Hello everyone! I hope you're all doing alright with COVID-19, social distancing and whatnot! For this post, I'm gonna take a break from talking about social anxiety to tell you about a gay-friendly show you might not have heard of called RWBY!
Pictured: From left to right, Ruby, Weiss, Yang, and Blake. Each character represents a color, with Ruby being red, Weiss being white, Yang being yellow, and Blake being black.
RWBY is an American anime-style series about a team of teenage schoolgirls training to become weapon-wielding Huntresses so they can defend the world from the Creatures of Grimm, which live only to destroy humanity. At their school, students are formed into teams, and team names are formed through the first initials of each member, so Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang come together to form the titular team RWBY. The reason any of this is relevant to Transpondence, though, is that aside from being a show with badass fight scenes and lovable characters, it’s also chock-full of LESBIANS!
That's right folks! LESBIANS! And I'm gonna spend the rest of this post gushing about them!
[Disclaimer: This post will contain a few relatively minor spoilers for the show, but I've kept them to a minimum. It's mostly just me spoiling the existence of a few supporting characters that don't appear until later in the show. I don't get into any character deaths, major plot revelations, or anything else Earth-shattering like that. Nonetheless, if what I'll be discussing sounds too spoilery for you, feel free to bounce!]
Pictured: Ruby, the girl in red, gushing over her crush (a fellow huntress) complimenting her, as the bisexual icon Blake looks on in solidarity.
That picture, my friends, was perhaps the first documented sighting of a Wild Lesbian in RWBY. But it would not be the last!
Pictured: A light brown-skinned teenage girl with red hair in a ponytail looking in the direction of the viewer from in front of an ominous candle lit painting of a robed figure, from inside of an otherwise dark room.
Ilia here was the first CONFIRMED lesbian character (Despite Ruby's evident gayness), and she was unfortunately involved in a cult for a long time, as you can see from the picture above. She also has chameleon powers, which you could probably liken to a metaphor for being a closeted gay person!
Thankfully, Ilia leaves her creepy cult to be gay and do GOOD crime alongside the other heroes of the show.
And from Ilia, the lesbian ranks would only grow...
Until a gay power so strong it shattered the moon and bloodied the sky came to be:
Pictured, above: Two adult female RWBY characters holding hands on a couch in a warmly lit house, with one of them holding a toddler on her knee. Pictured, below: A screenshot from RWBY of the moon being shot through with a massive purple laser, scattering bits of it into space, with the caption "ME" edited over it, as if in response to the first picture.
THESE WIVES!!!!! Literally married, one-hundred-percent grass-fed, confirmed for realsies lesbian WIVES!!! Saphron and Terra, and their son Adrian. (Also, to clarify they are not ACTUALLY responsible for shattering the moon or bloodying the sky… but they did overcome my heart with lesbian emotions.) Saphron is the sister of one of the main characters, and her and her family help the heroes of the show on their mission in one of the later seasons, along with giving them a place to stay on their long journey.
That’s not all, though. Yang and Blake, two of the MAIN characters, are practically in a lesbian relationship already, and are guaranteed to officially be in one in the future. All of their interactions foreshadow it.
Pictured: The pair holding hands while they fight Blake’s ex-boyfriend.
Pictured: Yang getting caught checking Blake out after the latter gets a haircut.
Pictured: Blake blushing at this and shyly asking if she looks good, which leads to Yang complimenting her PROFUSELY.
Pictured: Yang fondly gazing at Blake in their shared room while the latter puts on her makeup.
I mean, look at this.
And that’s not even mentioning Coco, another lady who is ALSO Confirmed Gay™ . Not necessarily a lesbian, but her attraction definitely includes girls!
Pictured: Lethally stylish badass Coco, the leader of another team of Huntsmen and Huntresses.
Also, I gotta highlight the character May Marigold, whose a trans woman!!! Voiced by a trans actress and everything!
Pictured: May, in all of her glory.
And she’s part of a kick-butt crew of graduated huntresses who are all the COOLEST!!!
Pictured: May standing beside the rest of her team, while their leader speaks.
Gosh, I love this show.
Unfortunately, the one negative thing about RWBY is there aren't really any major men-loving-men in it... buuuut the writers seem intent on keeping the representation train going, so I'm holding out hope for that to improve soon.
Pictured: A screenshot of a Twitter conversation between a RWBY fan and RWBY writer Eddy Rivas, in which the fan says, “The FNDM has been very happy to see Blake & Yang more clearly moving towards their status as a couple & are also ecstatic to see characters like May bring representation to the series. Do you guys plan to include more LGBT+ characters in the future, whether new or old?” In response to this, Eddy Rivas answers, “Absolutely.”
So, there ya go! If my gushing made you wanna check out RWBY, I hope you get as much out of it as I have! You can find the entire show up to Volume 6 (seasons are called volumes) on Youtube. I'll just warn you in advance, the animation is a bit rough for the first couple of volumes. It improves by leaps and bounds though, if you just stick with it!
I'll be back next time with a conclusion to the two-part social anxiety post from last time! Until then, cheers everyone! And have a gay life!