#ozpin's manipulation is so much harder to see

[dappercat123]

Yes, some of the wealthy aren’t complete shit, usually they stop being wealthy as a result

But You cannot ethically have the kind of money Jacques schnee had, there are no “good” billionaires, Whitley winter willow and Weiss all had no actual control of the SDC until Jacques was gone, and the only reason he lost his power was because Watts convinced him to break the laws that up until that point was completely on his side

But Illia’s parents? Adam’s brand?

You yourself said Ilia’s rage was justified, the problem was how Adam took advantage of it to trick her into working for him, had she stuck with sienna I think she’d be much more successful, her justifiable anger was manipulated and exploited by an opportunistic prick, that doesn’t mean her rage isn’t justified and that she needs to “let it go”

Heck we have a recent example of violence helping to gain the Faunus rights during the Faunus rights revolution, it was the only reason every Faunus in remnant isn’t forced to live on menagerie only

By your logic was Robyn in the wrong for robbing ironwood? Should team rwby have tried harder to “meet him halfway” when he tried to abandon mantle?

Was Rhodes right that cinder shouldn’t have killed madam? That SHE was the villain for doing that?

Qrow and raven where pushed into crime due to similar issues of wealth disparity that plagues atlas, they had nowhere else to go before ozpin because they where entirely reliant on the tribe to keep them fed and alive

The wealthy elites have all the money and opportunities in the world, any ONE of the assholes at Jacques’ party could have spent their money to build homeless shelters, feed the hungry, give mantle affordable housing, and still lived a decent and comfortable life

Hell jacques could’ve provided safer working conditions end he’d STILL probably be the wealthiest man in the world,

But they didn’t, because then they wouldn’t AS be wealthy anymore, there has been NOTHING stopping them from being better people all these years but they continually exploit and abuse the working class for their own benefit anyways, not out of ignorance or a misunderstanding, but out of plain selfishness and greed, if they hadn’t sold their conscience they’d have left like May did, there was nothing stopping them, unlike may or the schnee kids they aren’t dependent on their parents to give them their money, it’s easier for them to be better then it was for her,

Fuck the atlas council could’ve made it illegal,for what happened to ilia’s parents to happen again but they didn’t, because they benefit from that’s system, so long as they benefit from it they’re not going to change it no matter how nicely you ask,

Your right, the gods see that as unimportent and don’t really care, despite literally having all the power in the world to treat their creations better

Sound fucking familiar?

So I cant help but think RWBY’s message of “togetherness” with Salem as its antagonist seemingly leads it into frustratingly centrist liberal territory with its politics

Like, I think it’s safe to say IF the atlas/mantle conflict becomes relevant again in vacuo, it will end up as a story where the refugees need to “come together to stop Salem”

But here’s the thing, why SHOULD the working class have to “come together” with the super wealthy ruling class that knowingly and continually exploited and opressed them? The issues the show o traduce aren’t ones where “coming together” is a solution

You wouldn’t ask cinder to “come together” with the madam would you?

Now, messages of unity CAN work with social justice plotlines without being too centrist

Recently in a marvel comics event magneto gave a speech about how “all the people deemed undesirable by society need to stand together”

But in that speech, the thing they’re “coming together” against are the ruling class and the systems they’ve created to oppress the “undesirables” not some immortal witch out to destroy them AND the ruling humans,

And unless they’re willing to at least give something besides Salem and how she affects people some level of focus that’s not gonna happen,

And since she’s now no longer hiding in the shadows and is taking direct action against the kingdoms? Yeah, that ain’t happening

[bestworstcase]

Additionally to Cinders rebellion vs Oscar’s growing resignation, there is also the contrast between Salem and Ozpin: Salem could treat Cinder better, but Ozpin has no choice in the eventual assimilation of Oscar. (Like, it's explicitly said it can be slowed down by not using magic, but not stopped. And, as far as anyone knows, it's not like Ozpin can leave. Both Salem's and Ozpin's behaviours are also very much mirror how the Gods treated them.

if i were talking about the involuntary soul parasite reincarnation thing i would have said so. ozpin can't remove himself from oscar's head, but he does get to choose how he acts.

initially, their dynamic is characterized by oscar begging to be left alone, for ozpin to stop talking to him and stop telling him what to do, and ozpin blithely ignoring that—for all that his sympathy is genuine, he's nonetheless consistent in using that feeling not to comfort but to dismiss, to argue, to cajole. "i don't want this," oscar says, and ozpin's answer is always "i'm sorry, but you don't get a choice." you have to go to haven. you have to uphold my responsibilities because they're your responsibilities now. you have to sacrifice everything—but don't think of it as sacrifice, think of it as an opportunity for greatness. you didn't want to spend your whole life on a farm anyway, did you?

and you can't get upset with me for reading your thoughts, because they're my thoughts now too.

he lies to oscar as much as he lies to anyone else, and when oscar threatens the secrets he's keeping, ozpin forcibly resists oscar's effort to regain control—if he could have fully suppressed oscar then, he would have, and we know that because he tried to. he doesn't treat oscar like a successor; he treats oscar like an extension of himself.

then he seals himself away, which leaves oscar free to process... all of this. and while there are subtle signs of oscar continuing to assimilate ozma's memories and ozpin's perspective to some degree throughout this time, oscar also really comes into his own in v6-7—oscar emerges and flourishes in ozpin's absence, even as bits and pieces of ozma's past lives, including ozpin, are integrated into his psyche. he becomes more confident, more courageous, more certain of himself, more committed to trust and honesty—and in every respect, increasingly less like ozpin.

it feels... telling? that the first genuine conversation oscar and ozpin have after ozpin returns involves oscar expressing this feeling—that he's become more himself without ozpin—and ozpin gently dismissing it as merely an illusion. i also don't think it's entirely coincidental that ozpin spends a significant chunk of the volume after this point alternately trying to convince oscar to let him take control or else do things that will accelerate the merge, like using magic. ozpin isn't... malicious, exactly, but he is deeply uncomfortable with not being in control. that's why his lack of trust in oscar, and his ultimate decision to acquiesce when oscar asks for trust, is the fulcrum of his character arc in v8—and an exact reflection of salem's "i've realized it's all my fault" thing with cinder.

like

the contrast here isn't that salem could choose to do better and ozpin has no choice; salem is cruel and exacting, but ozpin is no less ruthless than she is. he just goes about it much more subtly and is, frankly, the better manipulator by a wide margin. and the shifting dynamic and balance of power between ozpin and oscar in v8 very precisely mirrors the paradigm shift between salem and cinder; i think ozpin's change of heart is a lot more likely to be immediately genuine than salem's is, but i have the same questions about him that i do about salem—how far is he willing to change? how much is he able to change? to what lengths is he willing to go to follow through on his words with actions, to challenge his own habits, to relinquish control, to be vulnerable even when it's hard?—because their circumstances are broadly similar.

and like, while salem is going to have this external pressure to change in the form of cinder's ongoing and escalating rebelliousness in conjunction with salem's obvious determination to keep cinder on her side without squashing the rebellion—hence tacit permission granted in 8.14—for ozpin the more genuine desire to change and the much more prominent and genuine care he feels for oscar is going to be up against the temptation to just... wait it out, until there isn't enough left of oscar to demand change. the longer ozpin hesitates the less pressure there will be on him, because oscar's dissolving whether they like it or not and oscar has already kind of just accepted that he's going to die sooner or later, and the only way to truly prevent that from happening is for them to be separated, which is something that ozma... to all appearances has never seriously considered before, even when he had all four of the relics at his disposal.

[dragynkeep]

Something that I always get annoyed at is when I see Rwby fans bash Ozpin and all the other adults in the show for “forcing” the main girls (plus everyone else) into a war when it literally wasnt what he and everyone else were trying to do at all.

Oz made the schools to train them to fight against Daemons, not his fight against Salem. To prolong Salem as long as he could.

Honestly the whole, “oh the adults were wrong for building the school because they made child soldiers and the children rose above that & were right all along ” is such a load of crap.

They all just want a way to blame everything on Ozpin and make him the bad guy.

The day the FNDM learned the word child soldier is the day I no longer knew peace. A hint, you can’t be a child soldier if you have a choice. 

Which the girls do. They didn’t have to attend Beacon Academy, there’s no conscription for Ozpin to bring in more soldiers to fight against Salem, nor did he even try and manipulate at least Ruby into joining because of her super special silver eyes.

