#its too early for the t to be doing anything substantial but i SWEAR those little hairs werent there a week ago
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Running my fingers over the barely-there hair on my cheeks and upper lip and hoping that my brother wasnt the only one to inherit my dads good beard genes
#its too early for the t to be doing anything substantial but i SWEAR those little hairs werent there a week ago#then again i am watching very closely for any changes that decide to pop up#ooh i cant wait to come back to visit during the semester break with actual honest to god stubble to show off#sev rambles#transmasc
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This is the last tape. Treasure it.
I get irrationally attached to the music that I listen to. I love strange, cryptic stuff (I'm really coming around on Noise, I swear!) and for a while, I was buying tapes on Bandcamp pretty much by random. It wasn't some hipster impulse to get in at the ground level, at least I don't think so. I think I had just purchased a tape player and wanted to fill out my collection with stuff from small labels-- plus it was a fun way to branch out a bit more.
At some point along that process, I had come across Talk, Tired Thanatoid, an indie band that was releasing stuff on Pacific Nature Records. This story isn't about Talk, Tired Thanatoid, but I do want to say that they make good music and that Sunflowers Bitter as Ocean Water was one of the best tape pickups I've made (the Mountain Goats mentioned on one of their tracks, Taylor Swift, I think?). I wanted more, so I leapt with reckless abandon into the rest of PNR's releases.
Their catalogue is broad. It definitely rules (although, they're on an extended hiatus and have been for a bit). Raw indie rock, synth-wave dream pop, the label was full of treasures. I've always been a sucker for bedroom pop, though. I think Linda Smith really opened a lot of doors in late 80s and early 90s and Bandcamp helped tons of people leverage that into an ever-growing genre. I think this may also be why the modern lo-fi genre has shifted so substantially from tape-hiss and washed out recordings into dreamy, looping hip-hop. This is also not what the story is about; I just have a lot of thoughts, okay?
Anyway, I was digging through the PNR catalogue looking for more tapes to buy, and after a few hours of listening and thinking, I found a beautiful bedroom pop album. It was sad and soothing in a way that very few records have ever felt for my brain, beyond the Mountain Goats and the Weakerthans. I instantly bought it. The album was by an artist named Emma St. Clair, and shared her name.
Sadcore Is A Legitimate Genre And We Demand To Be Taken Sadly
The tapes arrived in the mail a few weeks later. I think at the time I bought them (probably early 2020?), PNR was already in the midst of their hiatus, although their Bandcamp didn't reflect it. I wasn't too pressed about it; I got two brand new tapes in the mail and they were unbelievably good. Sunflowers sounded even better through the whine of my old-piece-of-garbage Naxa CD/Tape player, and the Emma St. Clair tape came with a few square stickers that read "Sadcore Is A Legitimate Genre And We Demand To Be Taken Sadly."
I've grown to love small goodies in small-label orders. Maybe I've been Pavlov'd from the Airheads that you get from ordering a Jeff Rosenstock tape from Polyvinyl, but I really love small gestures like that. I set the stickers aside and kept digging through the package, just to make sure that I didn't miss anything. I turned the package upside-down at the end to be 100% certain. Nothing else, cool.
I remember opening the Emma St. Clair tape for the first time. It was in one of those soft plastic tape cases, the ones that kinda eat the J-Card's edges a little bit when you close them. When I opened it, a small square of paper landed in my lap. I grabbed it and flipped it over. Scribbled on it in black marker was the phrase "This is the last tape. Treasure it." The tape was numbered, 13/25.
I didn't really think much of it--for all I knew, I had gotten really lucky and got the last tape from an album with a limited run. Donut Girl ended and I popped Sunflowers back into its case. "Time to try out Emma St. Clair," I thought. The album sounded incredible. I really do believe that bedroom pop was meant to be heard on cassette and I won't take any more of your time justifying it here. This sadcore tape especially sounded divine.
I remember falling in love with the Communist Sympathy series of songs on this tape immediately on my first listen. They were full of frustration and anxiety, but Emma's voice delivered the lines with a soothing cadence that made them seem almost comforting. I finished the Side A and blazed through Side B too. The J-Card notably left out the 10th song on the album. Cool, maybe it was meant to be a bonus track? I remember getting ready to hear "Sorry" before being completely blind-sided by the real bonus track.
YOU ARE OKAY
A monotone robotic voice began speaking to me through the Naxa, reminiscent of the text-to-speech on those clunky old Mac desktop computers.
