomplished everything on her own.  Like she’s her own little being who I don’t actually have control over (even though I do have control over her).

Amazing what sleeping with Ruby will do to a girl, right?  She’s finally gained some confidence, and she’s using it to get her way.  I thought that it was very sweet that she doesn’t care about getting her way for herself - she cares about getting her way for Ruby.  Because Ruby needs that treaty so that she can get home to Yang as soon as possible.

Don’t worry, Ruby.  Weiss to the rescue!

There’s something no one would’ve said at the beginning of the story, right?  Least of all Weiss.

Not only has she gained confidence through Ruby, but she’s gained confidence by figuring out what she can/can’t do regarding the Council.  Good news - she can do whatever she wants, including telling them all to go home.  She is a Queen in a monarchy, after all, so I figured that she should basically have complete and total power if she wanted it.

I just realized…Jacques could have also dissolved the Council, so why didn’t he?  My guess would be because they did whatever he wanted and therefore posed no threat to his power.  In that case, the Council served more as an ego booster - a group of ‘powerful’ men and women who bowed to his every whim.  If they ever got out of line or tried to have a will of their own, he would just threaten to kick them out.  Or throw them in jail, maybe.  Or worse.

Weiss, obviously, isn’t going to do that.  She wants to learn how to use the Council as it was originally intended, which is really admirable.  This is just one of the things that got Ruby’s heart all aflutter in these two chapters.  A fair, patient queen who’s not going to disband a representation of the people so that she can get her own way without dealing with politicians?  A queen who realizes that there’s a difference between strength and power?  Ruby says it flat out - that’s her dream girl.

Wedding bells are ringing somewhere.  In the distance, perhaps, but obviously they’re soulmates destined to be together forever.  Ruby’s totally infatuated.  In my mind, she’s totally drooling every time she sees/hears Weiss do these incredible things.  Like in the early chapters where James caught Ruby staring at Weiss several times?  Like that, only even more intense.

Another bit of ‘technology’ that I spent too long overanalyzing last week…Weiss tells the messenger to make copies of the treaty.  How?  There are no copy machines that I know of, so they must be either copying everything by hand or…there’s another way to copy things, right?  Rubbing charcoal over an imprint?

This is another thing I didn’t bother trying to figure out, but maybe I should have.  They have to make a copy somehow so that Ruby can have one.  Oh, shoot.  They could’ve just written up two copies of the same treaty and signed both of them.

Wait, did they make copies of the Declaration of Independence?

According to Google, they did.  Some were made by engraving a copy of the text into a stone or copper plate, then applying ink, then pressing paper to the engraving.  Something like that might work in Atlas.  I wonder how they make those engravings though…do they engrave the signatures, too?  Because that seems like an early means of forging signatures.

Anyway, moving on to the moment that we’ve all been waiting for…Weiss revealing her spark.  Finally.  Finally!  It’s been 34 chapters!  The story’s practically over, and she’s just now getting that out in the open.

Her spark reminded me so much of Dream Theory.  That’s one of the things I liked most about it, actually.  Her power is basically the same as Blake’s within a dream where she can create anything she can imagine and clearly picture in her mind.  She doesn’t have the same creativity as Blake in Dream Theory, but she’s still capable of forming many different things due to her training with Winter.  We got to see some of that training back in the very first chapter.

And she starts by making Ruby a rose, of course.  Such a romantic.

I’ve always wondered…what happens to the ice??  Does it disappear like a fog or…melt.  Because if it melts, which is implied since Ruby said the rose stem was melting between her fingers, then that must leave a heck of a mess.  The ballroom floor is going to be one big puddle.  Maybe Atlas just makes everything waterproof…

That’s not as important as Weiss and Ruby being super cute together, right?  Poor Ruby thought that all Atlesians caused little bursts of frost when they kissed people…but nope!  That’s Weiss losing control of her spark because she gets all fluttery and happy when they kiss.  Ruby’s blowing papers off the table with her gusts of wind; Weiss is causing little furls of frost.  Those must be interesting kisses, that’s for sure.

All cute things must come to an end though…and that happens during the middle of this chapter when the whole plot thing comes back in.

Ironwood and Hill attacked?  Blaming James for it??  We all know that James is innocent!

James has kind of faded out of the story since Weiss and Ruby are…all over each other…but he’s still been up to stuff in the background.  Can you imagine if he was just sitting around twiddling his thumbs while Ruby’s snogging on Weiss?  (I don’t know if that’s even a word but everyone gets my drift.)  He’s not though.  He’s snooping around trying to figure out what Ironwood’s up to, per Ruby’s wishes.  I think of him kind of like a spy in addition to a bodyguard - he operates best in the shadows.  Just like how he figured out how to sneak into the chapel, he’s sneaking around the palace trying to figure out what Ironwood and the rest of the Council are up to.

I just realized that it would be funny if Ruby was just giving him things to do so that he didn’t get bored or too nosy about what she’s doing with Weiss.  They’re close friends, but is he going to start asking what she was doing staying in Weiss’ room all night?

Naw, he wouldn't do that.  As Weiss mentions, he’s intuitive.  He doesn’t have to ask because he already knows.

I wonder how he feels about it…is he thinking, like, ‘ah, young love.’  Or maybe he realizes that this could be serious and is more contemplative of what this will mean for the future.  He could be thinking, “Great, Atlas is cold and I’m going to be here all the time.”

He’ll survive though.  He’ll go anywhere for Ruby, obviously!  Right now, he’s not going anywhere though.  He’s going to sit in the medical center and watch over Robyn so that nothing bad happens to her overnight.

Definitely not the best time for Ruby to leave, but time is kind of running out.  I couldn't in good conscience extend her time in Atlas any longer.  She doesn’t know that Yang's health has taken a turn for the worse, so she’s still living in this period of blissful ignorance where Yang’s sick but stable.  We know the truth, but Yang hasn’t exactly been forthcoming in her updates to Ruby.  Oh, boy, is that going to change soon!

It’s crazy to think that there are only 14 chapters left.  That means only 4 chapters left each for Yang and Blake, and 3 each for Weiss and Ruby.  We’re only going to get Weiss’ POV 3 more times!  And Ruby’s too.  That doesn’t seem like much…although, we technically still have ~25% of the story left.  Crazy when you think about it that way too, right?  I haven’t even opened my “Queens of Remnant Pt 4” doc for proofreading yet!

I guess what I mean to say is…we’re in the home stretch, but there’s still a lot of story to go.  I’m excited and anxious for the next few chapters as we get into our resolution, but I hope everyone enjoys it.  Buckle up because things are about to get bumpy!

Until next time,

Miko