All the times we saw Ozpin in the earlier volumes, he’s actively trying to keep the girls and his students away from the fight. He constantly talks about them like children who need to be protected, who need to at least have a chance to enjoy their childhood before they grow up and inevitably have to fight Grimm, seeing the worst of what Remnant has to offer. 

When Ozpin was finally gone at the end of Volume 3, no one forced Ruby to go to Mistral to find out how Cinder got into Haven. It’s even spelt out in Volume 4 by Jaune, no one forced them, Ruby made a choice and her team chose to follow after her. If Ruby wanted to stay in Patch and be with Yang, no one would force her to do otherwise. 

Even when they were gathering the Relics, they easily could’ve just given James the lamp and gone back home, like they were bitching all throughout the last Volume when they found out defeating Salem might be harder than they thought. 

And the Huntsmen Academies, no matter how flawed, are necessary, because what is the alternative? Take them down, let the people do it themselves, and sit back while Grimm decimates settlements that no longer have a fighting force to rely on for protection? People would be blaming Ozpin if he washed his hands or if he kept going, so what is he meant to do?

It just reeks of infantilisation. Hazel hates the Academies because his grown sister chose to be a Huntress and died. Everyone hates Ozpin because the group of protagonist, most of them outside of Ruby and Oscar being adults, chose to join the fight and then started whinging when they were forced to actually use their braincells.

There’s only one person who doesn’t have a choice in all of this. Oscar.

He never chose to go to an Academy, he never wanted to be a Huntsman or a warrior. He was perfectly happy living with his aunt on their farm, and was dragged into this because of something that was out of Ozpin’s control. Ozpin never chose to reincarnate into Oscar, but he did, and his choices left were either sit out of the fight for who knows how long until he reincarnated into someone else or tell Oscar what was going on and give him the choice or whether to leave or to stay.

And, of course, Oscar chose to leave and join the heroes, but how much could he realistically have stayed out of it? Salem wanted Ozpin dead, she kept hunting him down over lifetimes. If Oscar chose to stay, how long could he have kept that choice until Salem forced him into the war anyway?

[bmblboop]

I gotta say, I don’t think weve come to fully acknowledge that Ozpin had a secret cabal manipulating world politics fir the sake of a secret war, like, there’s a remnant conspiracy theorist out there who feels extremely validated lol,

It also potentially means Ozpin just, like, let the other kingdoms banish all the Faunus to manageri? Like, the king of vale couldn’t have tried to nip that one in the bud?

Maybe try a little harder to enforce the “no slavery” part of the vale accords? Stop atlas from keeping their military?

When he said he’d made more mistakes then any man he wasn’t kidding

While it would be extremely convenient to blame every single post-Great War problem on King of Vale!Ozma, it also missing the forest for the trees. Humanity is constantly going through arguments and compromises - creating rules and circumventing them in the constant political landscape of life. It would unfair to say he didn’t do a “good enough job” when the man single-handedly stopped the Great War and had to rebuild four nations with new democracies (or are they oligarchies? idk what we are calling the Council system).

First of all - Menagerie is described as a gift to the Faunus - a place they never had formerly where they could be free of persecution. Here is the key part about the Faunus being given an island - THEY WERE NEVER BANISHED. THEY WERE NEVER FORCED TO GO THERE. Claiming Oz is in the wrong for allowing the kingdoms to forcibly excommunicating an entire race would be a compelling argument if that was what actually happened.

The treatment of the Faunus differed around the world, and things wouldn't improve much for them until the Great War: Vale and Vacuo against Mantle and Mistral. A war unlike anyone had ever seen, and when it was over, the world was desperate to find compromises that would ensure they'd never see the likes of it again.

Faunus were awarded equal rights as citizens of Remnant, and as an apology, they were given an entire continent of their own to do with as they pleased. There were some that saw this as fair and just, but many saw it for what it really was: a slap in the face from a nation of sore losers. And so Menagerie was born.

There are still Faunus all over the world, though the fair treatment they were promised varies in quality from place to place. But Menagerie will always be their safe haven.

- World of Remnant: Faunus

Menagerie was supposed to be a compromise, a combination of worldwide legal rights and land for them to call their own, to ease the racial tensions between humans and Faunus. Of course, the land not being an existing part of a major continent, instead being a tiny island with dangerous wildlife, left a bitter taste in the mouths of many. It’s also implied that the island was formerly under Mistral rule, since it was “a slap in the face from sore losers” and the only other losing nation in that war was Mantle, way too far in the north.

The King of Vale likely decreed that Mistral had to provide a place for their newly freed Faunus citizens, since they were the kingdom with the most landmass. Mistral probably said, of course, and then did the bare minimum because racism. In the interest of not inciting a race war so hot off the heels of the previous one, the King of Vale didn’t press the issue.

This is speculation though, we don’t know what the circumstance of Menagerie were, and we don’t know how involved Oz was. The past is the past, and the circumstances of the past are what allows stories to have conflict in the present.

The out-of-universe explanation for “Why did the former rulers give the Faunus  a tiny island?“ is simply “because it sows dissent that sets the stage for drama and plot developments in the present.“

--

The next thing, about Atlas. The kingdom that fought in the war was Mantle, and the industrial revolution that lead to the Atlas we know, with hard light dust, sleek airships and a school-to-army pipeline happened AFTER the war. Yes, Mantle was technologically advanced, but it wasn’t nearly to the same extent as it appears now, 80 years later.

Perhaps Oz felt no need to impose sanctions on Atlas for the technology boom. After all, they were openly sharing such technology with the world and aided greatly in the construction of important tools of global unity, like the CCT and Amity Colosseum. Oz had great faith in the huntsmen schools, training a standing army of warriors to fight Grimm, so perhaps he chalked up the more militaristic Atlas army as a cultural difference. Obviously, hindsight 20/20, we know that was a bad call, but there was no way for Oz to know that. Atlas, despite all of it’s flaws, has never once declared war against another kingdom in the scope of the show. It’s just the idea of a standing army, that Atlas could declare war at any second, that Cinder uses to cause tension between Atlas and the rest of the world.

--

Slavery is outlawed in the real world too, you know. But that doesn’t stop slavery-like institutions (see irl prison industrial complex and that part of the DC comics) or criminals knowingly breaking the law (see Madame obtaining little Cinder for sole use as a laborer) from existing. “Crack down harder on it” only takes you so far without a concrete plan of how to do so.

Yes, the SDC needed a major crack down for all their shit, but the SDC didn’t exist when the King of Vale had the entire world’s attention. Blaming Oz for not writing in specific rules about minority labor rights was not on his mind considering the first biggest issue was that the minorities weren’t legal citizens yet - they had ZERO rights.

Every step in changing the world for the better is a small one. New problems are created everyday, and while we can trace issues back to specific people in the past, we cannot place all our burden upon them. They only played one part, out of hundreds of others, in creating the circumstances of today’s troubles.

Oz may have made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child on the face of this Planet, but that just goes to show that even the most devoted and stalwart defenders of humanity are fallible. Humanity is imperfect, but we are trying anyway.

(and also he’s been doing this for a thousand years, so like - sheer numbers comes into effect)

[kitkatopinions]

OZPIN

Ozpin for the RWBY character asks.

My top three ships for the character

Note: For these ships, I’m exclusively talking about gray-haired Professor Ozpin, and I’ve long written Oz to be at least somewhat affected by the age of his hosts, I’ve long written him to be around the same age as Ironwood and Qrow (I mean, he looks the same age and I missed Raven’s lines suggesting he was a teacher or headmaster when Team STRQ was in school,) and I’ve also long headcanoned that when he first hosted in Ozpin, the person he was hosting in chose to merge with him right away. So while he was Ozpin, there was no ‘Ozpin talks sometimes, Oz talks sometimes,’ or sharing a head. I’ve never done much shipping for Oz, but all that kind of lines up to at least make that version of him pretty shippable.

