#i will say this was a riskier job and she was rusty so there’s that

[bookwyrminspiration]

“you were quite skilled in that arena for it to be a one-off job” kalos is a filthy fucking liar katarina has done nothing to show more than the faintest whiff of competency in thieving she’s rusty as hell dude

[brotoman-exe]

Reconstructing Hazel

So while they tried in Volume 5 to give Hazel a sympathetic backstory and make Ozpin look shady again but fired off on all the wrong cylinders. So I’m going to take a stab at some ideas I think might work.

The following will be presented as the bullet points of a hypothetical Hazel side series that could be released before Volume 5. Maybe not a single short and more a mini-series like Recovery One from Red VS Blue

- We start decades ago. Hazel is a recently graduated huntsman now suddenly thrust into raising his little sister himself with only his team to help. Though eventually, they all grow distant, they all take higher paying and riskier jobs while Hazel simple works security inside city limits, leading to Hazel being truly alone.

- Cut to years later and his sister, a teen with dyed hair and half her wardrobe being 90% shirts of her favorite bands, bounces into the room talking excitedly about her acceptance into Beacon. There is a brief argument but she gets him to allow her to go with two points. Grimm don’t really actively attack the major cities anymore meaning most of what she’d fight during school are probably weak offshoots of major packs and when she graduates she promises to take a well paying safe job bodyguarding rich people or the like.

- What follows is a quick group of scenes showing things going well. His sister introduces some of her teammates, talks about how she likes coming home cause she isn’t being forced to wear a uniform despite being an adult, and even talking about how she is the top of her class with the headmaster himself taking notice.

- This all changes with the last scene of her coming to visit home. She’s acting off, doing things like wearing her school uniform outside of campus grounds. Her hair looks like she’s been forgetting to redo her dye, and she almost seems to have lost a bounce to her step. At first, Hazel tries to blow this off as she is simply becoming a proper adult but it begins to eat at him.

- So we get scenes of Hazel under constant gaslighting whenever he asks about it. Not just from his sister but from her team and everyone working at Beacon. As well the brief glimpses of her interacting with Headmaster Ozpin make their relationship come off as very questionable. Eventually, he decides to call one of his teammates who he hasn’t spoken to in years. They actually bring up how there was a girl in their class who seemed to get really close to Ozpin then changed personality. Though when Hazel asks for more info the teammate shuts up, acting like they had done something wrong by bringing that girl up.

- This leads up to Hazel confronting Ozpin directly. When Ozpin brushes him off and seems to almost be insulting him near the end Hazel attacks demanding the return of his sister. This attack is short lived as Hazel really hasn’t seen a true battle since his school days and is rusty at best. So Ozpin bests him and next we see is Hazel being thrown into a prison cell.

- Cut to years later again and Hazel, who looks more like his present self due to time and having not a lot to do besides work out in prison, is told he has a visitor. A beautiful woman with white hair, blue eyes like the sky during the first days of winter, and in a black dress who easily waves away the guards. Their conversation is brief. She talks about how difficult it was to find Hazel because despite assaulting one of the four Huntsmen Academy headmasters in the world there was no reporting on it. She says he is not the only victim of Ozpin and that they will talk more soon.

- Soon as in only a few days later when Hazel is released from prison because apparently some hot shot lawyer of his, a maned named Watts, had stormed in shouting about how Hazel’s arrest wasn’t even legal and is waiting outside with a car for him. Watts tells Hazel that it is time for him and ‘Salem’ to have a talk.

- Hazel is driven out to a cabin in the middle of the woods. Yet despite the remote location not a single sign of Grimm activity is in sight. Walking inside it looks like someone shoved one of the most expansive Atlas hotel rooms inside this cabin and the woman from before is waiting with some wine and a certainly more “complimentary” dress.

- From here Salem begins to spin a tale. The “true” story of the Wizard and the Four Maidens. How the Wizard was a madman taking four young girls and twisting them to be his toys. The Wizard who found a way to cheat times function of eventually erasing men like him from history. How through magic they’ve for centuries when nearing the end of their lives choose young people to be their new bodies. How his sister was just the latest in a long line of victims who had their soul destroyed by the invading Maiden. The Wizard, of course, being Ozpin who uses his identity of Headmaster more as a way to scope out young women he’d like to use as new vessels for the maidens. Whether because of age, injury or that he is simply bored with their current appearance.

- Of course, Salem is manipulating Hazel her self. Yet it should be presented as if there is a large grain of truth to this story. The exact amount being unknown but enough to make the audience truly question Ozpin. When her tale is over she gives Hazel an opportunity. To work with her in taking away the power base and defeating this seemingly immortal monster.

- The special ends with a scene mirroring the attack on Amber in Volume 3. Yet this time it is Hazel confronting the Maiden. He has come to kill her and finally put the body of his “long dead” sister to rest. He charges and the scene cuts to black ending the special.

So anyways that is my idea. I think it does a few things. Makes Hazel much more sympathetic, starts to give pay off to all the hints about Ozpin being shady, shows Salem as much more impressive manipulator than before, and makes the viewer anticipate what the confrontation between Hazel and Oscar is going to be like. Does Hazel see this as a mercy killing? Letting Oscar die before Ozpin destroys his soul to have full control. Or does Oscar still being allowed to control the body give our antagonist pause? Is the Mad Wizard Oz a better person than he was centuries ago and is trying not to just take over this body for himself?

Also, it leaves enough of a gap between the end of the special and things like Hazel learning Salem’s true nature to allow a revisit to these events.

Still, tell me how you think the character Hazel could have been handled and whether you think I’m going about it completely the wrong way.