Introduction

Hello, and welcome to BtS: Behind the Story, where I disassemble everything I've written in this story and analyse them in hopes of figuring out what makes my story work and what I should try to avoid in later stories.

I know that it's unusual for writers to do this, but I've always been a critical person. Even when I'm satisfied with my work, I'm always looking for mistakes, not to belittle myself, but to improve myself.

Whether you're a writer who's just started, or an experienced writer, or just an avid reader, I hope this'll bear some use to you! After all, nothing's as important as knowledge!

Due to this story not having any plot, I've decided that I should focus on three main things: grammar, relationships, and accuracy between this and the anime RWBY, as well as some other things.

Again, if you've not read the original webtoon, please do so. COLOR_LES really puts in all of their hard work into the story. It'd be a shame for you not to read it. If you enjoyed this then you'll definitely enjoy that story a lot more.

Without further ado, let's get started!

How this Story Came to Be

There isn't much of a story, really, but I'll tell you anyway.

One day, I discovered about Mage and Demon Queen add at school. At home, I decided to binge-read the whole first season of it in one whole afternoon. During the entire time, all I did was keep comparing Malori to Ruby and Velverosa to Weiss. Who could blame me?! Malori has a cape and short hair and those innocent, cute eyes! Just like Ruby!

I got this itch. Like, this itch where if I don't do something about it, then I'll explode out of frustration. So I opened up my laptop and spent the whole day writing up to 2-3 chapters. The next day, I wrote another few chapters. And so on, and so forth, until I wrote 8 chapters in under a week.

That was about a year ago.

Back then, I was busying myself with my two other RWBY projects: Strangers: Become Lovers and The Truth and What Matters More that I didn't have time to publish it, or even think about it too much.

Plus, I wasn't confident about this story. When I usually write stories, they tend to be serious and, honestly? Kind of angsty. This is totally what I'm not used to writing, at least when it comes to something more than one-shots.

I never really devoted all of my time and effort for this story. This was just a way for me to have fun and let myself loose for once. It was a side project for me, and I put off the thought of publishing it until I wrapped up The Truth and What Matters Most.

I decided not to think about stories too much. I needed a break. So I posted one-shot stories for a while before I finally gathered enough courage to post both S:BL {Strangers: Become Lovers} and Q&M {Queens and Mages} .

Lo and behold! It's Q&M that bombed! Much to my surprise (and irritation, at the time.)

I never thought that Q&M would become what it is now. It's my second most popular story ever, right next to Fans and Girlfriends!

That is a huge deal.

It just goes to show that life is unexpected… I think. If there is a lesson to be learned here. Or maybe it's 'don't belittle your work, no matter how insignificant it seems'? I don't know.

Grammar

Grammar is something that I've struggled with since… always. Due to my native language having no past/present/future/conditional tenses and all of those other confusing things, it sometimes escapes me; mistakes that are glaringly obvious to the rest of you.

Most of the mistakes I caught were of conditional sentences. And using "did" when I should've used "would" and vice versa.

Even now, writing this, I'm scared that I've already made dozens of mistakes and I'm too blind to see it.

Though, I'm happy to say that I've improved a lot! Grammar is currently the most important aspect for me because I'm aiming to study abroad, and therefore should score decently in ESL test.

Sadly, it's hard to get a decent English education—or a decent education as a whole—where I live. It has to do with me being a small townie, and my country not yet deeming the English education as mandatory. I mean, we do get English education, but it's clear that whoever's in charge doesn't bother putting in any effort in the curriculum.

During my middle school years, it was me who had to point out to the teachers on the mistakes they made.

It sounds sad, but eso si que es, and it's why I try to encourage you all to tell me when I've made mistakes. It'll seriously be helpful.

Relationships

Of course, the highlight of this story would be the relationships! Most importantly, the romantic ships themselves!

White Rose

I took a lot of how their dynamic works from the original Webtoon, but added my own little twists and turns to it. I didn't want Ruby and Weiss to be exact copies of Malori and Velverosa, but I wanted their dynamic to be similar to it.

Something I've noticed in the Webtoon is how ridiculously OP Velverosa is. It makes me wonder how COLOR_LES plans to have Malori defeat her, if she wants that at all. (But, knowing how much of a genius and a madman COLOR_LES is, I'm sure they'll come up with something even better than Malori defeating Velverosa.)

I wanted it to be clear that Weiss is still a rookie demon queen. She's powerful as a demon, yes, but she's not at her full strength yet.