So yeah, Ozpin/Glynda could be a power couple of wholly devoted, tired, stressed caregivers trying to mentor sixty some kids at once. XD Ozpin/Amber has literally no real content, but they could look good together and she’s a non-character like Summer, but I see them as having had a lot of similarities in being kind and soft spoken. I also don’t mind Ozpin/Roman as a ‘once upon a time, Roman used to flirt with him all the time before anything went bad and Ozpin responded with amused tolerance and never really took it seriously, but a lot of their acquaintances thought they were seeing each other... Which would just make it hurt worse and be one more thing Oz blames himself for when Roman falls into a life of crime, 

My three least favorite ships for the character

Oz/Cinder, as previously stated, once someone kills someone, there’s no coming back from it. Also, he doesn’t need to get romantic advancements from any abusive manipulative magic girl who just wants to use and hurt him and abuses children on the side too. Oz/Hazel. Hazel is an abuser! He beat Oz! He blamed Oz for things that weren’t his fault and used him as an excuse for all his vile actions. Gross. And Oz/Salem takes the top spot for very obvious reasons. This one’s even more gross than Oz/Hazel.

My biggest criticism for the character

Honestly, the way he’s treated by the narrative of the show with much less sympathy than he should be. I love flawed characters, leaders that do their best but make lots of mistakes, but the narrative treated him as one hundred percent in the wrong, no discussion, and therefore deserving of Qrow hitting him (out of character moment!) and Team RWBY ripping his secrets from him forcibly, making him relive his trauma in high def, yelling at him and then being glad he was gone, and not wanting him back and then only begrudgingly and seriously accepting his apology (out of character, especially for Blake!) Especially since Ruby also didn’t have a plan and lied about potentially life saving information to an ally and then even when she made her broadcast to the world, she left out tons of information there too! Which, don’t get me wrong, is understandable for her, but the narrative should’ve recognized that she was doing the same things Ozpin did and they should’ve had her gain sympathy and understanding for him. And the narrative also gave credence to Hazel somehow, treating it seriously when he warns Oscar ‘no more Gretchens’ despite Hazel being a super abusive, murderous bastard who was trying to murder kids and making the world a worse place. I’ve had so many people tell me ‘Team RWBY are going to apologize to Ozpin and realize they were wrong to treat him the way they did,’ but it never happened. Because the writers wanted us to think of Oz as a morally gray person who had to be taught a lesson by Team RWBY, rather than an abuse victim who deserved some sympathy and understanding who shouldn’t have been abused again just for making a mistake. I don’t know why the writers thought pretending Team RWBY and Qrow were in the right would be okay, but I hate it.

My favorite thing about the character

I love Oz so much, but my favorite thing about him might be his dynamic with Qrow in seasons 3-5. Of course it all went bad in season 6, but I love a close friends, almost brothers dynamic where one does everything for the other and is wholly devoted to him, would die for him at the drop of a hat. And I love a mentor-father figure always throwing himself into protecting a kid and leaning on his shoulder while the kid is nervous, but excited and happy over it and wanting his affection and approval... And with Oz (and the headcanon that he’s affected by the age of his host,) I get both! There’s a lot more to love, but that’s my favorite thing. God, they flourish in fan fictions...

A headcanon I have about them

I already touched on some of my headcanons for him and his host, but also...‘Ozpin’ was that host’s last name, and his first name was actually Orpheus, but his team in Beacon and his inner circle only ever called him by his last name.

What I would change about them if I was making a re-write

Okay, so hear me out, I’d still have people get mad at him for all his secret keeping and having no plan to defeat Salem, and I’d probably still have him temporarily retreat. But A. I wouldn’t have the punch, and instead, I’d have Qrow more ‘quietly disappointed’ than anything else and he’d regret it almost immediately and feel guilty about it (even though in that case, his feelings would be valid,) and B. Blake would be on Ozpin’s side. Seriously, Blake knows what abuse feels like, she knows it’s hard to trust after, she knows Oz has been through worse, even more than she can imagine. She should’ve been standing up for him, saying that even though he was wrong to lie, she gets why. And C. I’d have the people who have a harder time understanding and especially Ruby learn and grow and start to realize how much weight was on his shoulders while they make many of the same mistakes. D. I’d have Ozpin start coming back in V7, and apologize to Qrow in private (and have Qrow apologize back,) and then I’d have him mostly silent, ‘coming out to talk’ only really to James or Qrow and communicating through Oscar when the need calls for it, and he’d kind of step down and let James (and kind of, Ruby) make the choices for the group. Ruby at the very least would apologize to him by the end of the seventh season. And I’d totally still have him kidnapped and taken to Salem because I love that sweet sweet whump, but I’d have Hazel die like the unredeemed asshole he was and I think I’d have Qrow involved in the rescue somehow.

What I I think of their character allusion and what (if anything) I would change about it

Oz acts as both the Wizard of Oz and the Princess Ozma character merged into one allusion, and I honestly think some of it is really cleverly done. The Wizard of Oz had arrived in Oz and was treated as a god, and decided to lean into it due to Oz’s lack of current leadership and used his magician tricks to make it seem like he had magic (reflecting Oz agreeing to Salem making them seem like gods by using what was - in their world - perfectly ordinary magic, which Oz did in an attempt to grant leadership to a world he was tasked with improving.) The Wizard is treated as a king in Oz and is presented as a magic infallible solution to all of Dorothy (and her group’s) problems, only for that to be proven to not be the case, as he can only grant temporary pacifying placebos (reflecting Oz’s attempts to keep Salem back and present a false time of peace to the world while fighting a secret war that he has no plan to be able to end.) The wizard temporarily leaves the Land of Oz only to return to it later (like Ozpin dying only to come back,) and when he returns, he acts as a guide to Dorothy and dumps plot exposition about his origins (guiding the kids, the Lost Fable,) and is then permitted to remain in the Land of Oz by a magic girl who is the true leader (reflective of Ruby and the group ‘graciously’ letting him stay in their group.) Then, there’s Princess Ozma, the extremely benevolent and kind ageless fairy princess, descended from a long line of fairy princess’s, who is the rightful ruler of the land of Oz. Princess Ozma was friendly to outsiders and disliked violence, preferring peaceful solutions to conflict, and when she was first introduced in the books, it was while trapped in the body of a young boy named ‘Tip’ with no recollection of the life as Princess Ozma. I think all of that pretty obviously lines up with Ozma/Ozpin the RWBY character really well! I don’t mind this conjoined character allusion. I’m actually pretty dang fond of this one, I think this (along with Sun) is one of the few well done character allusions in RWBY.

[secret-engima]

Rereading Team Gremlin verse (almost mistyped that as Gremling, which i can see them being called btw), and. I see 'HC on the life just before Ozpin himself. HC? What HCs? Give HCs, plz.

Uhhhh. Sure!

Now my timeline is still a bit fuzzy, but here’s a few ... suppositions I’ve made, just so you know where I’m starting from with this OC.

A common fanon is that the previous incarnation before Ozpin was the King of Vale which ... sure I can see that. But personally I think it doesn’t quite fit. Raven mentions in canon that Ozpin is “the youngest Headmaster of Beacon” and apparently he was young enough that blatant favoritism or nepotism was assumed to be in play by most people (tho that could be Raven’s cynicism). AND some other canon facts we know that screw up Roosterteeth’s own timeline: Ozpin was headmaster when Team STRQ was around (so around 40-ish years pre-canon) AND he is “younger than Headmaster Theodore.”

Headmaster Theodore is listed on his wiki page to be “mid to late 40s”

So that means Ozpin was YOUNG when he became headmaster. teenager/just turned 20s young. Team STRQ’s initiation was likely one of, if not the first, he ever oversaw as headmaster.

-CIRCLING BACK TO THE INCARNATION THING AND HOW THIS TIES IN. The Great War ended 80 years pre-canon, which would mean a minimum of 40-odd years before Ozpin was born, and then an additional 18-20 years minimum before Ozpin is old enough to get pulled into the curse and have a voice in his head that urges him to become Headmaster of Beacon way early (since Oscar is implied/assumed to be the youngest incarnation ever and an oddity in that fact). Now we know that there is usually a larger gap between incarnations than with Oscar, likely of several years, but considering that the King of Vale would already have been an adult, likely in his 40s WHEN THE WAR HAPPENED ... that felt like too wide of a potential gap. At the year I have for Ozpin’s birth, the King would be 87, which is a reasonable old age to pass on, but that would leave 18-20 years between him and Ozpin becoming the next incarnation, which felt like too large a gap. Even if I pushed his death up to 95, that would still leave 10-ish years of no Ozma to handle Salem.

-So instead I killed off the King of Vale a bit younger than that and made an incarnation to slot in between the King of Vale and Ozpin. So far I’ve been calling him Osamu, but I am fully open to a better name option, preferably one that starts with OZ. Anyway- this middle incarnation was born six years before the Great War and thus grew up through the ten years of war and all that entailed. I’m thinking he was likely from Mistral, actually? And the war ended right before he came of recruitment age at 16. He was lower class and so very Not Pleased with the Mistralen government, so when the King of Vale organized and created the Huntsman Academies in the aftermath of the war, Osamu went to Beacon rather than Haven.

