#RWBY has stepped up a notch emotionally this volume

[citrusandbergamot]

you know, for such an amazing and fun-loving and quirky show, the RWBY fandom seems anything but. 

people’s reaction to stuff is so extreme. it’s not even discussions on headcanons, it’s outright righteousness. and...a lack of appreciation of characters having very flawed (re: human) reactions to stuff. 

I am really flabbergasted at the hatred directed towards team RWBY and JNR for how they’ve handled the big lore reveal. To be honest, it would have felt extremely false if everyone had been hunky-dory with Oz’s  secrets. His hair is legit full of big and important secrets and like, everything, absolutely everything has changed. Both teams have gone through hell and they have to reconcile their core beliefs and their understanding of the world to this new information. That’s not going to be easy. It hasn’t been easy. It’s been pretty ugly so far. 

That’s not a bad thing? It’s probably actually a good thing because it makes everything about the world more complex. It makes the characters more complex. It’s makes them more human. 

In some post, somewhere, about this subject, said ‘realism is bad storytelling’. And just like....what? What? 

No like, seriously, what the actual. You think that conflict and angst and doubt is only generated by the bad guys? That...it should only come from the bad guys? How...how boring is that. Oh my god, people. You know, this is why I hate most normal AUs, like coffee shop AUs, because no one ever misunderstands each other. No one ever says less than they mean. No one accidentally hurts someone. No one purposefully hurts someone. Everything’s fucking perfect all the time.

It all feels so goddamn false. Like using big spoonfuls of splenda instead of sugar, it just sticks in the back of my mouth and makes my teeth sore. I want characters who have to make up for something. I want characters who have to change. I want characters who refuse to change and how it changes the way people interact with them. I don’t care for stories about people never having doubt, never saying the wrong thing in anger, never lashing out first in order to protect themselves. It’s not pretty and it’s not easy, but it’s distinctly human. Like, I read a fic yesterday and there was self-hatred and tons of angst but everyone just...said what they meant, all the time. Everyone on the side of the angels was just like, oh yeah, this is what the plot needs to do, I have no other motivation other than helping it along. I’m going to say the right thing at the right time, always. The secondary characters had no drive or thoughts of their own. No doubts, no mistrust. No challenge. No growth. No life. 

The RWBY characters have gone through a lot. They’re not children any more. They’re not students. This season, and this reveal especially and everything that’s happened afterwards, has really propelled them into positions of authority within the world itself. They’re always been the main characters to the viewer, but now they are major players to people like Oz, Salem, Ironwood, Qrow. It is extremely important, in terms of the story, that team RWBY JNR have made the decision to keep going, to keep fighting with this knowledge. They no longer trust the adults to fix their problems. And they will hold the adults accountable for their actions. And that includes Oz. 

I mean, I love a broken character more than anything in life and Oz is as broken as they come. What Oz has been doing all these years/lifetimes is not enough. It’s not working. Clearly, it’s not working. Him keeping all that shit and trauma and whatnot inside is not working and people keep dying. The information/backstory had to come out, and they had to trust that they got the whole truth. 

Plus, there’s the fact that they don’t really interact with Oz on a personal level? They never have? I’m not surprised they didn’t offer comfort in the direct aftermath or since. This is ‘please ignore the man behind the curtain’ tipping point. This is the ‘whole damn saviour ideal is a lie’. There is no wizard, there never was. The great and powerful Oz is just a conman. This was always going to happen. This reveal was integral to Oz’s character and the plot, not just for backstory and lore but in how the main characters interact with him and with the world (re: Salem and the Grimm). Oz was their teacher and leader and saviour - literally more of a concept. He has never been on equal footing with any of them. How do you bridge that gap while still acknowledging how betrayed everyone feels? 

You don’t. You wait til the next volume. Cause you know who’s going to be in the next volume? General Ironwood!! Oz’s equal ...ish. But more importantly, a man who knew Oz’s secret. He and Glynda knew and they both knew that Qrow didn’t (rewatch season 2 if you don’t believe me). There’s going to be some comeuppance there. On a narrative level, it makes sense to push that emotional fallout until the story has someone on equal footing to Oz. Someone who clearly disagrees with Oz but still respects him, someone who can challenge both Oz and RWBY JNR and get them dealing with each other.

Oz has retreated at the moment because it makes sense, character-wise and narrative-wise. What’s more, Oz has been retreating for a long goddamn time. I think that Oz has been going through the motions. I think it’s been too long. I think too many people have died. I think he’s stopped believing that there will be an end to this horrific cycle. Ruby is the catalyst that will change his opinion on that. But it’s going to take a long time for Oz to listen to her and to confront himself. And not just because of the ...what are people calling it, abuse? of RWBY asking that question of Jinn. Oz does not trust people. The Jinn thing didn’t help but Oz was never going to trust them anyway. He was keeping his secrets to protect them, yes, but mostly to protect himself. 

