Queens of Remnant - Commentary - Ch. 39-40 (Patreon)

We’ve officially reached the holiday season, which is my favorite time of the year (along with most everyone else’s, I believe).  I just love when people are in good spirits and being generous and happy to be around each other!  Of course, I’m actively avoiding my work holiday party because I don’t want to be that close to happy (read: drunk) people, but I still appreciate that they’re having a great time without me.

The holiday season is also a little crazy, so my writing schedule might be out of whack for a while longer.  Plus, losing our assistant at work in just a few weeks is going to be killer on my work exhaustion, which bleeds over into my writing exhaustion.  Maybe it won’t be so bad though.  I hope not, at least.

Setting those worries aside, I have good news - I passed the exam that I took last week!  What a relief to have that in the rearview mirror.  More good news - my mom finally found a new place to live!  She was needing to move before spring, so things were getting a little stressful there.  She found a great place that she’s excited about and should be very stable for her for the foreseeable future.

So…that’s some good stuff, right?  There are still some other lingering issues like Violet’s persistent medical problems (her UTI infection is back for a fourth time…), but things are looking much better than they were a month ago.

Writing has been really spotty though.  I’m itching to get back into it, but my brain is also not quite ready yet.  I think I have only 7 or 8 chapters left of Click, Click, Boom, so hopefully I can finish that soon.  I also had a new idea for a short (ish) Bumbleby childhood-friends-to-lovers story!  I can tell when I’m reaching the end of a story because I normally start coming up with new ideas around that time.  That’s why the backlog never shortens, no matter how many stories I finish…

Oh!  I also posted Leap of Faith!  Forgot about that.  That took up a good amount of time last week getting prepped for posting.  I really like that universe.  It was fun to come up with an Avatar/Black Panther-esque tone plus a good amount of cute exploration and flirting for Yang and Blake.

I wish I had scoped it better though, or changed the ending somehow.  I wanted it to lead into a bigger adventure so that readers ended the story with their own imaginations about what comes next, but it probably could have used another chapter at the end.  Unfortunately, I ran out of both time and motivation to make that happen.  If I hadn’t had to post all of the chapters at once, I might’ve done things differently, but this is just one of the issues I have with posting everything at one time - I feel less motivation around the story because I know that most people are just going to fly through and forget about it.  Anyway, I’m glad that’s in the past too.

What’s also in the past that we can celebrate now?  Yang dying!

She died, and now she’s back.  Better than new!  Except she’s a bit of a human popsicle now, but that’s better than a human torch.  We’ll get into that more in a little bit though since we have to go through Blake’s sad chapter first.

Blake’s chapter isn’t as sad as Ruby’s previous chapter in my opinion, even though Yang actually dies in Blake’s.  It’s, like, sad, but not quite as sad.

Obviously, Blake is still a mess about it - the love of her life is dying, after all.  Her conversation with Sun when he returns from Atlas (took him quite a bit longer than it took Ruby!) was meant to give us a peek into Blake’s romantic life pre-story, especially her ‘relationship’ with Adam.

A version of this conversation was actually supposed to be between Sun and Yang in Yang’s previous chapter, back when I forgot that I sent him to Atlas to get Ruby.  They were going to talk about Blake, Blake’s past, and Yang would admit the depths of her feelings for Blake.  She would also ask Sun to look after Blake, of course, to which Sun would respond that he always has and always would.

Well, Sun went to Atlas, and by the time he gets back, Yang’s too far gone to be having any sort of conversation.  That’s when I realized…it makes much more sense for him to talk to Blake.  Blake is his BFF, after all.  He knows her better than anyone, and can give us the final little insights into her past.

In a nutshell, Blake and Adam were never an item because she instantly ‘walled’ herself off from him.  It’s been so long since we saw him being a complete creep to her that it’s almost easy to forget that she was not interested in his advances.  In case we were unsure, Sun’s here to tell us that she was never interested - she just wanted to help people, and she saw him as the best way to accomplish that.

Adam’s gone, but a new megalomania is running amok, messing up Blake’s world.  But her experience with Adam is actually helping her make decisions when it comes to Cecelia - i.e. when to negotiate and when to put your foot down and say, “No,” even if that means risking their ire.  I mean, with people like that, you’re probably going to piss them off anyway, right?  You might as well do it on your terms versus trying to pacify them when you know it will never work.

I had to have Cecelia send a messenger so that we could get a glimpse into what’s happening in Vale and remind us that Yang’s impending death isn’t the only unresolved issue going on.  My first iteration of the messenger was actually one of Cecelia’s mercenary guys who somehow tracks Blake down and says some version of, “Give Yang back or else we’ll burn everything to the ground.”

Then I realized…if one of Cecelia’s men tracked Blake down, then nothing would stop Cecelia from marching her whole army directly there and taking Blake out.  Cecelia’s guys are also very highly trained, so it would be unlikely that any of the Resistance members could subdue him enough to bring him to Blake like what happened in this chapter.

Cecelia sending one of the palace messengers who Blake knows is almost a more sinister plot.  This guy is easily captured, carted across the Badlands, then expresses genuine relief to find Blake alive.

I just realized that he says that he thought Blake died in the uprising, yet his message was specifically for her…actually, that’s still ok.  A little bit of a mistake, but we can just imagine that Cecelia sent him off with that message while he’s thinking to himself that he’ll never find Blake because Blake is dead.  He thought it was a pointless mission, basically, but he willingly took it because if Blake was alive, she might know where Yang is.

I wonder if Cecelia should’ve told everyone that Blake killed Yang, turning Blake into public enemy #1.  But Cecelia’s playing more of a cloak and dagger game, if you noticed how she didn’t even tell the messenger what Blake took.  He’s probably thinking Blake stole some priceless vase or raided the silverware drawer on the way out.