"You are okay. I say it five times fast until the meaning separates from the syllables that are crawling over my lips. You are okay. I'll see you later this week. But I play pretend, you play dead. You are okay. I swear I won't touch you or look at you even when I'm supposed to. I am a responsible adult and I am lying to myself on the daily. I am eating all the details, dissecting every conversation we've ever had, breaking it down to the smallest molecules, the last atom of hydrogen in a nuclear reactor. Boom. Impact. You are okay. I say it slowly until it's a mantra, a prayer, I am begging you to believe me. You are okay. I won't see you when you get back, but I'll ask anyway. Same story. You are okay. I swear I'll let this go or even write it off as high-school bullshit. You are okay. You are a responsible adult and you are lying to yourself on the daily. You're eating up all the details. Acceptance is the first stage of recovery, but you're already on the edge. There's nowhere left to fall to. Boom. Impact."
I didn't really know how to react. It was unsettling, to say the least. I had no idea about the significance of that spoken-word at the time that I heard it. It was cryptic, and I remember thinking it was a cool idea to include at the end of a limited release.
The next few months dragged on in the way you'd expect a global pandemic to. I didn't revisit this tape much, but Communist Sympathy in Your Hometown was on a few of my playlists over that period of time. At this point, I was already deep into my current Monthly Playlist routine, and I remember In Your Hometown and In the Northern Orange County Area bouncing in-and-out of the rotation. When I find an artist with that much sticking power, I'll usually try to dig a bit deeper to find more of their work.
I returned to PNR's Bandcamp, this time determined to find more Emma St. Clair. I found her own personal Bandcamp, not tied to the label. She released a sequel to her self-titled album, but hadn't put out any new songs in awhile--bummer. Her Bandcamp linked to a few of her other Social Media accounts; Tumblr and Twitter were still actively available, while her Facebook page was a broken link at that point. I checked the Tumblr page first, thinking that this would be the place that I'd catch any new artistic endeavors. Maybe she was performing with a group or under a different name?
No dice. The last post was from years ago. Her Twitter account was the same story, no posts since July 22, 2016. Her real name was linked in these accounts, and was actually also listed on the tape as well; I just never really looked that close. Determined to find more music, I kept digging. I searched her real name on Google and found her Twitter again, her Tumblr, the Emma St. Clair Bandcamp, and then, the fourth result down, was this article from the Washington Post.
'Don't Let Me Die'
I dug into the article for awhile. I hadn't put the pieces together yet, but it didn't take long. You can read the article above if you'd like. If not, I'll summarize it here. Emma, 18 at the time, was kicked out of her house less than a year after releasing her self-titled album because she was in the thralls of addiction. She was sent to live with her boyfriend at the time, before returning home in early 2016 to seek help with recovery. Six months after, she was declared dead after an overdose on July 22nd, 2016. Earlier that day, she was posting about Pokemon Go on Twitter, and just as suddenly, she was gone.
There is a lot to be said about recovering from addiction, and I don't think I'm the person to say any of those things. I've battled with some smaller substances over the past few years, most predominantly alcoholism, but booze doesn't come with the same uncertainty that getting hooked on prescription medication or cocaine do. I can drink a handle of vodka, and I'll know that it's just vodka. You never truly know if your score is clean when you buy drugs.
I was reeling for a few days after finding all of this out. I've turned it over in my mind for almost 4 years at this point, not sure if I wanted to write about it. I hate the idea of trying to tack on an inspiring ending at the tail-end of this story, mostly because there is nothing inspirational about death. To Emma's friends and family, this is the worst thing that could've happened. She didn't want to be a martyr for a never-ending struggle against fentanyl, she just wanted to make music with her friends. She was sad, she was struggling, she was barely out of high-school. She didn't deserve any of this.
This tape has been devastating me for awhile now, but I wanted to share this story because I don't really know what treasuring the last tape really meant beyond telling people that Emma existed. She made amazing music and ran a DIY label with her friends. She pioneered sadcore in her small corner of the world in Orange County, CA, and lost her life too soon.
If you or a loved one is struggling with substance abuse, you can find the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website here or call the free, confidential hotline at 1-800-662-4357. You can also text your ZIP code to 435748 to find treatment centers near you.
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RWBY Recaps:Â âSparkâ
Whatâs the current mood? I would sell all future RWBY seasons for one episode of The Mandalorian.