But that’s going to change. Ruby is going to be the catalyst for that change. Oz is going to learn to trust them. But the story had to get through this first. Oz was never going to tell them. In another kind of story, RWBY would have gotten the truth from Salem. The bad guy taunts the good guys with the truth, blah blah blah, that story is so overdone, I’m really glad they’ve skipped it here. They don’t trust Oz at the moment, but they trust that they know what he’s been hiding from them AND the manner of the reveal and the horrific nature of what they saw is going to engender sympathy and compassion, once RWBY and JNR and Qrow actually step back from their hurt and betrayal. But that takes time. You may not like it, cause apparently people want stories to be super simple and full of characters who always do the right thing? 

Lol, yeah, okay

Realism is not a dirty word. Anger and hurt and bitterness are human emotions and certain characters have them in spades (Yang, Qrow, Jaune, Raven). It makes them more interesting. It gives them growth, something to overcome. Remember what Yang was like pre-season 3? She’s a different person now because of what she went through. Her zeal and optimism have been altered, permanently. She’s super depressed. Of course she’s going to be angry. She’s gotta learn to deal with that anger because she’s been angry since the Vytal festival. I would have been shocked if Yang had learned Oz’s secrets and been like, oh man, I’m no longer angry at you and the world because clearly you’re traumatized and you need a hug. Yang’s....not really that kind of person. But she’s not done yet working through her shit. She takes a while to process stuff remember. And there has been a fuckton of shit and her family is tied up in half of it.  

We’re going to get STRQ backstory or I’m going to start taking hostages. There’s some hell to pay there. Summer dead, Taiyang clearly not interacting with Oz at all if he can help it. Qrow left in the dark and drowning in alcohol, and Raven. Raven, who turned her back on Oz. Gee, I wonder why? 

Oz has very good reasons for keeping his mouth shut but people are still getting hurt. And trust is a two-way street. 

As for RWBY JNR reactions being extremely or ...mean? Abusive? Whatever it’s being called?  People are going to argue and feel hurt when they find out they’ve been lied to. The person doing the lying might have really good reasons to do so but that still doesn’t mean everyone will be okay with it right away. Characters are supposed to be complex. They’re supposed to struggle and make mistakes and react with emotions first and logic second. The way the emotional arc feels to us is not the same as it feels to the characters in the show. You know when you find out something and it shakes the very foundation of your trust in that person? Was it super easy to immediately go, oh no, it’s okay that you lied and manipulated me because you had your reasons? Can you shut off the hurt and the anger like flipping a switch? Haven’t you ever gotten pissed at somebody you love because you misunderstood something and still felt pissed later, even after the misunderstanding was cleared up? 

Emotions aren’t always rational. We don’t always react the way that we should have, the way that we would have, if we had been a little calmer. And there was nothing in that reveal that was calm inducing. All the information about Oz’s traumatic history probably paled in comparison to the reveal about the nature of the fight with Salem. As a viewer, and one who likes angst at that, the whole thing made Oz into my new favourite because aaaaaaangst and trauma are my bread and butter. But to the characters, in-universe? 

Yeah. Pretty sure the biggest takeaway was ‘okay, everything you do or have ever done is futile, so you’ve all suffered for nothing, kthanks.’

Of course they’re pissed. 

If they had just been super okay with everything from the get go, it would have been false. These characters have gone through some shit and they’ve had their whole understanding of the world turned upside down. Of course that’s going to affect them.

The fallout with Oz since the reveal makes sense, on an emotional narrative and pacing level and on a character level. They’re all going to grow from this and become stronger. Oz is going to find some peace, I just know he is. 

this is going to be what breaks the cycle. They’re going to have to confront Oz eventually. I think the reason why they haven’t rehashed any part of the fallout yet is because they want to tackle that in a completely different volume. It’s taken them 3 volumes to finally work through JNR’s issues post volume 3. The impact of that JNR scene with the statue in volume 6 would have been cheapened if the characters hadn’t been struggling with the thought of giving up, post-reveal. And that scene is probably one of the best in the whole series. Emotionally, it’s the most mature thing they’ve ever done. Would it have had the same resonance if they’d all been super okay with Oz? And been like, we’re here for you buddy, our hopes and dreams were based on lies this whole time and our friends died for nothing and we’re all probably going to die too but that’s super okay because your ex is an abusive psycho and you’re incredibly broken inside. Let’s all cuddle. 

Like, fuck that. Give me characters who are going to stand on their own two feet, who are afraid and powerless but unwilling to back down, who know they have no hope of winning but continue to fight nonetheless. Who’ll stare into the abyss with eyes unflinching, strength built upon truth, not falsehood. Because they must. Because it’s right. Because they are the only ones who can. 

I can’t be the only one who sees it, right? That this was necessary? For the characters to grow into real hunters? For them to truly be the change in the world? For RWBY to enter endgame? 