-Osamu is ... a like minded soul still, yes. He is protective and he wants to help people, help the world, and he can be very kind in the right situation. But he is also one of the much harsher incarnations. He was raised during the ban on colors and art in Mistral and then lived through the War as his childhood and that- marked him. Even though he did not participate in the war itself, canonically Grimm attacks were at an all time high across the world because of the negativity surrounding the war, and that wouldn’t have just been the battlefields. Villages and towns would have suffered a huge spike in attacks because of the stress of war rationing, losing loved ones to the battlefield, and knowing that they would be even more unprotected against Grimm attacks. That gave him a harder mentality. A more black and white outlook on how to help people. He is venomously against war, but when it comes to fighting Salem from the shadows...

-He’s likely one of the closest any of Ozma’s incarnations have come to the “very manipulative for the greater good” trope that some people (incorrectly) attribute to Ozpin. He believed that protecting the world meant far more than any one person, which was ... fine enough when he was the latest incarnation.

-But after he died and woke up in Ozpin’s head, it became more of a problem, because now OZPIN, the physically youngest incarnation (until Oscar comes along), is the one bearing the brunt of that drive. Which is what led to Ozpin becoming Headmaster so fast, even though reasonably he could have stayed a student and Huntsman for a while and just advised whatever member of Osamu’s inner circle had stepped into the Headmaster role from the shadows.

More thoughts on Osamu when he was alive and not the voice in Ozpin’s head:

-Had a family, but lost them over the course of the War. His older brothers and father he lost to the battlefield, his mother was lost to a Grimm raid near the end of the war.

-Always wore a red scarf, everywhere he went. In the world of Remnant vids there’s a green silhouette with a red scarf during the Vytal festival: that was Osamu in my AUs, he won the very first Vytal tournament on behalf of Vale.

-Probably caught a lot of flak and suspicion for coming to Beacon to learn rather than Haven, as post-war tensions would have still been high, but the King of Vale personally stepped in to ensure that it was permitted.

-Was very good at sword fighting and preferred it over using Long Memory, though he did keep the cane on his person at all times.

-He was the one to come up with the “fling students off cliffs” tradition in Beacon, not Ozpin (though admittedly Ozpin did take some mild glee in continuing the practice).

-Personally knew the King of Vale before the king died, though only briefly. Osamu was an oddity, being not only among the first generation of students in the newly founded Huntsman academies but the first to intentionally cross the border to go to one different from his home country, and so the King took an interest in him.

-Both of them were very surprised when, roughly five years after the king died, Osamu woke up with the king’s voice in his head.

-Was a very early supporter of Faunus Rights, and until the King of Vale managed to temper some restraint into him, his support tended to show up in the form of Throwing Hands when he saw people treating Faunus poorly. This led to him incorporating several Faunus into his own inner circle, and one of the reasons Beacon has such a stubborn “we accept anyone from any walk of life or species” stance. As soon as he became Headmaster of Beacon he started stomping on *all* the fussy noble toes to ensure that Faunus students were not just permitted, but where given the same accommodations and protections as any other human student. The King of Vale was so proud.

-Never married, never even dated/courted anyone. At first he was not interested/too busy trying to become a Huntsman, but after the King of Vale popped up in his head, he decided it was too dangerous to risk someone else just for love and company. This is a mentality he admittedly drilled into Ozpin’s head too.

[real-jaune-isms]

RWBY Volume 8 Chapter 2 Review/Rundown

Cr

I feel like this about sums up the general reaction after this week. So let’s dive into how it got out of hand so fast.

We open, a little surprisingly, on a shot we saw at the end of last Volume: Qrow looking at Clover’s bloody badge in his hand. We hear Robyn ranting and raving at someone about how this situation is all their fault, how all she wanted was to bring people together. She’s pacing in her cell, and at first you worry she’s turned on Qrow and hates him for fighting Clover and getting them both arrested, but no. She’s berating Jacques, and thank god someone is. He quotes his daughter in Volume 1 and claims he is a victim, but it was more endearing and memorable coming from the Ice Queen. He continues to assert his innocence, saying Watts used him and his power for diabolical purposes. Sure, he is guilty of many things, but he should not be held responsible for this. And at least his charges don’t include murder. That gets Qrow’s attention, since it was of course a dig at him. That quells Robyn’s fury rather quickly, and she does defend Qrow’s innocence. But she hops right back on the flame train and (while wonderfully insulting his mustache) says she’s not about to agree with the words of an accomplice to Watts’ sins against Mantle. Sure enough, the man of the hour is also in an adjacent cell, and he’s resigned himself to being stuck here like the rest of them. We get a look at where exactly “here” is, a 2 by 2 grid of square cells whose walls are Hard Light Dust shields. It’s a room that’s otherwise rather empty, and the Dust walls seem to be the only source of light. A very makeshift appearance, all things considered, and I worry about Watts being in a cell surrounded by Dust tech he might be able to manipulate. Then again, they took his rings, but he’s got to be pretty resourceful. Meanwhile, Jacques has all the confidence of a spoiled rich brat put behind bars for a misdemeanor. He’s quite sure Whitley will be rushing to get the family’s legal team on the case, and he’ll be out within... well we don’t know exactly how short he thinks his incarceration will last because Robyn gets pissed and punches the wall dividing them. That shuts him up rather well. And really, Jacques-ass? You’re putting your faith in a teenager to help overturn alleged war crimes? What an out of touch prick. 

All four of them are shaken from their particular trains of thought by an alarm buzzing and the door opening. Three guards file in, disengage one of the walls of Watts’ cell, and go inside to smack him with the muzzle of a gun and drag his ass outta there. Jacques cringes at the sight of such sudden violence, and Robyn looks momentarily surprised before seeming to accept this. Guess she didn’t expect Ironwood to be so ruthless so soon. She sits back on her bed, which looks like its just a hard slab, and laments being unable to do anything. But Qrow says there is something they can do: kill the man who put them here. To paraphrase Agent Washington, that has got to be the worst plan ever. Of all time. You’re already in jail on murder charges, and now you want to actually cross the line and kill THE LEADER OF A KINGDOM?!?!?! I realize that Ironwood has gone of the deep end and needs to be stopped, but this is not the way to do it. This will only lead to failure, I’m sure of it.

Meanwhile, we cut down to an Atlas news reporter doing a story in Mantle. He’s doing his thing, talking about the unprecedented Grimm hordes and Ironwood not doing anything about it yet. But just as he’s going on about the dedication of his station, the Atlas Eye, Joanna comes up and swipes his microphone to deliver her own message to the people. She tells it like it is, saying that the Happy Huntresses are here to offer aid when Ironwood will not, and spreading the word for people to gather what supplies they can and head for the crater. We see one of the kids from Jaune’s crosswalk scene, and thank goodness his mom is still alive. Joanna talks about all of Mantle coming together to hold the line against the coming Grimm, otherwise the storm at their gates will sweep in to wipe them all out. Yang’s group get into Pietro’s pharmacy, and open the door to the backroom to discover something that makes them very happy. As we saw from the promo clip several months ago, it’s three hoverbikes which we then see them riding through the streets. Yang’s a natural at it, driving up a ramp to do a cool flip off a wall much to Oscar’s panic and discomfort as some of her hair gets in his mouth. Jaune and Ren are... adequate by comparison. Noticing the purple glow of what I presume is Gravity Dust propelling them and allowing the bikes to hover, I wouldn’t be shocked if Yang gives hers a paintjob to be the new Bumblebee: Now with added shipping material! What’s far less pleasant to notice is the Grimm squatting like a gargoyle on the bridge they drive under. We see this thing on the rooftops in a few more shots and then... whooo boy. But we will get there. For now, the biker gang finds more people to protect and help on the journey through town to the crater. One of the Real Thirsty Moms has armed herself with a snow shovel and isn’t totally sure if the crater will be a safe place, but Yang puts on her bravest face to reassure her... just before the screams of people being chased by Grimm get her attention. It’s only two Sabyrs, and Jaune stops their progress by throwing a Hard Light shield spawning grenade that we can assume was with the stash of new gear earlier. Ren drops down to stab both Grimm to death and kicks the quickly deactivating grenade back to Jaune who uses the Gravity in his shield to draw it to him. Very handy with all the tools, bud. Oscar is worried the Grimm Salem has brought with her have already gotten this far into the city, but Yang rationalizes they’re stragglers from the big attack last night. Cuz yeah, we’re still only 12 hours or so removed from the climactic latter half of Volume 7. She doesn’t wanna take any chances though, and asks Ren if Jaune can amp his Semblance up so he can mask the whole crowd for the trip. Ever the realist, he gives a less than encouraging answer, but Jaune sees how badly these people need some hope and comfort. So he makes it into a reassuring promise that the trip will be totally safe and Grimm free. Good job, man. But in every crowd of people, there’s always... a Karen. In this case it’s a grandma who doesn’t want to go stay in the slums among the “animals”, she wants to go to Atlas dammit. But Yang has been waiting to berate someone after the morally grey argument with Ruby last episode, so she takes full advantage of this. This lady might want to be in Atlas, but it’s become clear that Atlas doesn’t want her or any of the other people in Mantle, whereas the Faunus in the crater are showing more kindness than she deserves and giving her a warm place to stay amid all these Grimm. That shuts her up quick, and her daughter (one of the Real Thirsty Moms!) nervously butts in to say that yeah, they’ll accept the offer and she’ll go get their stuff now. We fade to seeing the greyed out crowd walking down the street with Yang giving frontal support, Ren riding on Jaune’s bike in the midst of the crowd to mask outwards in a radius, and Oscar guarding the rear. Grandma Karen is still whining about having to go to the crater, but her daughter is trying to get her to pipe down.