Okay, I exaggerate. Overall this episode had some really great moments, just (per usual) tied up in a lot of awful implications. Which frankly is a step up from last weekâs more overt nonsense, so Iâll take it. Iâve just got Space Dad Fever like the rest of the internet so whenever RWBY does something stupid my brain goes, âWhy canât you be more like Baby Yoda? With non-forced cuteness and consistent writing?âÂ
Okay, okay Iâm focused on the correct fandom. I swear.Â
This episode opens with Penny waking the group up extra early. Yang wants to know what time it is. âTime to be huntresses, of course!â Really, the contrast between, âI love my jobâ and âBut my job makes me get up at an ungodly hourâ is easily the most relatable thing RWBY has done this season. I was also just greatly amused by the animation choices with in-world implications. Like that Weiss sleeps with her giant braid in. Or that the group owns nothing except for the new clothes on their backs. I wondered after the Volume Sixâs train scene if most of their luggage had been up front with JNR, or if theyâd lost it all during the crash itself. We only see three bags as they make their way to the farm.Â
Did Oscar re-pack everything before they had to hightail it out of that burning, grimm-infested place? I donât remember and Iâm way too lazy to go check. Yang then loses her motorcycle. Who knows, if they did have stuff, whether it got onto the stolen airship. Doubtful. I mean, Weiss showed up with a massive amount of luggage, but thatâs for hiding grandmas. Basically, what Iâm saying is that I think the group showed up in Atlas, exhausted, and had to tell Penny they donât have PJs anymore. Cue standard issue t-shirts and strange thermal-ish pants.
We then begin a montage of their different work. It starts out not with the missions they signed up for last episode but anything and everything connected to Amity Arena. Keep clearing out the mines. Protect resource transports. Fill in for the missing soldiers in Mantle, etc. On the whole I legitimately loved these moments showing the various relationships and life as a huntress in Atlas, with the exception of two scenes. The first is during the section where we see Blake and Yang working with Marrow, who makes the mistake of saying a) that they should consider partnering with other people sometime and b) pointing out that heâs not sure their styles are complimentary.Â
Look, I get it. A few hours after the episode dropped and tumblr is already exploding with GIF-sets of this scene, celebrating how Blake and Yang are so in love they canât even stand Marrow suggesting that they might spend some time apart. From a shipping perspective it looks like gold and as someone who also ships them Iâd normally be inclined to celebrate too. Except that this is a really unhealthy pattern of behavior. Marrow is right. The group should practice partnering with other people for the simple reason that this is a job and they may not always get to decide who theyâre going to work with. Itâs a job with endless risks and they may not always be able to control who they end up fighting beside, because when was the last time a plan actually worked right? The advice of âHey. Donât stagnant by only fighting with the same person 24/7â is sound, especially in an episode already focused on training and progress. As is the innocent observation that their styles donât seem to compliment each other. Marrow isnât being cruel here. Heâs not trying to insist he knows better and separate them based on that. Heâs just making casual conversation---and gets this in response.Â
This scene would read completely differently if Blake and Yang were playfully smug after that attack combo. Then it becomes a moment of bonding where theyâre correcting Marrow through a bit of teasing. Instead theyâre legitimately mad. Mad enough that Yangâs semblance briefly activates. Iâve mentioned before that Yang has a tendency to think the worst of people and act violently towards them on instinct (Ozpin, bot in the street) and that Blake has a tendency to go wherever she leads, even when that makes no sense for her own characterization (siding with Yangâs anger over her own experiences as an abuse survivor). This is another example of that. Marrow gives them good advice and makes a casual comment? Immediate fury from Yang. Yangâs pissed off? Well Iâm gonna be pissed off too. I try not to bring shipping too much into these recaps, but I do think itâs worth mentioning here. Big Blake/Yang fans have a tendency to paint everything they do as the most Romantic Thing Ever âą; anti-Blake/Yang fans have a tendency to make blanket statements about how their relationship is inherently unhealthy. But as usual the truth lies somewhere in between. Theyâre fantastic together, I think Rooster Teeth is setting up a relationship, and there are also aspects that are unhealthy. Not because itâs queer (which is the basis for most antisâ anger), but because the writing has them enabling their flaws in the name of âsupport.â Sorry, but if you canât deal with someone making a comment as innocent as Marrowâs without beating up a grimm in fury about it... then you either need to work out that relationship insecurity or work on general anger management. Because Marrow didnât deserve those cold looks and these two werenât justified in receiving his panicked backpedaling. Itâs one of those little things that presumably means nothing on its own, but combined with Blake and Yangâs entire development speaks volumes. Let them talk through Adam. Let someone call Yang out on her judgments. Itâs âfineâ in situations like this; not fine in situations like Volumes 5-6.Â
