The Queens of Remnant - Commentary - Ch. 1-2 (Patreon)
Content
Wow, it feels like I haven’t written a commentary in ages. In actuality, it’s only been 4 weeks, but what a 4 weeks it was.
I know the early commentaries are a little pointless because it’s a lot of, “I don’t want to give anything away, but I’m really excited about this!” But I am really excited about this story, which I’ll keep referring to as Queens of Remnant even though the official title is The Queens of Remnant. It looks more official with the ‘the’ but rolls off the tongue easier without it.
I spent the weeks leading up to posting the first chapter wondering if I should post the first chapter on the same weekend that RWBY (finally) returned, then wondering if I could post the first chapter when I was so nervous about it!
Obviously, I overcame both of those mental blockers. I figured that we have 48 chapters to get through, so might as well get started sooner rather than later even with RWBY happening concurrently. And I get nervous before every story I start, so that’s nothing new. It’s like stage fright or something. Once you get up on stage and get the first lines out of the way, you get into a groove and aren’t nervous anymore. (I say this having absolutely no experience on any sort of stage, so obviously I’m an expert!)
I also drag my feet posting a new story because, as long as the first chapter isn’t out in the wild, I can still change things. I can change the entire thing if I wanted to! But once you start posting, the chapters start locking you in bit by bit. The plot is being set in stone. Obviously, I could always go back and change things if I really wanted to, but I’m pretty sure most people will only read the story once. That means I only have one shot to get it right!
I might put a tremendous amount of pressure on myself for no reason, but you like me that way! Right? Right. Most likely. That’s the reason I finish so many stories!
Speaking of stories - upcoming stories, to be exact - I’ve spent the last week or so working on a new White Rose story that I’m very excited about. Actually, I might’ve mentioned it before - it’s the companion piece that goes with the Bumbleby cops and robbers AU. Weiss’ dad is running a crime syndicate and Ruby’s a cop - they meet and…well, they don’t fall in love at first, and that is the best part of the story.
Weiss is sassy x10. Sassier than in Conflict of Interest or Dream Theory. She’s a crime lord’s daughter, after all!
I’m happy to be writing Weiss’ POV again. I didn’t realize that I missed it until I picked this one up and started running with it like a running back. I’ve got my outline done, I’ve got a lot of the story beats in place, and I’ve written nearly 30k words already. I’m trying to keep this one under 100k, but we’ll see how I do.
Also…and no one will like this part, but I’ll only post it after the Bumbleby part. So…I’m writing in reverse. It will be more impactful that way though! You’ll understand once you’ve read them. Or you’ll still be upset about having to wait but will be happy once you get to read it. That’s my goal for this year though - finish that AU up.
Did I mention that I finished Diva? Finally. After years and years and - ok maybe it wasn’t that long, but it felt like it took a while. Remind me never to write 3/4ths of a story and then abandon it for 6 months again. That was pretty rough to get back into and wrap up after so much time had passed. I’m still not convinced it’s any good, but at least it’s a comprehensive story that’s technically finished.
As an aside, my hands hurt from typing so much. But I’m also happy with recent progress. I have a sense of, “I’ve still got it!” going on right now. It’s been so long since I finished a long story, I kind of worried that I’d lost the ability to. And it’s been a long time since I’ve started a new story with the enthusiasm I have now.
I also mentioned that I might write some Harlivy once I finish watching the Harley Quinn show. Ironically, I was looking for some cute Harlivy fics on AO3 to read in the meantime, and I only wanted to read something that was like…10k words. So…I wouldn't even read my long ass stories. This got me thinking that maybe I should try writing some shorter fics, like 40k words or something. After I finish a couple more giant ones, of course.
I guess I would read a longer fic if I knew that it would have a happy ending. But I wasn’t seeing any ‘angst with a happy ending’ tags, so I wasn’t willing to risk heartbreak. Maybe that’s how you feel about my way-too-long stories? You know there will be a good payoff, so you’re willing to invest the time?
Tldr; I should write some 30-40k fics. They’re sooo much easier to write, and people seem to enjoy them more. I even enjoy them! If only I can get my brain to keep plots short and sweet…
Well, look at that. I managed to write a ton and not even get to the story yet.
I don’t have that much to say about Queens of Remnant yet because I want to avoid spoilers, but there are a few things I can talk about!
I mentioned in the note before the first chapter that this story came to be out of one of the chapters in Boundless. I think the prompt for that day was actually something like mythological or fantasy AU, which I’m not even sure this technically fits, but I came up with the world then and fell in love!
