#Jacques doesn't pull any punches

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Greta, the Mad Butcher (Franco, 1977)

Greta, the Mad Butcher was released in some markets as Ilsa, the Wicked Warden (and in some others as Wanda, the Wicked Warden), so it makes sense that it plays a lot like an Ilsa movie. (It does not however, play like a sequel to Barbara Loden's Wanda, making the latter alternate title a bit confusing.) The opening scenes set the tone for the junky pleasures the movie offers. Ilsa...sorry, Greta, played by Dyanne Thorne, slips into a bath while a group of female prisoners are crowded into a shower. There's a parodic amount of nudity in these few minutes, and had I any semblance of dignity as a viewer, I might have taken offense. (I don't, and shamefully nodded in appreciation.) Of course, this nudity was something of a red herring for us and the prisoners' captors, as one of the girls manages to escape, taking refuge with a kindly doctor played by director Jess Franco. (Franco is introduced with his shirt unbuttoned distressingly low, a move he's not handsome enough to pull off.)

When Ilsa...sorry, Greta, shows up to reclaim the escaped inmate, Franco holds a press conference to voice his suspicions about what the hell they're doing in her so called hospital. Franco is then approached by the sister of the inmate (their meet cute involves her holding a gun to his head) and demands to be admitted into the hospital under false pretenses so she can investigate what happened to her sister, a plan that absolutely has zero probability of going wrong in any capacity whatsoever. Among the many ways this doesn't go wrong at all include lots of sexually-charged torture by Ilsa...sorry, Greta, which are being filmed for sale to a scumbag in a loud boating blazer, being forced to go without pants (the wardrobe resembles the prison garb from Barbed Wire Dolls), and being bullied by another inmate played by the great Lina Romay. Romay does eventually help the heroine, but not before using her face for toilet paper in the movie's most baffling scene. (I suppose a bidet would be more accurate here, actually.)

Perhaps because the first two Ilsa movies were fairly flatly directed, Franco's (unofficial) entry feels a lot more dynamic. The earlier movies, especially the original, were trying to shock and disgust, and felt a little demeaning in the process. (It didn't help that the original was trying to use Nazi war crimes as the basis for cheap thrills.) Here, Franco is obviously getting off on the material, and switches out the ultraviolent tortures of the original for kinkier sequences that seem to be tickling his fancy in particular (the camera admires the participants' nude bodies even more lovingly this time around). Franco devotes special attention to the BDSM power games that colour the villain's transactional relationship with the Romay character, which features a scene where Romay is used as a pincushion. A lot of this is less graphic (in terms of violence) than it sounds, making this entry an easier watch than the others, although there are a few pretty gnarly sequences. The ending, where a cannibalistic attack is intercut with scenes of lions, tigers and leopards gnawing on their prey, has an added punch coming after the (mostly) palatably sexy material earlier in the film.

There's also a certain political charge to the proceedings, as the villain's torture hospital is clearly an extension of the repressive regime that runs the unnamed country in which the movie is set, in which Franco's (the character) pleas for transparency seem laughably futile. The movie also deserves some points for a not entirely politically correct but still sympathetic portrayal of a trans character, who happens to get the best line in the movie. (When another inmate softly sings "Frere Jacques", she complains: "Piss off, you blonde bitch! And you can take your brother, jack him off and shove him up your singing ass!") Of course, much of the entertainment is provided by two very fun performance from Thorne and Romay, who get to be domineering and bullying in different ways, Thorne authoritarian and arch, Romay down and dirty. (Despite her character having a Spanish name in the version I watched, Thorne still does her Teutonic accent, although I suppose there's real life precedent for Nazis fleeing to Spanish-speaking countries in an attempt to escape justice. Thorne also trades her usual peaked cap and blonde hair for a beret and wavier red hair this time around, while Romay sports a super cute pixie cut.) But this also works because Franco seems to rightfully regard authoritarian repression as bad (a low bar, sure, but his film has more conviction than the other Ilsa movies) and gives us an actual protagonist to root for, and because his direction is pretty sturdy by the standards of the genre, even if it's less fluid and hallucinatory than I usually like from him. Come for the sexy shower scenes, stay for the surprisingly committed narrative.