The other part of the montage that didnât sit well was another âjoke.â Just like Iâm not inclined to view Yang and Blakeâs anger as cutesy romance stuff here, Iâm not comfortable brushing off Jauneâs interaction with the kidsâ moms as a bit of humor. Yeah, maybe Iâm âsensitive,â but was no one else creeped out by that? Jaune might technically be an adult, but heâs, what? Nineteen? So a junior in college. Maybe a sophomore. A young adult is what Iâm saying. Is it possible all these women are also eighteen to early twenties (itâs so hard to tell ages with RWBY) and they just had their kids early? Sure. It is possible that these women all decided to become single moms, or divorced their partners, or are open to polyamory? Also sure. But letâs be real here, thatâs not the joke. The joke is that a group of older, presumably married women are thirsting over the young, hot huntsmen. People would be more willing to admit that itâs not a great humor choice if RWBY had done that to one of the girls, but when a guy is the target itâs seen as a funny victory. Look at Jaune getting all that older, adulterous attention! As Nora herself says, âItâs totally the haircut.â (Even though that haircut remains atrocious, sorry.) The message is basically that if a guy is hot enough it doesnât matter that heâs just trying to do his job, that heâs probably far younger than you, that youâre probably married... go gawk at him and give him gifts that clearly make him uncomfortable.Â
Again, I realize Iâm being âsensitive.â Itâs just a web series, just a stupid scene meant to generate a laugh, etc. But Iâve reached a point in my life where I simply donât find that sort of stuff humorous. As a woman who has had much older men hit on me while Iâm trying to do my job, I look at the same thing happening to Jaune and ask, âWhy was this supposed to be funny again?â
But anyway, enough about all that. Other moments in the montage include Ruby and Yang fighting grimm together (presumably in their downtime. Nerds), Winter pretending to be unimpressed with Weissâ summoning, and Ironwood telling Oscar that maybe they can âjog [Ozpin] looseâ with a bit of training.Â
Yeah, remember how excited we all were that, based on the Volumeâs opening, we would at least see Oscar training with Ironwood? Remember how we all thought that this would provide him with some much needed character development? That maybe this would be the moment when he struggled with and potentially decided to come clean about their lies? Or he tries to talk to Ozpin while sparing with an incredibly difficult opponent? You know, since Ironwood himself brought up jogging Ozpin loose, we might actually get some interaction with Ozpin?Â
Boy were we optimistic! What we actually get is them charging each other for one hit before we cut back to others training. Namely Jaune. And this right here is the problem with this entire episode: for however cute and wonderful these moments might seem, theyâre all flat out ignoring the primary conflicts of the show. The ones the writing keeps refusing to grapple with. Who knows how much time this montage is supposed to cover, but itâs substantial. We get multiple flashes of different days, see the group working on different missions, a couple different moments taking place in the early morning, so Iâd wager at least another week has passed. Combine that with however long it took Pietro to make their weapons and youâve got the group fully entrenched in their lies. No one is questioning Ruby. Ruby isnât making headway towards trusting Ironwood. Everyone is just kicking their heels, happy with the status quo until something forces them to finally make a decision. They now, officially, have no right to judge Ozpin for the time he took to trust people. We see them doing the exact same thing here and theyâre all happy about it. With the exception of those two quick flashbacks in âAce Operatives,â weâve seen no evidence that the rest of the group is struggling with their own hypocrisy. I---like many---had hoped that Oscarâs training session would finally acknowledge and expand on the rest of the teamâs initial hesitation. But no.Â
(In which Jauneâs expression is me.)Â
