User blog:SableSkies/The Dim Light of Argence

It's been far too long since I've written anything even resembling a blog post. When I write these, it always feel like I'm just doing open brainstorming and debate with myself, so it felt kind of pointless. Even so, it's amazing what getting all the ideas in your head onto paper can do to make decisions easier; give it a shot if you have the time. Now, onto the struggle.

Argence
I love Argence; it feels like 10 months passed by in the span of a couple weeks. World building probably takes the cake as the most time-consuming and also wonderful hobbies out there, even if you're just adding to an existing one (thank you, Based Remnant). Again, thank you Rooster Teeth, beloved Monty, and the RWBY community for herding me into this amazing series. I don't think I'll ever be as obsessed with another show as this one.

As the world building slows down and the story begins to flesh out for the first time, I realize that there are far too many details about Argence that just don't fit in. It's not about the locations, but rather the various characters. It's not wrong to say I've created far too many for this single expansive story (with over 20 wiki pages, not counting concepts still coming together). In fact, 20+ significant characters aren't even all that much for a story (take One Piece for example). Rather, it's that there are too many Argence characters that just "don't matter".

When people create RWBY characters (not counting self-inserts), it comes from a design that feels perfect; that this individual has enough personality and story that they feel real. You know what they look like, what they wear, what their weapon is, and what they say. But once you start jotting everything down, you realize that there are so many holes to fill in: What interests do they have? What foods do they hate? What do they do in their free time? Why do they love X and dislike Y? Without knowing or slowly acquainting with these details, they just start to feel flat.

About PVRL
I'm in love with Team PVRL. They were the first complete team I ever created. I spent hours (possibly days) scribbling out pages of information about Percy, Vera, Rivern, and Lucia before I had a page for them. It wasn't just each character that felt real to me; it was the chemistry between each of them. How they liked and hated one another, and how these feelings changed through the potato of a story I imagined almost a year ago. There isn't any incarnation of Argence where I wouldn't have these four dorks in it. Now, back to the surplus (or lackthereoff) of deep characters.

The Excess of CRNA, AVLN, and SRND
Team CRNA and Team AVLN were the first concepts that came to mind upon stumbling into the Fanon universe of RWBY. They were written in one of those Reddit posts on /r/RWBYOC, hastily scratched together, but founded a good starting line.

AVLN (ALBN or Albion back then) were the protagonists of whatever potato spud of a story I imagined at the time. Albus was a different version of Percy, while Blaine was like a more manly Vera. Lucian's asshole nature reminded a lot of Shinon from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, and Noctis was just the stereotypical emo ninja too-cool-for-school finisher. After adapting some of their character roles into PVRL, they needed a redesign that I deeply regret now. Noctis had a huge overhaul, becoming Nyx (who is by far one of my most beloved characters), while Albus found a new identity as the exact opposite of his starting design. However, along the process, Lucian became a less impacting version of Weiss Schnee and Vlaine (Blaine before) just didn't have an identity anymore.

CRNA was a different story. They were something completely unique to me and my experiences with TV shows, books, manga, anime, etc. It wasn't like their character identities were super unique, but that their chemistry as a team just felt right. Celina was designed as something like Weiss without the seeming superiority/inferiority complex displayed during Volume 1. She was confident, beautiful, gracefully powerful, and she rocked it. Reira and Amber came a little later, coming as two people who made up for each other's flaws. Reira was the gentle giant archtype (seen time and again in media), while Amber was the ferocious midget (e.g. Taiga from Toradora, Suzu from SYD, Nagi from Hayate). Neon was the last, and I have to admit, I treated him rather poorly. His first characteristic was the individual who brought "gender diversity" among CRNA, to seperate them from the all-girl identity of RWBY. His second characteristic was being the introverted nerd obsessed with technology, and his third was a loveable but punching bag teammate. It's no wonder I never bothered to finish his character page (not that a lot of them are done, anyway).

Team SRND was by far my most selfish and shallow team yet. I had created them solely to bring social issues into Argence to make them relevant. Besides Sona, who was conceived by herself, Ruth, Nervine, and Deina all had a sad frustrating story behind them. Ruth was based on one of my IRL friends who is a transgender; xe wasn't even aware of RWBY, but I just thought to myself "Hey, xe'd make an interesting character". Nervine, who I truly do appreciate, was the both the racially diverse and disabled individual (despite that, I gave her badass mechanical legs anyway); other than that, she really didn't differ from a normal person. Maybe it's better this way, but I feel like I ripped her off. Deina, who was literally meant to be a mascot for the team, was the always-hungry-never-growing mute Panda-faunus whose whole identity was being adorable.

Guilt
I honestly feel really scummy after writing all this out, now that I can't push it to the back of my mind anymore. That being said, since I recently got a Tetanus booster and several days off from work, I'll dedicate that time to giving Argence the huge overhaul it deserves. Removing the War Line portion of the story felt really clean, so cutting away more of the excess would help as well. A lot of characters are going to be cut out, as well as other factors of the world; I'm already expecting to completely rewrite some complete teams (replacing the current incarnations of CRNA and ALVN with Team CRVN for example). Even if I'm creating new characters in place of the old ones, I'm going to put in the effort to do it right. Hopefully, Argence will become a better story overall.

Warriors of Remnant
It's absolutely amazing that the RWBY Fanon is putting together this project. If you haven't heard about it yet, check out the fundraiser (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/rwby-oc-artbook-warriors-of-remnant#/). Some of my favorite artists like IsaiahJordan and also the local RWBYFanon mods like Flora are taking part. If the project gets up and running to near it's target goal, I'm thinking of pitching in a few hundred dollars to boost it. There are still 36 days left now, so I pray it gets the support it needs. If you have a buck or ten to spare, it's a project worth supporting.