[bmblboop]

What are your thoughts on the scene of Weiss tossing that guy in the trash can?

Personally I say more power to her, I wish she’d kept that prepensity for on’y ducal violence when she saw Jacques

But doesn’t it kind of gone again the idea that “bad guys suffering isn’t a good thing”? Because it was clear weiss hurting this guy for no other reason then because he was being a dick,

You are giving me V7C1 Discourse Flashbacks.

The Purpose of the "Weiss dumps a Racist guy in a Trashcan" scene was threefold:

1. Reveal how blatant and common Anti-Faunus racism is in Mantle/Atlas

2. Showcase Weiss' character development by having a former racist stand up to racism

3. Slapstick comedy

She could, and probably would, throw Jacques into a trashcan under similar 'slapstick comedy' circumstances, but not in the more serious tone that most of their scenes hold in Volume 7. She doesn't have authority over Jacques, she couldn't 'get away with' something like that. The guy she dumpster'd was a stranger - someone she could risk upsetting because he didn't know who she was.

Jacques, on the other hand, is her father. Everyone on this site says you gotta punch Nazis, but what if the Nazi in your life is your Mom? You aren't going to slap your own mother unless you are incredibly comfortable cutting them out of your life indefinitely.

The events of Volume 5 happen over 1-2 months, and the events of V6 happen over 1 week. It's unclear how long the Atlas upgrades took, but it's safe to assume the time difference between Weiss Sneaking out of the Mansion and seeing her father again in V7C4 was 3 months or less. Even though she is in a better place with her team now, she is still intimidated by him. She freezes up when they lock eyes. She heaves a sigh of relief when he leaves. She might know deep down that he isn't a fighter on par with her skill, but he has 'beaten' her in other fights that don't use swords or semblances. She isn't going to risk getting 'beaten' again when she knows how big his influence is, and what he can do at the drop of a hat.

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This Part got Long.

TL;DR - Dumpster Guy didn't Suffer and Suffering isn't Justice.

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What I mean by "bad guys suffering" doesn't mean humiliation or slapstick or fight scenes. Getting tossed in the trash did not injure him or cause him significant physical pain, and we see this character in the background of several later shots. The only thing that scene gave him was a bump on the head and some really stinky clothes.

Tyrian getting punched in the jaw isn't 'suffering', it's slapstick. It's funny because he wasn't expecting Qrow to go fisticuffs. Any villain taking a hard hit isn't 'suffering' in the context of a fight, when both sides are taking and dishing damage.

In a similar vein, I thoroughly enjoy watching that scene in As Above So Below when Jacques' plan is revealed, and tries to weasel his way out of irrefutable evidence, but that's not "suffering", that's humiliation; that's the classic Ace Attorney pulling-of-receipts as they realize they have nowhere left to run.

What I mean by "suffering" is fans calling for Ruby or Jaune to tear Cinder limb from limb while screaming vengeance for Pyrrha/Penny. What I mean by "suffering" is theorizing the only way for Salem to be defeated is to lock her somewhere she can't escape - like space or an abyss or cut up into tiny pieces and buried in every corner of the planet. She'd still be alive because she immortal, thus in constant agony, but hey! At least she'll be out of the way and the heroes get to win, right? /s

This show doesn't do gratuitous suffering. Adam's death was victorious sure, but Blake, who you think would be happiest about this outcome, breaks down crying because she had to take a life. The life of someone she once believed in, a life that caused her so much pain.

So no. I don't believe Jacques getting what's coming to him, in the form of a horde of vengeful Faunus, would be fitting end to his story.

(Unless you meant "thousands of Faunus" figuratively, in the form of a legal sentence that punishes him on behalf of all his victims. That would have been nice, but we already know that never came to be; truly unfortunate.)