Jumping ahead just a bit, we see this same issue when Ruby, Penny, Qrow, and Ironwood are out driving the supplies. Ruby and Penny finally have some time to themselves! Will they discuss her murder and resurrection? Nope. Ruby vaguely references it with, âYou know...â but thereâs no actual depth to their conversation (and if you canât even say âWhen you diedâ that implies that maybe there are some lingering feelings about all this). Instead Ruby is interested in whether Penny has made new friends and she says that Ironwood claims she has no time for friends. Slot that in next to the Ace Opsâ ridiculous, âWeâre not friends.âÂ
Second, we have this moment between Qrow and Clover where they reiterate the huge gap between age and experience here. Clover is hoping that âanother generationâ will do right by Remnant after weâre gone. Namely Ruby and the others. Continuing with that age theme, he reassures Qrow that âthose kids wouldnât be where they are without youâ which is all well and good, but is anyone going to tell THEM that? The adults donât need to know that theyâre doing good work---even if it is nice for Qrow to get some validation for once---rather, the whole âwe donât need adultsâ fiasco came about because the teens refused to acknowledge that work. We donât need someone telling Qrow that heâs helped keep them safe. Overlooking some insecurities (which RWBY isnât tackling anyway), he knows that. We as the audience donât need to hear it because we saw it all happen on screen. Rather, Clover should be put into a position where he reminds Ruby of all that her uncle has done for her. Just like Qrow talking to Ruby about her motivations for moving forward against Salem doesnât accomplish anything, Clover telling Qrow, as one adult to another, that theyâre worth something doesnât accomplish anything either. These parties know all this already.Â
As a side note, this is why you should mix things up. Not just so that Blake and Yang can practice fighting beside other people, but so that people who donât already agree can be challenged for once. Put Yang with Qrow and have him comment on her anger, continuing Taiâs work. Put Ruby with Clover and let him talk to her about what adults have done to get her here. All these moments of potential development are lost by maintaining the expectation that the original partners have to be the priority. Rooster Teeth had an easy way of throwing new people together by assigning them various missions and they didnât take it. Yang is still with Blake. Ren is still with Nora. Of course Qrow is with the one other guy his age who we have to pair him with. Reinforcing these relationships is great, but so is pausing them too.Â
And then thereâs the drinking.Â
Hold up one second. I need to grab a bit of writing from my Volume 6 finale recap. Think back to Qrow and Rubyâs interaction in the airship:
And then Qrow lowers his bottle which⊠what? Alcoholism doesnât work like that. Much more importantly, no one has tackled his drinking this season. Or the reasons he was drinking in the first place. Literally, Qrowâs semblance, his place in the war, Ozpinâs secret, none of it has been addressed. He has no reason to suddenly put aside his flask like heâs actually learned something. Does RT think weâre going to just imagine scenes that never actually happened?
After I posted this a couple of people pointed out that it doesnât necessarily mean anything. Weâve seen other times where Qrow goes to take a drink and then thinks better of it, so itâs a reach to assume heâs magically given up drinking now. Which, fair. Now though it looks like thatâs precisely what we got. Sometime between being found passed out on the front steps of the Argus house and reaching Atlas, Qrow just decided he was done with drinking and thus far weâve seen no evidence that heâs struggling with that. Meaning, itâs not a conflict heâs working through. That doesnât seem to be his arc this volume. Â
Yet heâs an alcoholic. Qrowâs drinking may have functioned as a joke for most of Volumes 1-3, but Volume 6 made it abundantly clear that this problem is incapacitating for him, especially after learning about Ozpin and Salem. So what happened? What changed? Even if I choose to overlook Qrow just deciding not to engage with his addiction anymore without help or backslides that we know of (doesnât work like that...), I canât ignore the fact that there was no catalyst for this. If the show wanted us to work under the assumption that Qrow stopped drinking because it endangered his family then they should have had him stop after the farm. You know, when he was almost killed by Apathy and had to be dragged out by his nieces. As it is, his drinking continues on throughout their whole time at Argus. Heâs not picking up his scroll. Heâs passed out on the steps. Heâs brushing past Ruby to go get a drink instead of helping them figure out a way past Cordovin. Then a day later they make it to Atlas. So what precisely in that 24 hour period happened to change one of Qrowâs defining characteristics? Or, if this is supposed to be an arc wherein Qrow attempts to get sober and struggles with it, why havenât we seen that? Again, theyâve been in Atlas for weeks now. This isnât a one day sober Qrow with a naively optimistic outlook. Heâs apparently been managing this for a while now with no downsides, no difficulties, no regrets.