Oscar laments how hard it’s been to get folks to cooperate, with Ozpin chiming in to say he’s preaching to the choir on this one, and that he’s becoming increasingly concerned about that challenge. Oscar grumbles about the unencouraging internal peanut gallery, and Oz gets right to the point. The teens all have every right to be mad at him for dipping on them in Mistral, none more so than Oscar himself, but that’s not what Oscar’s beef is about. He’s mad that he gave him false hope, that in the time Oz was gone Oscar was able to really start coming into his own as a fighter and a member of the team. But now he’s back and Oscar will go back to just being the vessel for the guy everyone really cares about. Oz acknowledges and validates that, but admits that he was never really gone at all so... the merging is still going. Oscar is gaining deep memories and what magic Oz has left, so it’s closer than ever. Neither of them want this to happen, but what can they do? Further up, Ren’s cloaking flickers for a second and Jaune checks on him. He’ll be fine, he’s just got a lot to focus on. Jaune tries to give him a pep talk, but silence is more needed here and Ren is a little snippy in saying so. Jaune seems pretty bummed that Ren is in such a state, but I can’t really say he’s mad at him. More upset with himself and his leadership. One member of his team left to do something else, and the other is in a mental funk he has no clear idea how to help him out of. That’d bum anyone out. Let’s talk about Ren for a moment, actually. I think part of the reason his semblance is working at less than 100% is the same reason he’s pissy with Jaune. He has too many emotions bottled up and he’s trying to ignore them for the sake of staying neutral and calm to be at his best. But if you force yourself to always be neutral, it becomes that much harder to shift into the zen needed for this power. He needs to let himself have emotional highs and lows so he can transition naturally into the middle ground. In other words, TALK ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS, BUDDY!!! It’s also been theorized that his semblance can work for more than just neutrality and he might be projecting his inner turmoil onto the crowd. But that’s yet to be proven. Oz appropriately closes out the scene by saying that they ALL need to figure out a way to work together, but something tells me that’s not coming for another 8 episodes at least.

Changing locales, we see Penny outside of a building with a puffing smokestack on the edge of the city. Turning around, we see where the city of Mantle ends and the slums of the crater begin, and how many people are making there way down from one to the other. But quickly look back, as Blake has just cut off the lock on the chain link gate to the building and May is leading our girl squad inside. That’s right, the one and only May Marigold is coming along on this mission so we get a chance to see her really show her stuff! Nora is grateful for the assist, but May assures her this plan would have definitely gotten Robyn’s backing judging by how much she talked about Amity Tower once she was in the know, so she’s all too happy to help get it up and running. And the Happy Huntresses can afford to be sending her for this, since Fiona has the rest of the team helping her out. The reminder that their partners are off doing a separate mission dampens Blake and Nora’s smiles though... Ruby worries about the safety of going into this place, but once inside Weiss gives the rundown. This is a subsidiary of the Schnee Dust Company that specializes in shipping packages of refined Dust from the mines up to various areas of Atlas through pneumatic tubes. And since it’s a small side business, the worker robots have no direct chain of command to Ironwood, just the Schnees. And Weiss’ grand plan for transportation up to the Atlas military base is something Ruby jokingly suggested back in Volume 2... mailing themselves to their destination. You’re becoming more like that dolt every day... and as a White Rose shipper I love it~ Blake takes this opportunity to rain on Weiss’ confident parade with a dig at the high percentage of buildings in Atlas the Schnee family must own at this rate, and Weiss refuses to comment on how many they actually don’t own. Glad to see Blake being playful like this, shows she’s really comfortable being back with the group again. Everyone spreads out to look for the tube they need, and Penny finds the one for Atlas Academy instead. It reminds her of the confrontations that were had there last Volume, and it clearly still bothers her. Ruby comes over to check on her, and incorrectly assumes Penny’s lamenting about friends fighting is regarding her and Yang. You may be the protagonist, but not everything is about you Ruby. Penny meant Ironwood, Winter, and the Ace Ops, the people Team RWBY had become such fast friends and trusted allies with in Volume 7. The people who are doing and saying such unkind things now, like Ironwood telling her people will die unless she does as she says. Maybe that’s why she’s lingering at this terminal, she’s debating giving herself up to him for the sake of others? 

Ruby is having none of this self blaming talk though, and turns Penny around to look her in the eyes as she assures her that no, that isn’t true at all, Ironwood was just saying it to hurt her and make her feel bad enough to come back. Penny admits that she misses the days when she was just the Protector of Mantle, that she now has so much heavy responsibility and duty thrust upon her as the Winter Maiden and she wishes she did not. She was struggling enough to find an identity as a normal girl, now she has a whole other identity to grapple with, it’s all truly unfortunate and sad. Holding her hands in a very similar way to how she did back when she first found out Penny was an android, Ruby assures her that she is still very much the girl she once was. She protected Mantle by taking the Maiden powers so they wouldn’t be misused to hurt the city. This seems to cheer Penny up a bit, and she thanks Ruby for it. The two have another nice hug, before Nora calls out that she’s found the terminal they need. Blake notes that this is the point of no return, and May asserts her confidence that between Penny’s capabilities with the computers they’ll encounter and her own invisibility Semblance they’ve got this in the bag. Penny doesn’t like being referred to as a secret weapon, or a weapon of any kind, but she says nothing about it. For now, let’s praise May for being sassy and cool and doing a cute little curtsy for style. Nora asks the important question of how the heck they’re gonna use this thing, and Weiss goes into tutorial mode again. Just lie back into the tube and hit the launch button, easy enough. Except she was sitting on the edge of the tube for a visual aid and Nora got bored. So ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM goes Weiss up the tube with a frightened screech. Everyone just watches in slack-jawed shock and confusion, but Nora immediately goes giddy at what has just happened and what will soon happen to the rest of them. I can’t imagine what Ruby and Blake must be thinking, not to mention what’s going through May’s mind with this being her first exposure to Nora being... Nora.

