Welcome to the second (or third?) to last commentary! And really, not a moment too soon. A moment too late, actually, considering how little time I have to write this right now. Studying has successfully taken up all of my writing time and much of my free time as well. Thankfully, there will be an end to studying, but life and work are ramping up at the same time.
Tldr; life busy.
Unfortunately, being busy means that I haven’t gotten to enjoy the end of this story like I usually do. It arrived without me realizing it, it seems. There are two chapters left, both of which are pseudo epilogues. (Well, the last one is a true epilogue…) I also have a real treat in the form of a one-off of the last couple of chapters through Weiss’ POV. You’re very welcome! I’ll post that between chapters…wait, I think I’m supposed to post that next week!
Since the end of Click, Click, Boom connects to Flashing Lights (who ever saw that coming??), I had to write a second epilogue for Weiss. At the end of Flashing Lights, she had agreed to help Robyn and Winter take down her father. Now, we’ll get to see that pipedream come to fruition from her colorful point of view. What happens after Blake comes up with this crazy plan at the police station? How does Ruby feel about it? Those answers will be in your hands very soon.
So…the plot has wrapped up. The bad guys are in prison and Blake and Yang still have a relationship. That’s a win-win. Was every part of the last couple chapters realistic? Probably not, but hopefully the nitpickers will cut me some slack.
In a nutshell, Blake figures out (or guesses) that the White Fang were hired to rob Jacques Schnee. Adam and Cinder (or both) had made comments about his ‘fabled vault’ back in part one, and we know it exists since Weiss almost took a bullet for it in Flashing Lights. (Aside…I miss that story. I should re-read it…)
Emerald’s comments were the key here. She honestly didn’t know who the target was but knowing the safe and knowing that it was a person left few options. And, since the police found all of those instruction manuals, Blake surmises that the White Fang plan on moving the safe to a more secure location where they will then bring her so that she can unlock it. (As Weiss giddily tells us, they tore the thing through the roof. Realistic? Probably not. Funny? I think so!)
The White Fang could have kidnapped Blake and dragged her onto the Schnee estate to unlock it there…but there’s a reason why they took the whole safe: so that Jacques called the police and reported it as stolen. He wouldn't imagine it being opened, so he’s more than happy to tell them what it looks like. “My name is engraved on it, you morons! Stop asking questions and find it!”
If the White Fang opened the safe on site and cleared out the illicit contents, Jacques would (probably) be smart enough not to call the police. But they took it, so he makes a mistake. Now, he’s on record describing his missing safe, and Weiss captures the moment it’s opened for the world to see.
Would that evidence hold up in court in reality? I have no idea. Video taken while a crime is being committed? I think that’s something that’s usually thrown out (but we could ask Weiss from Conflict of Interest!). But they aren’t in our world, so different laws must apply.
I should rewind a bit to the beginning of this harrowing ordeal. First, I don’t think that Blake knows that the White Fang will kidnap her so violently. She just knows that they left her a message about Sapphire Bank and that they plan on kidnapping her because they need her. She probably knows that it won’t be a fun experience but couldn't have predicted the way it would go down.
Yang must also be aware that they’ll be taken and that she needs to let it happen. I want to believe that she would have kicked some serious butt if she actually feared for their lives. But getting kidnapped is part of the plan. The crazy, dangerous plan, but still a plan!
Yang knows most of the plan, but Blake obviously left out a pretty important piece - Weiss! And she did that so that Yang’s reaction to Weiss’ appearance would be as genuinely shocked as possible. That’s why Weiss said in Chapter 28 that Blake couldn't tell Yang because Yang ‘would give it away.’ If she didn’t seem shocked enough, Adam might suspect that it was a setup. She probably put it together pretty fast, of course, but there was enough initial surprise to throw Adam off. Weiss does the rest.
One of my favorite parts of the entire story is Weiss vs. Cinder for the limited time they share a scene. Do you remember when Cinder talked about Weiss in Part 1? It was with a mixture of respect, envy, and admiration, as if she thought that she and Weiss would be great friends if they ever met. Just two criminal ladies…all high heels and bite.
Oh how quickly Weiss put Cinder in her place…and swipes Adam from under her nose in the process. Adam’s drooling over Weiss’ power while Cinder fumes in the background. It's an insult to injury for Cinder (just what she deserves).