Blake and Yang getting mad at Marrow instead of acknowledging their trauma. Oscar taking one hit at Ironwood instead of grappling with their secrets. Ruby talking about new friends instead of the relationship she already has with Penny. Clover telling Qrow adults are important instead of anyone telling the teens that. Qrow revealing that heâs just not drinking anymore. For reasons. Itâs amazing just how much space this episode provides for the characters to start working through their conflicts and we bypass every opportunity. This is RWBYâs primary problem. Beyond the pro-protagonist perspective is the issue that, especially since Volume 5, the show has made a habit of introducing intriguing problems and then either twisting them so they have simplistic âsolutionsâ (we donât need to tackle Rubyâs hypocrisy. Sheâs just âdifferentâ from Ozpin) or ignores them completely. We donât need a new friendship vs. professional relationship conflict. We donât need a new luck vs. bad luck semblance conflict. Not yet anyway. Not until we work through the conflicts that have already been introduced. Let Ruby talk to Penny about their own relationship. Let Clover help Qrow get sober. RWBY is like me when Iâm writing fic. Why would I finish the thing I started when thereâs this shiny new idea over here? Except Iâm engaging in a low-key hobby whereas theyâre writing for their livelihood. For the love of everything, please solve the problems we already have before chucking in new ones. You can give us all the same moments and relationships, just tailor them so they acknowledge the things the viewers have been waiting for you to tackle. I donât need to know why Ruby and her team are Super Special because theyâre BFFs when everyone else in Atlas apparently rejects friendship like the plague. I do need to know why a guy who was introduced downing a glass of whiskey apparently got over his alcoholism off screen.
Ugh. You know what we need? Penguins. Everyone look at the penguins for at least five seconds and allow them to cleanse your soul.Â
Heading backwards, before the transport scene we get a training fight between JNR + Oscar and Neonâs group. I honestly wonder how a team like theirs feels about them getting their licenses. After all, they fought at the Battle of Beacon too. The only reason why RWBYJNR got into extra, life-threatening situations is because they stupidly went off on their own. I realize that duh, as a story we canât just have our protagonists twiddling their thumbs, but from an in-world perspective Ruby snuck out of the house to hunt down a woman who would absolutely have killed her and 100% would have been kidnapped if Qrow hadnât followed to keep her safe. Everything else stems out of that. So not exactly a classically heroic basis for special treatment. All of which Neon and Flynt presumably donât even know about because it touches on all those secrets. I suppose they just heard something along the lines of, âI, Ironwood, am giving two Beacon teams early licenses because they survived a horrendous battle. You, my actual students, donât get them even though you did the same work.â It could have been really interesting to have some tension over this and for the group to see another complication of their secret keeping. Here they have to keep Cinder, the Maidens, the Relic, etc. quiet... but because of that it leads to some pretty awful miscommunication between friends. There are repercussions to your secrets and not all of them are things you can plan for or fix.Â
We donât have anything like that though. Obviously. Instead we just get a generic fight with a side of weird Nora/Ren stuff. Meaning, Neon calls him Noraâs boyfriend and asks, âWhereâs that energy when heâs around you?â Later Nora asks if theyâll still get sandwiches before work and Ren heaves out an annoyed sigh.
That moment struck me simply because it doesnât come across like one of his normal, happily indulgent sighs. Ren seemed legitimately annoyed. Which is even stranger when we consider that Nora isnât being over the top here. Sure, she pops up behind him in a sort of silly manner, but really all sheâs doing is expressing that sheâs hungry after an intense battle. Can we please make sure we grab something before heading off to work? Thatâs a more than reasonable request.Â
Ren shutting her down over his hair. Seeming to ignore her when she fiddles with it while on patrol. Neonâs comment about his lack of energy around her. Nora getting mad enough about it to give her a black eye (RWBY so rarely shows injuries). Ren seemingly put out by her theatrics. Theyâre all little things that only seem to paint a picture when put together, but of what exactly? Itâs like I said last time, if the show wants to introduce some sort of arc for Nora and Ren this volume it had better do it soon. Really soon. Details that may or may not be setup can only take you so far.Â
During this battle Ironwood smiles down at all their progress, which could be endearing or creepy, depending on whether you think heâs hiding something (more on that in a bit). Neon actually acknowledges Oscarâs existence and draws a blush out of him, so thank you for that, Neon.