But that’s all we get of them for this episode, so Weiss is Schrodinger’s Heiress for the next week. We go to the crater as Joanna heads into a tent where Fiona is hunched over a map coordinating over comms with someone we’ve yet to meet named Crimson. As she finishes the call and whines over how stressful this all is, Joanna drops a small crystal of fire Dust into a sort of furnace and assures her that she’s doing a great job. Fiona absorbs the map into her hand of infinite holding and says Joanna’s big display on the news makes her more qualified for this job. Joanna laughs that off and says it was necessary to spread the word, which seems to be working judging by how many folks are arriving. The group they’re now noticing come in is the one Yang and her squad have just arrived with from Sector 7. The happy lamb does a happy hoppy dance hearing that they’ve already cleared out that sector, and admits her previous doubts that they could manage this much with only half their team. This hits a sore nerve for both Ren and Yang, and the former stomps off while the latter gives a passive aggressive response. They really need to address this soon or it’s all gonna explode in their faces... Oscar wisely changes the subject to ask how they’re managing to house and provide for all these people, and the two Huntresses give a rundown. They’re doing what they can with houses and shelters, and a lot of people are trying to make old mineshafts into someplace livable, and they’ve been looting SDC refineries for Dust to keep everyone warm. Unlike our own society, no one is getting arrested amidst the end of the world. But they substitute that with the terrifying dread of not knowing when the majority of the Grimm will finally attack, what they’re all waiting for. We and the teens know they’re waiting for Salem’s command, for an opening to cause the most damage. And the longer they wait the more the negative emotions build to draw them in. Clever clever, you old witch you. The ominous mood is interrupted by the badger guy from episode 1 running up to inform Fiona that another fight has broken out among the people. He’s voiced by RT founder Gus Sorola, and apparently he’s Fi’s uncle! She seems bummed about having to go break up another fight, but Joanna’s got this one covered. But problems keep coming, and Crimson reports in that there’s a group of Grimm coming in from the east that he can’t handle while transporting civilians. Yang and co are all to ready go get this off Fiona’s plate for her, and we cut to Yang being pursued by a Teryx. We soon see she’s leading it into an ambush, as Ren and Oscar come riding in at an intersection to toss a grenade baton beneath it which presumably contains air/wind Dust because it gets propelled upwards to crash into a bridge and fall back down stunned. Yang gets out of the way and Jaune charges in for the kill. With that job done, Fiona immediately has a new group for them to clear out on the west side. The kids are getting real tired of this constant rushing around killing Grimm, but its part of the job they made such a fuss about going to do so they gotta do it. Oscar points out what I mentioned before, the negativity from everyone worrying when Salem will strike is luring in the stragglers amongst the Grimm. Speaking of stragglers, three Sabyrs come charging up the street much to Ren’s annoyance. But before they can make contact, something gets their attention and they turn tail to run. This puzzles and concerns the team, since Grimm have never retreated before. Before they can finish asking themselves what the Grimm were running from, they get an answer. A large dog-like Grimm pounces on Oscar and starts mauling him and thrashing his body around. He tries to fight back, kicking at one of its legs, but it is unfazed and keeps hitting him until his aura is gone. We see this thing has no eyes to speak of, but it soon gains apposable hands and hind legs capable of bipedal movement. All the better to carry Oscar away with, and shockingly enough, all the better to hold him in front of it as a human shield when Yang comes charging in to try and save him. She has to swerve and avoid hitting the kid, but gets grabbed by the head and tossed against a wall. Ren is the next to attack, but his bullets do jackshit to its back and his “grapple into the enemy and pull myself at it for a kick” has never worked before and continues to not work now. The Hound, as it is named in the credits and in concept art, stretches out its arm much like the Nuckelavee back in Volume 4 and swats Ren away. Jaune is about to charge in too, but Yang warns him about the Hound’s shield tactic. He’s in disbelief, because they may have seen old Grimm that have gained beastial sentience but never this kind of sapience and creative thinking. Ren grabs his guns but the Hound holds Oscar up again to stop him. Ren, naturally, yells at the Grimm to give their friend back. 

But the Hound just stretches its neck with a few cracking sounds, and says “No”.

This leaves the huntsmen and huntresses in a silent stupor of shock and fear, and I would not blame them. If all of my world’s history has been telling me that the monsters I hunt are mindless beasts of violence and destruction, nothing more, that’s one thing. If I learn they were created by a deity solely for the sake of destroying my civilization and are nothing but his avatars of darkness and wreckage, that’s a big theological pill to swallow but I still know how these things always tend to act. If I am on 6 hours of sleep vs 28 hours of being awake, just had a big personal argument over what our job should be amidst the apocalypse, and now my entire understanding of the monsters I at least thought I knew how to handle is thrown out the window?????? Yeah, I would need a goddamn minute before I could think rationally and quickly again. So you’ll excuse me for giving Yang, Jaune and Ren a pass as they just stand there and watch the Hound grow bat-like wings in a very painful and goopy transformation that gets some goo on Oscar’s unconscious face and then climbs up a building with Oscar in its mouth to fly away. When they do recover their senses they hop on their bikes and chase after the beast at full speed, giving a hasty and vague apology to Fiona for having to go handle this emergency that she wouldn’t believe even if they told her. And that’s it, we have to wait a week or longer to find out if they catch this thing and get Oscar back. Judging from the intro, I’d say they won’t and he will be brought before Salem for torture. Fun!~ This definitely opens the door for brand new possibilities of what Grimm are capable of doing or being, and lots of people are theorizing the Hound is so intelligent because Salem stuck a person in there, possibly someone we thought was dead but perhaps isn’t? Who knows, we’ll have to wait and see.

Sorry it’s so late, but hope this is a good review.

[misstef]

Thoughts 7.03 of RWBY

Just wanna get some (ended up being 30 sooo...) points out, cause this episode was just that freaking good. 7/5

(Spoilers obviously)

1. Pietro says that he already has more enhancement for the weapons in mind. So will we get even more upgrades for them? Maybe not this volume but in the next?

2. The scene with Jaune touching his reminder of Pyrrha was so sad, yet the way they did it so smart. There are no words or anything and we still new immediately what was implied. I also feel like it means that Jaune is moving further on as it is a process.

3. I feel like Oscar’s voice is changing somehow. I noticed it in the last episode but his “Hey...Ruby?” especially sounds different to me. Idk maybe it’s puberty, maybe it’s him and Ozpin merging (which I don’t hope).

4. Really liked the landing strategy scene, but really...who wouldn’t? It also shows how much they have improved (Weiss casually summoning while falling and Jaune even having one to begin with).

5. Jaune’s sighing before he jumps and him trying not to appear completely helpless at the end is also a nice touch.

6. Now to the part everybody is excited about: I reeeaally like the loving way Yang stares at Blake before she notices. 

It just really is that “lovingly gazing at your crush in hope they won’t notice” trope and I’m here for it and I know all the shippers are too.

7. Of course Blake would jump to the conclusion that it’s bad and be self conscious about it. Yang reassures her immediately, not wanting her staring to be misinterpreted. (Love that they really put a blush on Blakes face. Could not have been more obvious that way.)

8. Love the bickering between Harriet and Marrow. I love these two in general.

9. Finally they discuss that Ruby just pulled an Ozpin on Ironwood. But they for now agree with Ruby’s decision. Except for maybe Yang, but she accepts that she’s outvoted by the others. (*cough* You still haven’t told them about Raven being the spring maiden though.)

10. We really being fed this episode with all the ships, huh? I don’t get why Ren pushes the comment away right after. Is he too dense or does he just not care?

11. Jaune at least is trying to cheer her up, but I don’t think he gets why exactly she’s sad. Good try though, good boi. I really like the voice acting of Miles for this. Kinda reminds me of chibi actually.

12. Is the explosion Blake is referring to the same one Ilia talked about, where her parents died? If yes, that makes it all even more sad.

13. Blake looking at the SDC sign when Marrow is talking about people activly abusing faunus, was a nice, subtle call out to Adam.

14. That jump scare really got me the first time. Like, I flinched quite hard. Good job RT!

15. Every time Yang says the “That’s disgusting.” line my head urges me to say “Disgustaaaang” and I don’t know why.

16. Weapon upgrades! Yang can put little bombs on her enemies while punching and then detonate them when she needs to. Ruby’s scythe now can change direction, which I can see coming in handy in a future scene. Jaune’s shield is now a shield-shield. Ren’s daggers can shoot out, similar to Emerald’s weapon. I’m not sure if Nora’s got an update. If so, it was not very noticible. Then of course there is Blake’s but it’s more a fix than an actual upgrade like the others. Maybe another time.

17. Not sure what Marrows semblance is exactly. Maybe he freezes them in time for a short while or he manipulates their mind to do as he wishes (if grimm have minds idk).

18. Does Nora slap Ren on his butt right before he jumps sliting down behind Jaune? Because it looks like it to me.

19. Again, I love Miles’ voice acting with the line “That’s just kind of our style.”. Reminds me of chibi too.

20. I love how Herriet’s weapon is basicly an exoscellet with which she can punch. Really hard. Now the question is, who punches harder, she or Yang?

21. Qrow says he can’t always keep his semblance under control. I thought, it was something permanent that he can’t control at all, it’s just always there.

