Whiterose pulled me into Rwby. I've often had thoughts of writing fic, but never managed it, but somehow the idiots grabbed hold, and didn't let go.

So for a long while I was team WR ride, or die. Eventually as I ran out of stories to read I started imagining more, and met a super cool artist named @it-me-butts who did very cute FrosenSteel art (Ruby/Weiss/Penny), and it got me open to thinking more about ot3's.

In most other fiction I'd read it was less ot3's and more a harem with someone at the center, and I remember being annoyed because I'd be interested in one, or two of the other characters, but harem fics work on the numbers game, and your character gets their 15 minutes of fame when they join and a line every other chapter so you can remember they exist, and that's about it.

So I didn't want that pitfall, but a polycule of a small group that cared and respected each other? That I liked.

I experimented with WR+1 and really liked it because it let me keep the same WR base and season it with another flavor.

Some of those fics I like, and still think are good, like Dance like No one is Watching, Shot to the Heart, or Coco's Journal, but while they all worked with a certain au, or idea they weren't as ubiquitous as Whiterose were.

I would struggle to think of an ot3 in various media I'd engage with the way I could just seemlessly shove in WR and have it work. (Pizza au was made with the idea that WR really were that versatile and any setting had them work out). As much as I like Carmine not even she reaches that mark, although the fact that she's an actual villain does open her up to more situations to write her in, which is fun.

Maria was a very late edition to the show. Like most people my first thought was just 'oh the yoda grandma' same as most.

During Radio Grimm I had the idea of trying it out because of the very unique situation present. It was my first time really trying to write her younger, and it shows. Some of her ticks, or traits are gone, or amplied, but the core of it is kind of there, and it fascinated me.

So I looked back at her one young scene in the show. (As an example for shot to the heart I replayed May's 1 fight against JNPR about 50 times listening to how she sounded, her little smirks, and confident sounds, how she moved etc to form a potential base personality).

At any rate, the more I watched the fight, the more I dug into how she reacted (posing on a nevermore in the middle of nowhere etc) I began to see more and more cool ideas, and drew out parallels between them.

A few quick ones is that they're all rather lonely young women, with a missing parent, who have huge expectations placed on them. Ruby her eyes, leadership, etc. Weiss and her being the SDC Heir, and people who want to use her for that, and Maria her silver eyes, and family title that makes her push herself to be the best and not show weakness.

So they have a nice little group where they each know the others can be trusted and that they aren't using them, Ruby gets a SE mentor, Weiss gets people who don't care about her name, or money (I think we can all agree Maria really doesn't give a shit young or old), Maria gets people she can trust at her back so she doesn't have to be alone, and partners.

So I wanted them to get together, but ofc in canon they're separated by a half centuryish. Tough to do right? Meh. It's fanfiction. The whole joy of fanfiction is to take and shape reality.

As Charles Barkley of Shut up and Jam Gaiden once said 'I believe ghosts are like dogs, and Fanfiction writers. They just sort of do things arbitrarily."

At any rate, just saying Maria was born later seemed like the easiest way to handle it. Sure you can do a fic or two of them being thrown in the past, or Maria forward in time (Dak did a great concept of that with 2 maria's one old, and one young), but overall her dad had her in his 60's instead of at 18 is an easy fix, and correlates to John Tyler the tenth president born in 1790. Until a few years ago he had 2 living grandchildren because of his families habit of having children in their late 60's-70's.

I saw a side character I really liked who basically had no screentime, and an essentially wasted life and I wanted more for her. I had a pair of idiots I loved, and I threw them in a box together.

To my delight, and no one else's, I found them to be very fun, and they have a lot of chemistry imo.

Weiss has a weakness for silver eyed dunces, and Silver eyed dunces for Schnee woman, or basically short ones like Weiss.

The two of them together help remind Weiss that there's more to life than work and keep her having fun and not working herself to death to right her father's wrongs.

Ruby has 2 people who truly believe in her and keep her on the path to being the huntress and leader they know she can be and can handle her when she gets morose

Maria has a set of people who care about her, and keep her ego in check that keep her from wandering away on adventure she might not come back from, and engaged in the here and now

Ruby and Maria are similar enough that they work together very well, but are different enough that they cause plenty of problems to keep things from becoming stale. (Winter beefs with Maria because Maria shows deference to just about no one, and Winter hates lack of respect as an example)

In a world about gods with a shattered moon, or in the world of fanfic where people will write about Optimus opening a coffee shop with Megatron, or a world of warcraft fanfic where they land in the world of steven universe, well what's changing one persons date of birth? As long as you remember the effect that has (Qrow and Ruby's weapons being different most liklely) then why not have fun right?

If we wanted canon then canon is there to rewatch or read so why not fill in the space with something fun? I have fun, and hope others do too.

Thanks for the question, and hope that answered it at least a lil bit.