This part of Blake’s plan was extraordinarily risky! There was no way for her to figure out who the real buyer was, but she knew of a potential buyer…so why not pull the old switcheroo? And Weiss was born for the role, obviously. Not only does she possess half of the world’s snark, but she also loathes her father. Perfect combination for the supposed hirer of White Fang evils.
Also, Blake gambled that the White Fang wouldn't search Weiss for weapons - that would be rude, wouldn't it? At least, that’s how it seems in all the crime movies. The bad guys on both sides get to keep their weapons, and Weiss has usurped the ‘bad guy’ side with her entourage of (fake) goons so she gets the same privilege.
And that’s how Yang ends up with a knife even though the White Fang already searched her! Well, first Yang has to ‘grope’ Weiss for it. I wonder how Blake instructed Yang to procure the blade without mentioning who would be delivering it… “There will be an opportunity for you to get a knife from someone’s jacket pocket. You’ll need to start a little tussle in order to get it though.”
Yang probably thought that would be easy, then went through the seven stages of grief when she realized Weiss was the one she had to retrieve it from. Seven stages of grief? Or is it five…
Obviously, Weiss kind of suggests that Cinder cut off a few of Yang’s fingers…but she only does that to keep Yang from getting shot. She had to weigh the odds of survival there and probably breathed a sigh of relief when Cinder started with Yang’s prosthetic arm rather than real arm (of course, she also inwardly rolled her eyes that Cinder lacked the gall to start with Yang’s real arm).
Originally, I planned on putting Yang’s arm through a wood chipper or something. Then Blake would have the roar of metal grinding metal in her ears while trying to figure out the combination. The problem with that was getting the wood chipper into the warehouse. How many warehouses have very convenient wood chippers around? Plus, the noise would make it impossible for Blake to crack that code.
I guess you could also ask why Weiss’ crew just happened to have bolt cutters in the trunk, but bolt cutters would probably be much more standard fare to carry around for a criminal group. How many blacked out SUVs do you see hauling wood chippers around? (That would be both hilarious and highly suspicious.)
Weiss is smart. Probably the perfect partner for Blake in this endeavor. She realizes that she needs to buy time and keep the bloodthirsty one occupied. Yang probably would’ve gotten shot if Weiss hadn’t been there so…you’re welcome, Yang (and Blake).
Blake, meanwhile, had to figure out Jacques’ combo while worrying about Yang and also waiting for Weiss’ signal. And Weiss was waiting for the cops to get into position so they could storm the building without anyone getting hurt! The cops and the RIA storm the building, linking together the stories in the form of Robyn Hill - who we learn has married Winter in the time between now and when we last saw her! (Weiss refers to her as ‘my sister-in-law.’)
Blake is obviously annoyed at Robyn and says that she was responsible for the ‘more complicated’ part of the plan, leading us to believe that Blake’s plan would have been much simpler if the RIA hadn’t gotten involved. I imagine that Blake only planned on leading the police to Adam and Cinder (via the tracking device that the White Fang used to find her), but then the RIA stepped in and said “Waitttt a second. Jacques Schnee is the target? You’ll have his safe? You can open his safe? Let’s think about this.”
Blake probably thought, “Are you kidding me? You want Adam and Cinder, I can lead you to Adam and Cinder.” But no…the RIA wants everyone. Adam and Cinder. Jacques Schnee. And the mysterious third party who wanted Jacques safe. Easy peasy, right?
Considering they pulled it off, it was at least possible. With Blake’s genius, Weiss’ different form of genius, Yang’s superb acting skills, and Ruby keeping an eagle’s eye on everything. Ruby was probably vibrating with energy while waiting to rush in to save Weiss. And she was, in Yang’s words, pissed that her wife got dragged into the ordeal. We’ll see more of how she feels about the matter in Weiss’ side of the story!
I thought the ending was pretty poetic in Blake putting the mask back on, but only so that she could help arrest whoever has it out for Weiss’ family. Shroud is a force for good now! Or at least a force for protecting the people she cares about.
My thinking is that everyone saw the message the White Fang left at the bank that ‘Shroud is back.’ Everyone including the bad guy who hired the White Fang. It would be all over the news, wouldn't it? So Blake’s reappearance wouldn't be alarming - her return had been announced to the world, after all. In effect, Adam gave her the perfect opening to step into his place.