22. Colver’s semblance is good fortune. Who would’ve guessed that? Also...is he flirting with Qrow? Seems like it to me. 

Man, three episodes in and Qrow already has two boyfriends. Good for him.

(I just noticed that Clover raises his eyebrows for a second when they kinda stare at each other a little too long after he says that. Now all the subtlety is gone.)

23. Can’t stress it enough. I love Marrow.

24. When the Ace-Ops are fighting they just need to call out each others name for that person to know what they have to do and I think that shows their great team dynamic and practise perfectly.

25. Not two minutes later and Clover is already flirting with Qrow again. His look as he jumps of to help his team really says “Watch what I can do.” as he is trying to impress Qrow. That is only emphasized when he stresses that it was talent and not his good luck when the fight ends.

26. Harriet is pretty much the flash right? They have the same effects. Also, I can’t stress it enough. I love her.

27. So Ruby’s semblance is not speed. But we knew that already, right? Someone of the CRWBY once said something like that, if I remember correctly. So it didn’t surprise me. Though I still wanna know what they will reveal what other stuff Ruby can do with it, as that is implied here.

28. Bees flirting again, loudly. It does not get unnoticed by Weiss. 

Seriously though, isn’t it natural to think that the jokes, which the person you’re in love with makes, are funny? It’s mentioned all the time in movies and shows when a character is cleary in love with someone and others notice. RT really out there trying to make it as obvious as they can for everyone not on board with the ship (yet), that they are in love.

29. RIP Forest. I really liked him and the voice acting. So shoutout to Eric Baudour.

30. Love how they explained what Tyrian was doing at the end of last episode without having to say it out loud. It was established that Forest openly supports Robyn Hill, that Watts and Tyrian will play a roll manipulating the election and that Tyrian killed someone last EP. Conclusion: He kills supporters of Robyn Hill to turn the election to Jacques’ favour. But I wonder what they gain out of it? Maybe the borders not being closed anymore? Well, I just wanted to say that this is an excellent example of visual storytelling, in which this episode really does a great job at in general.

So my conclusion: Bees: great. Possible M|M representation with Qrow and Clover (yes I ship it): great. Ace-Ops: great. Animation: fantastic. Sound effects (at the first bee flirting scene and with Nora later especially with the comedic effect): great. Episode: even better than last one and I liked that already veeery much.

I fear I begin to like the Ace-Ops way too much. And that after 3 episodes. What if one of them dies? Or betrays everyone? I will not be able to handle it.

My serious rating for this (considering the storytelling, character interactions, animation and buildup) would be around 9 to 9.5 of 10 points. First was like a 7 and second a 8 to 8.5.

[kob131]

https://itsclydebitches.tumblr.com/post/635993185636827136

The first slide that ISN’T a summary and we have serious issues.

The two examples given do NOT reflect on Ironwood’s viewpoint or actions. They’re one off mentions by OTHER characters. IRONWOOD is not reaching out to people here, Ruby and Ozpin effectively are. And Ruby and Ozpin are big on the whole ‘team up!’ thing (to the point Ruby tried to talk RAVEN into joining them.)

So? This is Volume 2, long before Ironwood faces the negative events than change him as a person. Acting like he’s the exact same person then and now is disingenious is a VERY extreme degree.

Glynda: Trouble sleeping?

Ironwood: (Looking back, gripping his shoulder with the other hand.) Arm was acting up.

Glynda: Of course, so logically, you got out of bed, dressed yourself completely and decided to gaze menacingly out into the distance. (Approaches all the way to his side, then looks at him concerned.) What's wrong?

Ironwood: I've trusted him for years. We both have. I just... I can't help but feel like he's keeping us in the dark.

Glynda: Don't be ridiculous! You know very well that we are not the ones in the dark.

Ironwood: (Laughs humorously.) That makes it worse! I refuse to believe that a man that I've trusted for so long would act so... passively.

Glynda: (Puts a reassuring hand on her friend's shoulder.) You're a good person, James. You've always done what you think is best for the people, even against strong protest. It's admirable. But it's high time you stopped talking about trust and started showing it. (Drops her hand as they stare into the distance together.) Ozpin has experience that the rest of us lack. And I think that's something worth remembering.

This is the full conversation. Which is rather important given how much it emphasizes that Ironwood looks up to and respects Ozpin...who we all know is about to get cut off from his allies.

Skipping through a LOT here as it’s just a bunch of ‘Hey look! Ironwood’s being nice!’ along with tangents. I’d love to address them all to prevent any accusations of manipulation but I’m not repeating myself: Ironwood being nice is not a contradiction of what he will do (in fact, one can very well see that his empathy is a FACTOR in his decision).

‘Being cautious’. That is an important statement here. Because ‘being cautious’ would also include going for the decision that’s guruanteed to save a few people rather than the decision that MIGHT save a lot of people (a ‘safe bet vs. gamble’ if you will).

Ironically here, OP just displayed how Ironwood’s actions are consistent with his previous ones.

The man whose allies weren’t hacked?

Also note how this DOESN’T have anything to do with the actual argument at hand. It’s not about showing an inconsistency with Ironwood: it’s about making the character look good. It’s a tell from the OP that what they SAY they’re arguing for doesn’t match the actual ACTIONS. OP is not upset that Ironwood is inconsistent- She’s upset that Ironwood is being portrayed NEGATIVELY.

So you’re saying we should throw away all our tech based on the work by Nazi scientists because we disagree with how it was originally used? You try to call hypocrisy here and yet fail to address the distinct difference between the intention/moral implications behind tech and how it’s actually used.

Not to mention how a lot of this is fucking bullshit. Like the army point was about how bringing his army to Vale was a bad idea due to putting people on edge...and then the Grimm attacked, which pretty much made that a non-issue. Or how about the objection of the Aura experimenting wasn’t actually condemning Ironwood? Or how they sympathize with Ironwood and still CONDEMN his actions? Or how the Penny thing flat out wasn’t said?

My pattern senses are also tingling. Specifically the ‘manipulation’ part.

Now it’s all about arguing how Ironwood is actually totally and factually right, as if this isn’t a story.

Issue?

‘In This Story’. AKA The OP has already argued from a meta standpoint but is now trying to argue as if the story is real.

There’s also the complete disregard for the CONSEQUENCES of Ironwood’s actions.

Ironwood brings an army? Gets hacked, turns on the citizens, wrecks Vale and Atlas’ reputation is shot.

Ironwood doesn’t tell the truth about Penny? She gets used as a lynchpin in Cinder’s plan.

Ironwood closes off the border? Atlas’ reputation is further shot and it gives reason to Team RWBY to question him.

Ironwood doesn’t include the council? Their trust in him is dead and they get in his way.

Ironwood doesn’t help Mantle despite their fear, distrust and dislike of Atlas and the very real threat of Grimm? Helps Robyn rise to power who in turn openly distrusts him and conflicts with him, making things harder and causing a rift with his allies.

Fucking hell, a lot of Ironwood’s mistakes are REPEATS of his past mistakes, like his unilateral action in a team effort or him excluding people. Not to mention his preaching of Ozpin’s morals then proceeding to trample all over them and expect everyone to follow him. Stuff that OZPIN got punished for in the previous Volume and Ruby and co. got punished for in the SAME Volume as Ironwood.

He was never portrayed as power hungry. He’s STILL not portrayed as power hungry.

I’ll go ahead and destroy this entire slide show with one quote from one episode, a quote you seem terrified of given how you completely gloss over it despite addressing literally EVERYTHING ELSE with Ironwood.

Volume 4 Episode 11 ‘Taking Control’

Ironwood: (sighing heavily) Winter is one of my best. If she's telling me there's a threat in Mistral then I am not going to take that news lightly. She's been there for weeks, people are mobilizing, sudden spikes in weapons and Dust trades. Someone is about to make a play and I do not trust Leo to stop them.

Weiss is listening outside.

Jacques: You've never trusted anyone other than yourself!

Ironwood: (shouting) And for good reason!

Weiss covers her mouth with her hand as she gasps at the sound of Ironwood slamming his fist onto the desk.

Ironwood: If Oz had just listened to me from the start...

Jacques: You need to get a grip.

Ironwood: That's exactly what I'm doing. Our people need protection. By this time next week, the Kingdom of Atlas will be officially closing its borders. No one in; no one out. Without the council's permission.

Jacques: You mean, without your permission?

Ironwood: And if that becomes the case, I would think you'd want to be on my good side.