They’re going to break the cycle wide open. They had to have this knowledge and they have to come to terms with it. They have to find it in themselves to keep going. They’re going to prove Oz wrong, that people can learn the truth and still keep fighting. It’s not fate or destiny. It’s choice. 

I’ve been thinking about Pyrrha’s ‘do you believe in destiny’ line a lot while writing this. Because I didn’t get it for a super long time. Did she feel like she had to agree, because her life had been leading to the destiny of being the Fall Maiden? All that fighting ability, all that heart. It’s always bothered me that it implied it was her destiny to die like that, that the whole thing was inevitable. And with the reveal, futile.

(What’s in a name, right? Oh Pyrrha, Pyrrha, I’ll never be over you.)

But it wasn’t destiny. It was choice. That’s what makes that scene so goddamn beautiful. It was Pyrrha’s choice and finally acknowledging that has resolved 3 seasons worth of emotional tension. JNR has been so grief-stricken it’s been painful to watch. But necessary. So goddamn necessary. Otherwise, what’s the point of killing characters off? What’s the point of trauma if it can just be swept under a rug and forgotten about and the characters all reset to their base personalities? If reactions are all the same and characters interchangeable? I suuuuuuper don’t care for stories where characters stay exactly the same. I want it to mean something. I want them to struggle. I want them to have to make the choice between what is right and what is easy.

That’s what the characters are doing. They’re making a choice. Oz is super good at taking choices away from people. It’s not necessarily his fault but intentions are not the same as end result. That’s because it’s destiny but the cycle will never break that way. 

RWBY JNR and Qrow have to take their own actions separate from Oz’s machinations. It’s the only way they can win. This is what the narrative had to do. It’s not pretty at the moment but it’s going to be so much more satisfying in the end. They’re wounded, they all are. We have to feel how deep those wounds are to appreciate how they can heal. 

It’s choice. If was easy, what would be the point? 

(My god I love Oz so very, very much. His trauma reminds me a lot of Sam Winchester. And like Sam, the people around him are pretty judgmental of his past mistakes. It may be uncomfortable or aggravating to watch as a viewer because the punishment is widely disproportionate to the crime but. Like, of course Dean is going to act that way? He’s his own character, who is never going to be objective about Sam and Sam’s actions. It also generates a fuckton of self-hatred and angst for BOTH characters AND makes the moments where working together outweighs any interpersonal strife (eg: Dean stabbing Zachariah in season 5). That moment is sweet as fuck. Where the hell would the conflict have been that whole season if Dean had just been super okay with Sam opening the Cage? We knew he didn’t mean to. We knew Cas was the one who let him out. We knew the angels fucked over the voicemail. We knew Dean was being unfairly, disproportionately angry. We knew Dean had been the one to open the first seal. 

We knew Dean was being unreasonable and cruel. It made for a frustrating season. A whole season! Of characters being mean and sure, abusive.

So what.

No, seriously, so fucking what? It’s a great season. It’s the season that keeps on giving, in terms of Sam Winchester angst. I mean, post-Cage is where all the fun horror is, but Sam being isolated and filled with self-loathing and guilt, visited in his dreams by the biggest bad of all? They’re Made For Each Other. Egads, that’s some good shit right there. 

Can you imagine if Dean had just been....well, not-Dean about it? If he’d been some smol, soft, uwu boy who’d forgiven Sam immediately? Sam is so frigging heartfelt, he tries so hard. How could anyone not forgive him? (aaaah, the endless meta about Sam and forgiveness, Chuck in heaven, that’s som good shit). Not-Dean would have been the perfect, understanding brother. Not-Dean possibly would have comforted Sam during his various, horrifying withdrawals (goddammit Dean) but . That’s...not who the character is. That’s not how Dean was going to react. And what about all the angst? Where would that have come from? Where would those fantastic eps be of Dean losing faith? Sam trying to hold himself together because he is literally the one who never gives up and being scrapped down to nothing, over and over again because of it? And the resolution of all that? That their love for each other is beyond any hurt or betrayal or doubt they’ve caused each other. That’s...that’s good story telling. It’s fucked up and imperfect and there is some goddamn meat on it to sink into.) 

Stop sanitizing stories. Especially when the imperfect reactions are literally the driving force of the emotional narrative. 

Ugh. 

(Sam Winchester/Ozpin is now my favourite crack ship and I literally have half story mapped out in the time it’s taken me to write this rant, don’t @ me

traumatized playthings of immortal bad guys with a side order of identity/possession issues? caught between destiny and a hard place, with nothing but more trauma and pain to look forward to? two beings in the wasteland, suffering beyond endurance, without end, because giving up isn’t an option? 

yeah baby. oh freaking yeah.  

ship song: apres moi le deluge by Regina Spektor: I must go on standing, you can’t break that which isn’t yours, I must go on standing, it’s not my own, it’s not my choice

 yaaaaaaaas)