If you read that chapter now (or once we’re a little further into QoR), you’ll notice that I changed the tone and some of the details to fit this story. Boundless was a cute and fluffy story, after all.
At the time I posted that chapter, someone actually messaged me asking if they could take the prompt and write the story. I tend to say yes to anything like that because who doesn’t want more fan fics? But in this case, I actually told them that I planned on writing the full story myself. Obviously, anyone can write a similar ‘powers’ type of story, but I planned on writing this specific one. And because I told them that, I felt morally obligated to make it come true.
That’s why this idea didn’t end up languishing in the river of unfinished ideas. I had to finish it or else I’d feel bad that I didn’t let this other person write it! So, person whose name I don’t remember, here it is! Please don’t hate me for telling you no.
I ended up loving the universe so much that I couldn't decide whether I wanted to write Bumbleby or White Rose, so…I decided to write both. And, if I was writing both, whose POV should I use? I considered using just one of each pair - like Yang and Weiss, but then we miss out on Blake and Ruby’s POVs!
All 4 POVs was the solution, obviously.
I love a challenge though, and 4 POVs is something I’ve never done before. Can’t say I’ll ever do it again, but it was a lot of fun figuring out how to weave a story together while following 4 separate lives. One of my friends - the same one who told me that weaving the 7 prompts of White Rose Week into one story wouldn't work - said that using all 4 POVs wouldn't work.
I guess I should wonder why he doubts me all the time. (Or maybe he knows me too well…) But 4 POVs does work! At least, I think it does. I think you will too once the story’s over!
Another reason for making this 50/50 between White Rose and Bumbleby was honestly to get everyone off my back. I’m posting both ships, so no one should be asking, “When are you going to post X again?” (Honestly, that’s very annoying. Don’t do that to people!)
We start the story with Weiss because…well, because she’s my favorite to write, but also because it was her POV for Boundless so that made the most sense to me. And poor girl is having a rough go of it. She got dealt a bad hand again with her crappy dad, who has obviously made her life miserable. Part of her journey is figuring out just how broken down she is and figuring out if she can put herself together enough to stand on her own two feet.
A unique aspect of this universe is their elemental powers, called sparks. You’ll learn more about those in time, but Weiss and Winter give us an introduction in the first chapter. And we learn that Weiss has a spark, but Winter has convinced her to hide it from everyone so that…well, so that no one takes advantage of her. Wonder who that would be…
Dear old dad shows up, and Weiss’ world falls apart. So…that’s how she’ll be starting this saga.
We get to see Ruby next! Well, Ruby and James - not James Ironwood. Do you remember where else James is from?
If you guessed Rush, you’re correct!
James was the name of Weiss’ chauffeur in Rush, and he was one of the only decent people she had in her life. Kind of ironic that a man of the same name is now Ruby’s traveling companion, isn’t it? Ironic or purposeful decision…honestly, with me it could be either of those, or just a mistake!
But I chose him for this role, and you’ll know why later on!
Ruby is on the other side of the Vale-Atlas coin, and I hope you got a good feel for her character from her first chapter. Besides Conflict of Interest/Dream Theory, this might be my favorite version of Ruby. You’ll probably understand why over future chapters.
Ruby introduces another conflict in addition to the Atlas/Vale war mentioned in Weiss’ chapter - an illness called the Phage. If Weiss’ chapter gave us a glimpse of how sparks work, Ruby’s gives us a peek at what the Phage is and why it’s so horrible.
Sidebar - I’d like to point out that I wrote this story before Covid! So…the pandemic had no impact here, but Vale is obviously struggling as hard as we were in March 2020 to figure out what’s going on and how to stop it, or at least slow it down.
I thought it was especially cool (or cruel?) to have the Phage destroy them using their own sparks. Their source of power…their source of destruction. That’s some MCU type of villainy right there.
But we have a hero, and her name is Ruby Rose. She’s so compassionate that there’s no way she can stand by without doing everything in her power to find a cure to this ‘incurable’ disease. Just how far will she go to get it though? That’s what we’ll find out in the upcoming chapters.
I think that’s all I really want to say for now since we haven’t even seen all of our leading ladies yet. I’ll probably have more to say once the next two chapters are up! Then we’ll know where all of our chess pieces are and how they might start moving around the board.
I’m excited for you to see everything that’s in store! It’ll take a while for everything to come to light, but I hope it’ll be worth it once it’s over.
And now I’m off to write more of Mob Weiss (The Mob Boss’ Daughter is the working title that I don’t like very much). Thank you again for all of your support! Definitely keeping me going whenever I feel like throwing in the towel and just playing video games or something with my free time. This is better. More fun for both of us, I’d say.
Until next time,
Miko