I’m curious about what would’ve happened if Blake did take Yang back to Vale and then Yang goes up in flames.  I think that Cecelia would react precisely how Blake fears - mainly, first by being stunned, and then by assuming that Blake is responsible and going on a warpath.  Which is less deadly…a revenge-fueled warpath or a grief-fueled warpath?

Ugh, I just found a typo in this chapter, which I can fix for AO3 and ff.net but not for you.  That’s always a downer.  I try hard to fix everything, but my brain also skips over things because it knows what’s coming in the story.  I need to read slower, I guess, and really focus on each word.  Also, I use Grammarly to do a quick scan after I’ve manually gone through each chapter, so Grammarly is also not catching this stuff.  Spelling and grammar checking software still has a ways to go!

I wish I could trust Grammarly to catch every little mistake.  That would be incredible.  Imagine what I could do with all that proofreading time…

Ah, well.  Maybe that will be part of the future with all of this AI stuff happening now.  I wonder if AI would be a better proofreader…I’m not sure if that’s one of its capabilities right now, or if it’ll just try to rewrite what’s already been written…

Anyway, back to the story!  Blake and Ruby are dealing with grief as Yang’s health is not so hot (or actually, way too hot).  I figured that Yang needed to be at death’s door for either of them to even consider having Winter do what she did.  If there was hope, no matter how small, Blake and Ruby wouldn't have risked, essentially, ushering in Yang’s demise.  Desperation, however, is an excellent motivator.

I know some people already guessed the ‘cure’ long ago.  I did set up much of the story leading to it, especially the whole “Atlas has the cure” thing.  I always think it’s…weird…that readers dislike figuring out the answers.  Would it be preferable for the solution to be something completely out of left field that hasn’t been hinted at at all?  That would be really jarring, and not something I would particularly enjoy…

I say this because I saw a review where someone said they hope the answer isn’t ‘something lame’ like their elements canceling each other out.  It was probably the obvious choice, but I like to think I went about it in a not-lame way!  While their sparks cancel each other out, not just any Atlesian could’ve saved Yang.  As we saw, Yang subconsciously fights back - her instinct to survive kicking in - and Winter’s gritting her teeth trying to keep Yang’s spark from winning.

Poor Winter though…she thought that she was going to have to mercy-end Yang’s life.  She was willing to do it, too.  Which kind of takes us back to Yang’s first chapter where the guy died, and Yang thinks to herself about how awful it would be to die like that, and how it would have been better to spare him the torment.  She also wondered if someone would grant her mercy when the time came and, well, now we see that Winter’s the one stepping up to the task.

She froze Yang good, too.  That was the only way to really snuff out the flames, in my mind.  Replace the lava flowing through Yang’s veins with some good ol’ ice.

I just realized that Yang probably has an even lower tolerance to cold because she’s been burning up for so long, and Vale is in a warm climate (in this universe, at least).  It’s probably the equivalent of taking someone from Florida or the tropics and dumping them into an ice bath in Alaska.  It would be cold for most people, but especially cold for them!

Yang’s finally back in the story!  And not in her semi-comatose state.  She’s talking and laughing and everything.  When’s the last time that happened?  Feels like it was a lifetime ago.  But you know how you put ice on a burn and it feels better?  She’s feeling pretty fantastic right now.

It’s probably unrealistic for her to recover so fast, but we don’t have time for her to lay around being a vegetable!  She isn’t fully recovered, of course.  Not even close.  She can hardly stand for more than a few minutes before getting out of breath!

But Yang is stable for now, meaning that we can worry about that other problem a little more.  Not that we had much more time since Cecelia is getting impatient.  She’s been lingering at the edge of the story for several chapters now, and she doesn’t like it!  She wants the spotlight back on her.

I realized that it’s…funny?  awkward?  that Yang comes back from the dead and pretty immediately finds herself alone.  Winter, Blake, and Ruby are like, “You most likely cured - we’ve got other places to be!”

Ok, not in those words, exactly.  And Winter is exhausted so deserves a nap.  Blake is called away for important things.  And Ruby hangs out until Yang wants to get dressed.  I also like to think that Blake and Sun were probably very near the house, so Ruby told/motioned to Blake that she was leaving, and that’s why Blake made it back so fast.  “Ok, Sun, I know there’s an army that might flatten the Badlands, but my used-to-be hot girlfriend needs me to help her change!”

This sounds like those drunk interpretations of history now.

You probably noticed that Yang noticed Ruby’s little, “Yeah, Weiss is pretty great” comment.  ‘Pretty great,’ huh?  How great, Ruby?

Considering the circumstances, I thought it was fair that Ruby didn’t launch into those details right away.  There’s still a lot going on, like that whole Cecelia thing…

Not to worry though - Blake has a plan!  She doesn’t tell us what that plan is, of course, because that wouldn't leave us guessing about the upcoming chapters.  All we know is that she doesn’t have to beat Cecelia in a head to head fight, which is a good thing, and that she needs Ruby’s help, and that she already sent Cecelia some sort of message about whatever’s about to happen.

What kind of message do you think it was?  Do you think Blake was sassy and poked the bear a little bit?  Or was she diplomatic?  Conciliatory?  Guess we’re going to have to wait and find out!

We’re rapidly approaching the end of this story.  While I’m excited for it to be over, I’m also unsure about what I’ll do next.  And I’m pretty sure I don’t have the next chapter of RCR written…but I’m going to try not to stress about that right now!  We just survived Thanksgiving and I survived that exam that I was studying for, so I think a little break is in order.  Rest, recharge, then get back at it.  Hopefully, by the next commentary I’ll have a solid writing update for you!

Until next time,

Miko