Neither is Ruby.

If you've not yet noticed, the way I wrote Ruby makes it clear that she would have defeated Weiss on multiple occasions were she more experienced. After months of battling Weiss, Ruby knows how to leave an opening, but doesn't know what to do with that opening.

Their relationship is more equal, that way, compared to Velverosa and Malori. And I know that what makes their relationship so good is that one of them is a strong queen and the other is a student, but I wanted to add my own flair to it.

Bumblebee

Unlike White Rose, which is inspired by the main attraction of the original webtoon, Bumblebee is something I created all by myself.

I based Yang off of Cerik, Malori's best friend, and Blake off of the mermaid general girl whose name I keep forgetting. But their relationship is way different than in the original webtoon.

I made it intentionally vague just how they met, and how they became… well, them. Their relationship is vastly different from White Rose's.

Where in White Rose, one of them refuses to admit that she's in love with the other, here, both of them knows they're into each other.

Their relationship, I think, is more casual than White Rose's. Neither of them can call it love yet, and neither of them are desperate to make the other their wife.

It's almost like "friends with benefits", only the benefits deal includes sparring every day.

Another fun thing is, where it's clear in White Rose who is stronger than the other, in Bumblebee, we aren't completely sure. Both of them are holding themselves back. And Yang's intentionally losing. So… who knows? Both of these options are equally fun to consider! Or perhaps they truly are equals in terms of strength and skills.

I'll leave it to the reader's interpretations, AKA, your interpretation.

Monochrome

No, it's not Monochrome as in the relationship pairing, it's Monochrome as in the pairing in general. Weiss and Blake, and their friendship.

Blake can defeat Weiss. In fact, in some aspects, she's stronger than Weiss. Weiss is powerful, yes, but she's young, so she lacks experience. Blake, though, is older, wiser, and knows more than a few dirty tricks.

If Blake wanted to, she could become the new queen, but that isn't her, and that'll never be her. Can you honestly see Blake as a leader? Because I sure can't.

She's not interested in leading, and ruling, and all of that royalty junk. If she were interested, she would've stayed in Menagerie and strived to become the new Chieftain of that place. She is a princess.

She's served the previous demon queen, and now she's serving the new one. She, of all people, knows Weiss. They've bonded because of their lack of age difference. I'd say that while Weiss is still 17, Blake's in her early 20s already—somewhere around 20-22, unlike the other monsters, who are in their 30s or 40s or, I don't know, 80s?

They're best friends. Blake isn't intimidated by Weiss, unlike the other monsters. She never holds back with her teasing, and while it irks Weiss, it never bothers actually her on a personal level.

I actually quite like their friendship. Blake's looking out for Weiss as she learns how to be a true demon queen, and Weiss' teaching Blake how to be herself. Maybe when it comes to certain, mundane things, Weiss looks up to Blake for guidance. And Blake herself is content with this friendship. Weiss, unlike many, is genuine. Sure, she's blunt, but she's honest. Blake never feels like she's secretly being stabbed in the back when she's with Weiss.

So, yeah. They're wholesome, basically.

Rose-Long

Again, no, I'm not insinuating that Ruby and Yang are secretly in a relationship this whole time, because ew.

Ruby has made it clear to Yang from the beginning that she's in love with Weiss, even before they met. Yang, meanwhile, kept it a secret from Ruby that she's starting to fall for Blake too.

There's not much to say about them, mostly because their sisterly-relationship is basically the same as canon.

Though, I will say that if there's anything interesting about them, it's how strongly Yang protects Ruby's secret from the world, fearful that humans will hurt her if they knew.

Others

There are still some other relationships I've not mentioned, like Blake and Ruby, Jaune and Ruby, Velvet and Blake, etc. Each of them are interesting in their own rights. I wish I could develop more of their relationship, especially Ruby and Blake's.

Maybe I'll even add in Freezerburn into the mix as well, invoke chaos by putting Weiss and Yang in the same room. That would be fun.

Comedy

The creator of the original Webtoon, COLOR_LES, seems to prefer a wackier, more over the top comedy, with people bleeding from their nose due to their attraction, and people imagining other people in, erm, "adult clothing".

It's the kind of humor mostly seen in animes and mangas, and it totally works for the comic! It's always hilarious to see Malori imagining herself as Velverosa's wife and vice versa.

The humor works for the comic, but it's not the kind of humor I'm used to writing. Of course, I could've tried to emulate the original comic's humor, but I think that would've done me more harm than good. I can't force myself to write in a certain way, nor can any writer, for that matter.

