The Mistralian Civil War: Why, How, And What
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AndrewJTalon
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For the Mistralian Civil War I want to accomplish a few things:
1: To show Salem is a cunning villain who has made good use of her assets like the White Fang, Lionheart, and others to cause chaos, destruction and misery. She needs the nations of the world divided and fighting amongst themselves to empower her Grimm and herself.
2: To test our heroes. They will have to make it to Haven to try and find Cinder and reconnect with Lionheart, Ozpin's ally. They'll have to have a lot of adventures on the way there and going through a war zone knowing that it's all a plot by Salem will test them severely. Ruby will hit a moment of despair at this senseless waste, not helped by a confrontation with Tyrian where he mocks her convictions of heroism. It is a challenge for her to overcome, to find hope in this darkness and senseless brutality.
3: To show that Salem just used existing conflicts between these factions and made things worse, pushing them into open warfare.
4: To have Ruby and our heroes make a real difference in the world against Salem. They will fight hard, get victories, little ones that add up. Spread the word and the truth that this conflict is being pushed and everyone's being manipulated, ultimately being able to prove this to the people in charge so that some kind of peace can be made. It will be a temporary peace, yes, but ending the conflict and giving people the chance to forge alliances to eventually fight back against Salem would be a huge victory. It makes Ruby and her friends' travails much more meaningful: They aren't just out on a solo revenge mission, they are actively doing good in the world and making a real difference.
5: To PROPERLY develop the theme that CRWBY kept yapping about but didn't actually show: To keep going and still have hope no matter how hard things get. It wasn't until VOLUME FUCKING NINE that Ruby had a breakdown and that led to her committing FUCKING SUICIDE for all intents and purposes. Here? Ruby and her friends get a look at the brutality of humans and Faunus making war, confront how brutal they can be, ask if it is worth it to continue... And they KEEP. GOING. They find hope in the darkness. And they make. Things. BETTER.
A theme for a story is not just something the author SAYS is in the story, the theme is IN THE STORY. It's a KEY part of it. Having Ruby and her friends go through this terrible conflict, have to make hard decisions, suffer, feel despair but find hope and TRIUMPH: THAT is how you execute and explore a theme of a story. Just saying the theme is "to keep pressing on" is meaningless: The show keeps going, that does NOT mean the theme is in the show especially when there is NO EXPLORATION OF IT.
At least that's what my aim with the Mistralian Civil War is. And yeah it would take more Volumes than in the canon to show off all this: So what? It's fanfiction, I can expand things as I like! And more would happen in these fanon volumes than actually occurred in the real ones!
The thing is, yes RWBY is an action show and yes this story of mine would be punctuated by action. But the action would have a point, it would serve the theme of the story. The Apathy would be drawn by the despair of the war to try and cause more of it, they wouldn't just be a random ass encounter. Tok is fighting as a mercenary for one of the factions in the conflict who doesn't care about their ideals, just in money. Cordovin is seeking glory and using Atlasian assets to escalate the conflict for her personal gain, and she's not a servant of Salem. Kurokuri is being wrecked by the war and the Nucklavee and Ren has to decide between saving his friends and innocent lives or throwing his life away for vengeance. There's a LOT you can do with a war going on in the background, and that's why I am putting it into my fan canon. For anyone to use.
1: To show Salem is a cunning villain who has made good use of her assets like the White Fang, Lionheart, and others to cause chaos, destruction and misery. She needs the nations of the world divided and fighting amongst themselves to empower her Grimm and herself.
2: To test our heroes. They will have to make it to Haven to try and find Cinder and reconnect with Lionheart, Ozpin's ally. They'll have to have a lot of adventures on the way there and going through a war zone knowing that it's all a plot by Salem will test them severely. Ruby will hit a moment of despair at this senseless waste, not helped by a confrontation with Tyrian where he mocks her convictions of heroism. It is a challenge for her to overcome, to find hope in this darkness and senseless brutality.
3: To show that Salem just used existing conflicts between these factions and made things worse, pushing them into open warfare.
4: To have Ruby and our heroes make a real difference in the world against Salem. They will fight hard, get victories, little ones that add up. Spread the word and the truth that this conflict is being pushed and everyone's being manipulated, ultimately being able to prove this to the people in charge so that some kind of peace can be made. It will be a temporary peace, yes, but ending the conflict and giving people the chance to forge alliances to eventually fight back against Salem would be a huge victory. It makes Ruby and her friends' travails much more meaningful: They aren't just out on a solo revenge mission, they are actively doing good in the world and making a real difference.
5: To PROPERLY develop the theme that CRWBY kept yapping about but didn't actually show: To keep going and still have hope no matter how hard things get. It wasn't until VOLUME FUCKING NINE that Ruby had a breakdown and that led to her committing FUCKING SUICIDE for all intents and purposes. Here? Ruby and her friends get a look at the brutality of humans and Faunus making war, confront how brutal they can be, ask if it is worth it to continue... And they KEEP. GOING. They find hope in the darkness. And they make. Things. BETTER.
A theme for a story is not just something the author SAYS is in the story, the theme is IN THE STORY. It's a KEY part of it. Having Ruby and her friends go through this terrible conflict, have to make hard decisions, suffer, feel despair but find hope and TRIUMPH: THAT is how you execute and explore a theme of a story. Just saying the theme is "to keep pressing on" is meaningless: The show keeps going, that does NOT mean the theme is in the show especially when there is NO EXPLORATION OF IT.
At least that's what my aim with the Mistralian Civil War is. And yeah it would take more Volumes than in the canon to show off all this: So what? It's fanfiction, I can expand things as I like! And more would happen in these fanon volumes than actually occurred in the real ones!
The thing is, yes RWBY is an action show and yes this story of mine would be punctuated by action. But the action would have a point, it would serve the theme of the story. The Apathy would be drawn by the despair of the war to try and cause more of it, they wouldn't just be a random ass encounter. Tok is fighting as a mercenary for one of the factions in the conflict who doesn't care about their ideals, just in money. Cordovin is seeking glory and using Atlasian assets to escalate the conflict for her personal gain, and she's not a servant of Salem. Kurokuri is being wrecked by the war and the Nucklavee and Ren has to decide between saving his friends and innocent lives or throwing his life away for vengeance. There's a LOT you can do with a war going on in the background, and that's why I am putting it into my fan canon. For anyone to use.