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

I can already see the mains bash Theodore and deem him evil for not magically solving the refugee crisis or for trying to arrest Emerald or for whatever ham-fisted reason the writers come up with. Then he becomes a cartoon villain to prove RWBY "right" and people start writing essays about how "he was always evil".Or, they'll make him the only "good" headmaster since Ruby already decided he's trustworthy in front of the world and he dislikes Ironwood in the books (they take place before V8).

I am kind of thinking they're going to go with the Theodore is the only "good" headmaster because he knew that James was a bad person before anyone else *gags*. This show has lost any sense of care it once had about complicated topics and can't be subtle even if they tried. It doesn't matter how complicated the situation in Atlas was, James is evil because he couldn't save everyone and since the good headmaster Theodore already was talking shit about him and the equally evil Ozpin who dared to lie to our precious mains he will be the ultimate good headmaster because this show doesn't know subtle if it punched it in the face.

I didn't read the books but god if I had they would have been a red fucking flag that James was doomed. We could have a long discussion questioning why James had to be evil and why Theodore the only "good" headmaster made it a point to show how much he hated the disabled guy but....I don't have the energy to for this ask and that's not what it's about so I will focus on the meat of the ask and just kind of assume Theodore will be threated as right and wonderful and fantastic and assist with the others in dragging James's name through the mud some more for giggles and to make sure the audience knows James is worse then Leo who worked with Salem and slaughtered an entire kingdoms huntsman and huntress population because he was a coward who didn't want to die.

What kills me is as you've said, Ruby has already decided she's trusted him completely despite that fact that a. she's never met the asshole and b. the big "reason" we're supposed to believe Ruby was justified in distrusting James is because Leo betrayed them....so why the fuck does this not apply to Theodore? The only reason I can think of is he was a James basher before it was cool to be. I mean look at what the damn show and fans did to Jacques, they're now insisting he was just trying to stop the horrible and evil James and his tyranny when he was oppressing his workers just to make a buck.

In the end though no matter what they do with Theodore the fans who where pissed off by volume 8 will be pissed off because of how shitily at this point all the headmasters have been handled. Either it will be "why did every headmaster have to be evil????" because that is just plain old frustrating and insulting story telling. Why exactly are we villainizing the previous generation who has been carrying the war and broke down under the stress of it? Or we'll get "Wait why is this random dude the only "good" headmaster? Why can their only be one?

I just cannot see any handling of Theodore being satisfying after the shit CRWBY has pulled and I feel bad for casual viewers at this point because I just can't imagine anything really working in a satisfying way anymore thanks to Volume 8. Sorry for going off I am just so frustrated by this.

[cavendishtogopls]

WhiteRose Quick Ship Analysis based on RWBY Anthology (Red like Roses) [Spoiler Warning!]

As we all know Red like Roses is about Ruby and from what I heard, all of the girls have one for themselves so what baffled me is Weiss' heavy involvement with Ruby's story arc. And when I say heavy, I meant they didn't just make Weiss a major character in some of the stories, they went so far as making a story in Weiss' POV and how she sees Ruby. The Red like Roses manga is like a whiterose Bible for shipping fuel.

Before I get to the heavy stuff I would like to point out the differences I see between Ruby and Weiss in the show and in the manga and okay maybe I'd like to throw one for fanfiction as well.

So, in the series I felt like Ruby had little character development, little in terms when you compare her to the three other girls. I mean Blake's character arc is almost done. Family conflict? Done. The White Fang? Changed for the better. Adam? Dead in a ditch. And look she got a cute blonde girlfriend to show for it. Yang basically went through so much herself and I can just feel that Volume 7 is a Weiss centered one since they're in Atlas. Ruby however felt like a stationary character and that's not always a bad thing. I'm saying this because Ruby felt like a character the evokes change, be the cause of it rather than changing herself. She pushes people to be better, she pushes herself to be better, she's this force that people naturally gravitates to because rather than her changing, she's the change you need in your life. You can see it mostly with Weiss, but also to her immediate environment like when she was with team RJNR.