I have my own style of humor, so I leaned onto that, and you guys seemed to enjoy it.

My humor tends to be the calm, dry kind. Sure, there's blushing and stuttering, but it's not as intense as the original comic, and that's okay! Despite loving comedy, I tend to focus on the characters and how accurately I present them before jumping into the comedy.

For instance, I won't try to have Weiss act like a total kid and hurt her demons because of them teasing her and Ruby. Instead, I'll have her threaten to hurt them, even though everyone knows it's an empty threat.

I like more grounded humor, but that doesn't mean I'm saying my humor is better than COLOR_LES'! Humor is subjective!

Backstory/Concepts

With each chapter ranging around 1k-2k words, and those chapters focusing more on feel-good fluffs, there's never any time to explore the characters and why they're the way they are.

If I were to write more of this, I may change these stories, but for now, these are my ideas on our characters' backstories.

This can be either taken seriously or not. This is just a concept that could be a backstory. Don't take this too seriously. I'm just brainstorming, here.

Blake

Blake, of course, has to have the most tragic backstory of all, 'cuz she's an emo kitty.

I'd imagine that even in the monster world, there's its own version of the White Fang, led by none other than Adam. Like in canon, Blake would stick with him until, at 16-17, she has had enough, and left him. Only, instead of finding Beacon, she discovered the demon tower.

It's pretty solid and straightforward. And… yeah. Don't know what else I should say, because it's pretty solid and straightforward.

Weiss

Due to the comic having not revealed her story yet, I've taken some liberties myself when it comes to her backstory.

Weiss' family is a whole special species of demons themselves. The Schnees. They're despised even by demons, and have a sort of turf war against the White Fang, just like in canon.

Weiss wanted to stray from the family name, and proved to herself that she could do things on her own, without her father's help. Even though she was the heiress to her own Schnee throne, Weiss decided to work her butt off becoming her own queen, claiming a throne not through blood, but hard work.

It explains why Weiss looks different than all of the other monsters. Her skin's pale, her eyes an icy blue, and her hair white.

(... Man, she reminds me of Daenerys…

Guys, should I make a RWBY x Game of Thrones story? Where House Stark is Ruby and Yang, and House Targaryen is Weiss?! Wait. Does that make Blake a Lannister?! She is a cat faunus, and the Lannisters are lions…

I'm going off-topic here.)

Ruby

In the real comic, it's been hinted that Velverosa had met a human who took care of her. A human with a cape and red-brown hair. It's also been hinted that this same cloaked human has something to do with Malori.

My theory is that the cloaked human is Malori's mother, and she took care of Velverosa as a child and has something to do with Malori's devotion towards Velverosa.

Again, this is just a wild theory. I doubt this is what COLOR_LES is intending, but! If we follow through with this theory, we could have Ruby's backstory!

Summer teaching Ruby that monsters aren't evil, and her telling Ruby to take care of Weiss, and Summer taking care of Weiss as a kid… Wouldn't that be dope?

It deepens Ruby's character. Makes her seem less like a crazed fangirl and more like someone who's loyal and kind-hearted.

So, um, yeah…

Yang

I've always had this thought that Yang's secretly a half demon from her mom's side.

The reason why she's so overpowered and seems to be so in-tuned with her magic from such a young age is because of her Branwen blood. It also explains why she's not racist towards demons, even though there was a time where she had no reason not to be racist.

I don't know why, but I've always loved to make Yang seem more than who she is. She could be a very interesting character if you play your cards right, especially before Volume 4, where Raven was still this mysterious figure whose motives and powers and loyalty we don't know anything about.

Accuracy

What's quite challenging for me is to fit in RWBY's characters into this new world, and making sure they're essentially the same person.

I'd say that, fairly, I did my job okay, when it comes to my version of the cast compared to the real Team RWBY. More or less.

Yang's still the cocky, overpowered big sister who likes to have fun and not think too much about anything. I'm basing her off from the Yang in Volume 1 until 3, where she was, well… still armed. (I'm not sorry.)

She likes to brawl with Blake, and never takes those brawls seriously. She's also always there for Ruby when Ruby needs someone.

Ruby's still, well, Ruby. The only difference is that she's in love with Weiss and wishes to marry her, but I'd like to put that aside since it's essential for this story, even if it's far from accurate.

She wants to save people. She thinks violence isn't the right thing to do (when it comes to people against people, not people against Grimm.) She's strong for her age. She's clueless, at times.