I thought for just a moment that Jaune might compliment Oscar too, but he just compliments the other team instead. At least theyâre letting him train with him. After last weekâs episode Iâll take this small step forward.Â
Back past the talk between Qrow and Clover, we finally get to meet the infamous Robyn Hill. She blocks the road to Amity Arena with one of her Happy Huntresses, the same faunus who was spying on the project last episode. And who I forgot to mention in my recap. Whoops. I love Hill already though precisely because sheâs able to do what our protagonists couldnât last Volume: stand down when a plan fails.Â
Hill takes her shot by putting up the roadblock and asking Clover to be straight with her, but when that doesnât work and it looks like theyâre about to come to blows, she admits defeat and lets them through. Thatâs how you handle a tenuous ally. Keep the peace and regroup with a different idea. Show them basic respect so that they might help you in the future. Cloverâs âgood luckâ regarding the election speaks volumes about how everyone does want to help each other, they just need to figure out a way to do it. Hill could have attacked the group and stood her ground purely because she believes sheâs right---just as Ruby did with Cordovin---but she demonstrates her maturity instead. She didnât risk lives for the sake of getting what she wanted right here, right now. Despite the fact that what she wants likewise involves the safety of the people. Take note, Ruby.Â
Speaking of, everyone catch that guilty look when Ruby learns that Ironwoodâs project is taking resources directly from the city that most needs it? Yeah, what did you think was going to happen? At the very least the group saw that they were taking manpower away. Ironwood needs them to help protect Mantle because most of his men are off in the middle of nowhere, so the group is well aware that their actions are causing a negative impact. I highly doubt that the eight of them (including Qrow) can make up for however many people Ironwood is pulling out, to say nothing of the fact that many of them (like Ruby here) are also on Amity duty. Theyâre allowing Ironwood to put people, money, supplies, and time towards an endeavor that they know is bound to fail. Sure, it would be nice to have communication across Remnant without fear of losing that to the grimm again, but we all know Ironwood is primarily doing this because of the Salem situation. If he knew about her immortality heâd probably go, âHmm. Well, the first part of the idea is still nice, but I probably shouldnât pour this much into just a regular communications tower. Defeating Salem potentially justifies me hurting the people to get this done. But not anything else.â Iâll say it again: Ozpinâs secrets didnât endanger anyone. Everyone from Pyrrha to Yang agreed to put their lives on the line for reasons entirely separate from Salem. Their lives were in danger from the start and, given their choices, always would be in danger. Ruby is the one whose secret is not just threatening all of Remnant in the future, but actively hurting people now too. She has the ability to stop this and she chooses not to.
Or rather, she chooses to keep putting off the decision. Weâll tell Ironwood when weâre ready. Yeah right. I still want someone to challenge Ruby on what this magical âHeâs trustworthy!â moment looks like. Theyâve spent weeks with this man, fighting for him, training with him, accepting gifts in the form of weaponry, armor, facilities... so what exactly is it going to take, Ruby? Iâm not saying Ironwood is trustworthy, Iâm saying you can never know until the day they betray you. If that day comes. So when is Ruby going to acknowledge that? That she will never get that magical moment and that sheâs just like Ozpin, putting off telling someone because the information weighs so heavily and thereâs just too much to risk?Â
Hill thematically acknowledges the last two Volumes with, âIt doesnât have to be difficult. Just tell me,â while we all know itâs not that simple. Even if people would like it to be. Clover refuses, Penny spots two invisible huntresses closing in (nice), and as said, Robyn backs down.Â
We then end this episode with a long bonding session between Winter and Weiss. We see them fighting with their summonings and Winter comments about how, âYouâve grown up a bit, havenât you?â We get it. Youâre not subtle. Weiss has grown up. âMake no mistake. School is over.â Theyâre adults now! If only we saw that more than we heard it. Weiss at least is a character who has had legitimate, excellent development over the last couple of volumes. Iâm admittedly a bit confused though regarding how that development aligns with the old Weiss. Meaning, we learned early on that she wanted to become a huntress to redeem the Schnee name. Now Winter is talking about how separating herself from the Schnees was the best thing to happen to her and Weiss seems to agree. So is that it now? Is Weiss just concerned with being her own person, or is she still invested in being a Schnee? Just a Schnee who embodies what her family used to stand for? Itâs unclear based on the conversation.Â