That said, in the manga, she has so much more character depth that I kinda wish I would see on the series. Usually you can see Ruby as this childish impulsive character and using Blake's words "the embodiment of purity herself" but here you can see how she does understand the consequences and dangers of her dream. She's not naive, she knows the stakes. She just doesn't let those fears get in the way of the need she has for protecting people. In the manga, Weiss has the more black and white character, she's either really proud of Ruby or irritated at her. In a way that makes it seems like she's there for the sole purpose of reacting with Ruby's character and Ruby's the one pulling all the punches.

Now in fanfiction, you do not see this kind of Weiss. And if I do, it's very rare. It's a known tendency for writers to have a character in the ship that stays true to their nature and one a more flexible character they can do anything with just for the heck of it. Come on, Weiss is a real life princess with a cool scar and the emotional trauma to go with it. It's like she's asking writers to mess her up more or fix her. As I said, Ruby is a kind of character that evokes change in people whether it's Weiss realizing she's gay or Ruby being the push she needed to finally stand up to Jacques. Now, we move to the ship analysis part.

Case A: Ruby's Diary

This is the one story in Weiss' POV. Weiss wanted to see Ruby grow up because she was convinced that would make Ruby take her job as leader more seriously. As much as Weiss wanted to protect the innocence in Ruby, she knows that it would be better for Ruby to recognize the world as it is and not some hero story or fairytale. In the end, Weiss realized that being optimistic doesn't make Ruby a bad leader. For Weiss, Ruby is Ruby and to Weiss, Ruby is a great leader, teammate and friend and Weiss could only hope to be strong enough to protect her.

Case B: Princess in shining combat skirt

Scenario being Mercury dancing with Ruby and making her uncomfortable so Weiss stepped in and stole Ruby from him. I for one would like to see this as jealous protective girlfriend Weiss but that's not really clarified. Now you can all argue that Ruby was perfectly capable of defending herself—she wields a scythe and Mercury would find himself toe to toe with a furious Yang had Weiss not done anything. Ruby is socially awkward and everyone who knows her, knows that. So, Weiss watching over Ruby and swooping in to save the day, in the middle of a dance btw which is largely considered as rude and inappropriate, speaks volumes on how much Weiss cares for her partner. And the fact that Ruby calls her a knight in shining armor shows she appreciated the gesture.

Case C: Flirty Ruby

I did not expect this chapter at all. Ruby does not show any kind of interest in romance in the series so her looking for a boyfriend kind of blindsided me. Weiss was so against the idea that Ruby jokes around that Weiss likes her. Weiss honey why are you blushing so much if this isn't true.

Case D: Sister, Friend, Wife

Ruby why tf would you say that and finally thank you for noticing the ever present blush on your partner. Stop making her blush she's going to melt oh God.

Case E: Angry Ruby

I have only seen Ruby angry a couple of times the entire series and this one was equivalent to her anger at the battle in Haven when Weiss was fatally wounded and she had no idea what happened. Weiss was her partner and Ruby very literally watched Pyrrha die. Ruby was angry because had it not been for Jaune's semblance, she could have easily lost Weiss too and she would have failed not only in protecting her best friend and partner but also as a leader. This scenario was with less grave consequences but with the same motif of Ruby protecting Weiss. Ruby was the youngest of team RWBY but she seems very adamant in protecting her friends, not thinking about consequences and in turn gave more depth to her character instead of just showing emotions when one of her friends die. Tbh I don't think Ruby is over her mom's death which I would give anything to see Ruby talking about it with Qrow or Yang or Tai or anyone really. Again, Weiss is used here as a catalyst for Ruby's behavior.

Case F: I rest my case

This looks really really gay. There's really little to no heterosexual explanation for this. Like let's say if I was bold enough to carry the Red like Roses manga anywhere and leave it open at these exact pages, any uncultured bystander with no knowledge on RWBY would think this is a typical coming of age Yuri manga.