So, yeah, she sounds like Ruby.

When it comes to Weiss and Blake, however… I might've altered their characterisation in order for the story to work.

Weiss is less like the tsundere ice queen from Volume 1-3, and more like the lonely, uncertain girl in Volume 4, when she was trapped in her "home".

I wanted Weiss to sort of be a rookie. She's young, she's new to this, and she doesn't know as much as she should. She has all these burdens, having to deal with "Castle Shenanigans", not to mention having to deal with a certain insufferable dolt who's too stubborn to give up her ridiculous dreams of being her wife.

Of course, she's still Weiss. She's arrogant, she has a sharp tongue, and she's always glaring daggers at everyone.

Blake is even less accurate.

Sure, she's mysterious, and strong in a quiet way, and she believes in the right cause, and she has a sad backstory, but…

Her relationship with Weiss is unlike canon. When in canon, they, in the first few volumes, disliked each other for obvious reasons. Then, they learned how to value one another and formed a real friendship bond.

In my version, however, their relationship isn't just friendship. Weiss, like I've said before, is inexperienced, unlike Blake. Weiss looks up to Blake when it comes to certain things, like how to deal with misbehaving monsters, or weird cute dunces who won't leave her alone. Blake also learns what a true friendship is through Weiss. Blake was so heartbroken by what happened with the White Fang that she lost all of her trust and kindness. Weiss helped her bring it back.

So, yeah. The monochrome duo isn't close to canon, but hey! They're not OoC either… At least I hope they aren't.

So… What Next?

Will I continue this story, knowing that it's my biggest hit yet? Or will I drop it, and continue on with other projects?

It's debatable, honestly. I do have another project, Raising Hellraisers, where Yang and Blake are parents of Ruby and Weiss. It's not as popular as this story, which is understandable, since I've only posted 1 chapter (at least, as I am writing this.) Plus, the concept is a little weird, so I understand if people don't want to read it.

I've opened up a large world with endless possibilities with this AU I've made.

We can explore the White Fang bit, with Blake's past catching up to her, and you readers being introduced to Adam. It's been done so many times before, but hey! It's a classic in the RWBY fandom, and there's a good reason why people love writing it. Cliches are cliches for a reason.

Or we can explore the Schnee bit, with Jacques telling Weiss to "stop it with this foolishness" and "come back to the Schnee family where you belong!" It would be dramatic, especially since Weiss feels responsible for so many things. She'd make Blake promise to keep guarding the demon tower, and consider Jacques' proposal. Ruby would then find out about it, and BAM! Drama!

We can even explore the Summer bit, though I'd have to diverge this story even more from COLOR_LES' original story, since it hasn't gone that far yet, at least to my knowledge.

There are endless possibilities here. But sadly, I don't think I have enough time to make those possibilities happen—

—which is why I'm giving each and every one of you permission to adopt this story and make it your own. No, you don't need to contact me to do so, though crediting me would be nice. And yes, there can be more than just one person writing this.

I've had one or two people approach me, telling me they wanted to adopt this story. I've had more people telling me to continue this story since they're so hooked into it.

I can't write this story, not because I don't want to, but because I have so many things I need to do, and because I don't know how to approach this story.

Like I said before, I need to start preparing myself for college. I want to study abroad, if possible, and to do that, I need to study now. And that's just one thing. There's also school stuff, family stuff, and health stuff (don't worry, I'm not dying or anything.)

So, if any of you wishes to write this story, go ahead. All I'm asking in return is credit. Just a simple shout-out of my name (and maybe a request to follow me and favourite all of my stories and devote all of their time and love and life towards me and make a cult to worship me) would be enough.

In Conclusion

If you're still here right now, then whoa! I cannot believe it. Thanks for sticking with me 'til the end. (Though I doubt any of you'll read this since this isn't even a real chapter...)

But, um, yeah! This story started out as a side-project, and now it's… this. There are so many concepts and ideas that are too big for a simple 1k-2k chapter, but I hope you enjoy this as what it is.

Thank you so much for all of your kind words. I'm sorry if I don't respond to your reviews. Life's been draining my energy, lately. Know that I do read your messages, and they do brighten up my day, even if it's a simple "nice chapter" or "haha, that was fun".

It's always nice to know that what I made have helped brighten up your day, even if it's only for a little while.

So, err, yeah. Don't know what else to say here, other than thank you, I hope you had a good day, and I'll see you next time!