Then. Ugh. They discuss Ironwoodâs choices and Weiss snidely comments that, âEveryone thinks what theyâre doing is right, but really theyâre just looking out for themselves... and their secrets.â Yeah, Weiss. INCLUDING YOU. Are they really so dense that they donât see how lying about how Ozpin disappeared was looking out for themselves, namely by making sure that Ironwood continued to embrace them with open arms instead of getting pissed? After all, itâs less likely that the group would have gotten a nice place to live, awesome weaponry, high-tech places to train, and early licenses if theyâd admitted to their sins last volume. Theyâre also protecting their own secrets by spending these weeks nice and quiet, just ignoring the Ironwood problem completely. Weiss is protecting their secrets right now by encouraging Winter to question Ironwoodâs intentions---subtly casting him and Ozpin in a bad light---while she herself is keeping secrets from Winter. I mentioned before that Ironwoodâs smile could potentially be a bad omen if we follow the writing rule of, âIf a character insists someone isnât keeping anything from them... theyâre definitely keeping something from them.â Winterâs belief that Ironwood doesnât keep secrets from her sets up the expectation for the audience that he probably is. But we donât actually know that yet. Weiss thinks Ironwood might be keeping secrets. Weiss knows for sure she and the rest of her friends are keeping secrets. Only one party is definitively guilty here, so Iâm not sure why she feels entitled to act like she still has the high ground.Â
With Ironwoodâs honor in question, Winter takes Weiss to see the Winter Maiden. We really donât get to learn much about her except that she still looks young-ish (again: RWBY ages are hard) and seems to like to paint.Â
No one else can visit her---and thus we donât hear the conversation---because Ironwood wants Winter to inherit the power. Okay. So that leaves us with a couple options now:
Older woman can inherit and Ozpin made a very iffy call in trying to foster that responsibility off on a First Year. Which is probably down to more writing concerns than Ozpinâs characterization. Meaning, you want to keep the conflict among the main cast, not bring in a random new character to do the volumeâs Important Thing. So you set up Pyrrha as the Fall Maiden, even though in-world that looks like a sketchy decision. To say nothing of the fact that Rooster Teeth isnât very good at setting down hard rules. What functioned as a limitation during Volume 3 can easily be wiped away in Volume 7. In the same way that we went from Qrowâs semblance being totally passive and range-based to âsometimes I canât control it.â
Ironwood and Winter are assuming that Winter can inherit, but sheâs actually too old now. Theyâll be blindsided by this when the power unexpectedly goes to someone else.
Ironwood has convinced Winter that she can inherit but actually has some sort of other plan up his sleeve.
Really, my biggest takeaway is Winterâs speech about how she is choosing this. Regardless of whether fate forced her into a situation with only bad options. Regardless of whether others also want her to make this decision. Itâs still her choice. 95% of the fandom needs to listen to that speech and then chuck Pyrrha into Winterâs place. Having only tough choices isnât the same thing as having no choice. The fact that your choice coincides with what others want doesnât lessen it. They both chose to take on this power and itâs wrong for others to trivialize that by claiming that the men in their life---Ozpin and Ironwood---manipulated them. Itâs implying that they canât make their own decisions. That making this terribly difficult choice doesnât come down to their own strength. They know itâs dangerous, regardless of whether they understand every detail of that danger, and actively choose to take on that responsibility anyway. Because they want to do some good in the world. The fandom has worked its butt off to take that away from Pyrrha and I really hope they donât do the same to Winter.Â
Although... the death flags. Yeesh but Winter looks like a particularly enticing target for the end of this Volume. What with talk of destiny and all... I really hope the series doesnât go the route of giving every Team RWBY member one of the Maiden powers, what with Winter in a position to think about Weiss if she dies with the power, Raven in a position to think about Yang, and Cinder obsessed with Ruby literally all the time... yeah. As Iâve mentioned before, Iâm personally more invested in ânormalâ people managing the impossible through hard work, belief in themselves and each other, all that jazz. Not already overpowered people (at least in Rubyâs case) getting literal magic to solve their problems with. Thereâs so much more you can do with that.
Finally, Jacques comes online to spew a bunch of BS about how everything ever is Ironwoodâs fault and heâs totally suffering just like everyone in Mantle.Â
Right.
As Winter says though, the lies are just enough of a âsparkâ to ignite an already pissed off populace. We close on an angry mob beginning to tear the streets apart. Guess weâll find out next week how the group tackles that nasty problem.Â
Until then! đ
Minor Things of Note
What was that sandwich gag? RWBY is really pushing the humor in iffy directions this volume.
I enjoyed Qrow and Clover playing cards though. What a mess with their semblances.
Also, I made us a poster:Â
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