“Where’s Adam?” the buyer might ask, and Blake could go the same route that Weiss just did. “There’s been a change in leadership,” would probably do the trick. The buyer will just assume that Blake took over the White Fang…probably by force, so Adam’s floating down the river by now. She kept ‘Cinder’ though, and, honestly, the buyer will probably be much more interested in the safe’s contents to run identity checks.
So, from broken and unsure sixteen or so chapters ago, Blake rises from the ashes and takes down not one, not two, but three criminal overlords in one swoop. And she gets the girl. That’s one helluva comeback.
I loved that some of Yang and Blake’s last cute moments together in this story mirror how they first met but play out oppositely. Like how Blake’s the one to accidentally let the ‘love’ slip first this time, and how Yang asks Blake out and Blake instantly agrees. They might not be fully back yet, but I wanted to use these little differences to show that they’re starting this new relationship on an even better foot than the first time around. So they’ll end up with an even stronger relationship than the first time, too.
Now that you know how the White Fang are taken down, I can tell you how the first draft went - pieces of which were still littered throughout the story. The plot was still ‘find and capture Adam and Cinder,’ but Yang and the police played a far more nefarious role.
In a nutshell, the police still brought Blake back to Vale to help find the White Fang, and Yang was still put in charge of keeping tabs on her, but that was only what they told Blake. The actual plan was to bring Blake back to Vale and then put her in positions for her to run/escape/or in some way return to the White Fang so that the police could track them down through her.
All of the moments when Yang leaves Blake alone and unattended, when Blake thinks about how she could just walk out the doors and disappear into the city, are remnants of this plot. Yang shuttling Blake around to several banks are, too. The police are trying to entice Blake into falling back into old habits. Of course, Blake never takes the bait because she’s serious about making things right, and through these acts of loyalty wins Yang’s trust back.
It was supposed to be the inverse of Part 1, and I even considered writing it from Yang’s POV. Yang would have been the one with a huge secret this time, which she would have felt worse and worse about with every ‘test’ that Blake passed. Eventually, she would tell Blake the truth (even though she’s not supposed to) and then they would work together to find Adam.
There were a lot of issues with this idea, obviously. The main one is that it wouldn't feel very good. Does Blake deserve it after Part 1? Maybe. But that doesn’t mean we want to see Yang turn into the manipulator. Besides, Yang knows firsthand what it’s like. Why would she do that to someone, even someone who had wronged her? Yang would go from victim to villain, which I didn’t want for her.
And then we would end Part 2 very similarly to Part 1, except maybe we would expect Blake to forgive Yang for lying. Like one of those, “Well, I guess we’re even,” situations, but I think it’s a little unfair (and unrealistic) for anyone to sweep this under the rug so easily. I’m sure Blake would eventually come around, and probably sooner than Yang did at the first incident, but it still felt…not great.
You know how it might have worked? With a Part 3. Then Part 2 can end in similar distress and broken hearts, but they have all of Part 3 to figure out how to forge a path forward after two betrayals.
But I wasn’t interested in writing a Part 3 or making Yang the liar, so I scrapped this idea in favor of Blake’s long redemption arc. I made it more about her piecing herself back together instead, going from a broken fragment of her past self to regaining some of the confidence and determination that made her perfect for Yang.
I like how it turned out much better, of course, but just imagine how shocked Blake would have been when Yang confessed that their whole ‘investigation’ was actually a ruse. “So…you don’t actually want my help. You just want me to go running back to Adam.” Oof. Yeah. That would hurt. (In another universe, that’s the beginning of Blake’s supervillain arc.)
Instead, Blake gets to ride off into the sunset as the mastermind behind the plan that erased about half of the crime in Vale (temporarily erased, at least). Chief Fowler will be so pleased. Get that re-election campaign train rolling!
Over the last few chapters, we’ll wrap up a few loose ends and get to see what that ‘happily-ever-after’ looks like for our favorite characters. I can’t believe this story is actually over…feels like it passed in a bit of a dream.
Next up…Diva. Which I recently noticed wayyy far down in my Google Docs. I haven’t looked at the story in 2 full years. Yikes. I’ll need to take a gander at that soon…more White Rose for the masses, hooray!
Anyway, that’s all from me for now. Any straggling thoughts about this story I’ll hopefully catch on the next (last?) commentary. I guess I’ll post Weiss’ POV chapter, then the final 2 chapters of CCB, then do a final commentary wrap-up. Either way, I’ll be back at least one more time!
Until next time,
Miko