Suddenly your whole narrative fails apart. because here we see the core of how Ironwood became who he was-

The sorrow at his failure at Beacon.

His paranoia confirmed.

His belief that his way is the best.

All things he displayed before then- Now worsen by perceived failure. All thrown out into the open for the audience to see. All things he repeated in Volume 7, worsened AGAIN by betrayal and Salem’s arrival.

You can call out all you want about the good things Ironwood has done and how he’s ‘right’- it doesn’t matter because it doesn’t disprove what he showcased here. His empathy in fact would MAKE IT WORSE because he feels responsible for people’s lives so he can’t hesitate to save them. Like say, hesitate to listen to a person whose lied to him or a perceived obstacle *cough* Oscar and Slate *cough*.

He’s not a deconstruction of a cold hearted dictator or a sudden evil villain.

He’s a deconstruction of the Well Intention Extremist trope, showcasing that his intent matters not in the face of his actions and the flaws he fails to overcome. He’s a depressingly real person (I’ve certainly felt like him before) but that doesn’t justify his actions or make him right,

And no woobie pandering will change that.

[itsclydebitches]

what are your thoughts nikosarc(.)tumblr(.)com/post/180209390472

In all honesty this is mostly just a reiteration of what I’ve been saying for about a week now, so sorry about that. But to summarize:

Is Ozpin keeping Salem’s immortality a secret “huge”? It depends entirely on what you consider most important: the morals themselves or how they change depending on the situation. Yang is someone who prizes the truth: all truth, right now, no matter the consequences. This is what she claims is important to her (and yes, that distinction is worth noting considering the secret she’s keeping - her core ethics right now are compromised) and, as stated previously, it’s a very black and white view of the world. A kid’s view. People keep secrets—big and small—for a whole variety of reasons and pretending that not telling the truth is an automatic blight on your character reads as incredibly simplistic to me.

I always favor context and try to acknowledge the complexity of an individual’s situation. If someone lies then they believe they have a reason for doing so, so what are Ozpin’s reasons here? Perhaps we don’t agree with them in the end, but acknowledging his thought process helps undermine the assumption that he’s lying solely because he’s manipulative. Or cowardly. Or just plain evil.

Since a lot of this is repetition I might as well just chuck it into list form. Reasons we know/can theorize that Ozpin kept his secret include:

The fact that knowing Salem is immortal doesn’t change the need to fight her/the grimm or that this group agreed to protect the world long before they knew about her. Their mission has not changed just because they’ve learned it’s harder than they originally thought.

The fact that knowing Salem is immortal does change their mental state and will make them panic. Like knowing about the relic attracting grimm, there’s only downsides to learning this information—especially when the monsters you’re dealing with are attracted to negative emotions.  

The fact that Ozpin knows from experience that telling people about Salem makes them give up the fight completely. Not only that, but these people then started actively working against him and were responsible for destroying decades of work. He’s not in a position to risk that again right after it all happened. 

The fact that Ozpin admits these reservations to the group and they dismiss his (justified) fears with absolutely no consideration, further demonstrating their lack of maturity when it comes to these matters. I’m not blaming the girls for their trauma, but they haven’t worked through it yet and that means they’re not in the right mindset to deal with such a complicated matter right now.

The fact that Ozpin is a human being who isn’t relaying dry facts but a mythic amount of trauma from his own past. Getting into Salem’s immortality means also explaining lifetimes’ worth of personal information. Take a second to think about the one thing you most regret, or the most devastating moment in your life. Now take another moment to imagine someone screaming, “Just tell me about it already!” It’s not that easy, is it? Even if the information is deemed important, that doesn’t change your emotional attachment to it. 

The fact that it would be practically and emotionally difficult to info-dump all this to a big group (especially without the help of a magic HD flashback from Jinn). 

The fact that Ozpin has had much bigger fish to fry lately: like adapting to another time he was murdered and then reincarnated, learning that an old friend betrayed him, getting his ass kicked in a battle, and dealing with a relic that’s now out in the open. On the list of “things we need to deal with right now,” informing everyone about Salem is nowhere near the top of the list.

The fact that he’s only just reincarnated with Oscar and probably doesn’t want to scare the kid senseless. We see in Volume 4 that Ozpin was as patient and caring towards Oscar as he could be and we see now in Volume 6 that he’s still having a crisis about his new lot in life. Chucking “Oh btw, our enemy is immortal” into the kid’s lap before he’s processed all this other stuff is kind of cruel.  

The fact that when the gang demanded this information it’s in the middle of nowhere, with grimm nearby, in the presence of a complete stranger. The girls are being beyond reckless right now and it’s not exactly a smart move to hand over sensitive information when tempers are running high.

The fact that he’s known this group (with the exception of Qrow) for about two-three years and has no reason to trust them with the biggest secret in the whole world. Especially when they can’t even demonstrate maturity long enough to speak about the subject calmly and rationally. Again, the kids all have PTSD. That’s not their fault. Them lashing out is expected—but that’s also why you don’t throw even more shit at them that they then need to deal with.

The fact that Ozpin did have a plan for beating Salem (building his schools, uniting humanity through fighting the grimm, presumably then calling back the gods for judgement) and he probably doesn’t want to be forced into the position of admitting that he doesn’t have a plan now. Because that reads as more damning than it actually is… and that is exactly what happened.

The fact that subordinates shouldn’t always have all the information that their leaders do. Sorry, but you don’t win a war by handing out secrets to everyone who demands it from you. Faith is not the same thing as blind faith—and it’s the latter that the girls are asking for.

Say what you want about how “He promised to tell them the truth!” but to me that reads as a blatant simplification of the situation. (Especially since Yang cornered him a bit with that promise. There’s an undercurrent of “If you don’t agree to my terms me and my sister are walking - and we’ll take the rest of your allies with us.”) If I were Ozpin? I wouldn’t have told them either. Not until later when I knew them better, they were older, more experienced, I knew they were committed to the fight, we were in a safe place, I’d found equilibrium with Oscar, and I was emotionally stable enough to divulge my own traumatizing past.  

As for the rest of the post? It’s just another misreading of the canon. We’ve seen them for weeks now.

Ozpin isn’t “throwing shit against a wall to see what sticks”—he’s always had plans. It’s not his fault his former friends betrayed him and helped destroy all that.

He is not sending ignorant people off to their deaths fighting Salem—these are all trained huntsmen who agreed to wage this war before they ever even met Ozpin. The inner circle are volunteers who further agreed to fight the Big Bad. And notably? Ozpin isn’t hunting Raven down, or Leo before his death. When people decide they’re done with the fight he let’s them leave. 

Pyrrha’s arc wasn’t about “saving the world” from Salem—it was about making sure that incredibly powerful magic didn’t fall into the wrong hands. If she’d been able to become the Fall Maiden and decided that she wanted to use that power to just fight grimm and not Salem herself? I have no doubt that Ozpin would have sent her off with pride.

Pyrrha didn’t die because Ozpin told her to save the world—Ozpin told her to leave. He told her not to fight. Pyrrha decided she could take on Cinder alone. I love her, but that was her own mistake. Ozpin encouraged the exact opposite of this.

We have absolutely no evidence that he “did the same to Ruby and Yang’s mom”—That’s Hazel’s logic: if you willingly chose the life of a huntress and you die on duty? Well, that’s somehow solely Ozpin’s fault. 

Absolutely none of what they’ve done is “essentially pointless”—Yes, let’s let grimm take over the world and let Salem have all the relics and give the Maiden powers to all her lackeys. If we can’t kill her that’s obviously the next best plan. Completely foolproof. Ozpin has kept humanity safe for thousands of years, safe enough that they’ve now flourished technologically and reached a point where they experienced an “extraordinary time of peace.” In what way is that pointless? 

Also, even if we don’t like characters, can we please not hope that they get beat on more than they have? Regardless of where you stand on the debate, praying that Jaune “gets a good fucking hit on him” after Ozpin already got it from Qrow—especially when he’s in Oscar’s body—is just plain not good.

But yeah. That got long. And it’s late now. Peace. 💚

[actually-good-rwbyaus-moved]

Dragon Faunus AU

hi welcome to Dragon Faunus AU aka ‘i think they’re neat and i gave them lore’

In it, being a Dragon Faunus is actually a incredibly rare genetic mutation, one that is seen probably once every 2 centuries. How it works isn’t understood, but distant genetics are thought to be involved.

Also in this AU, Dragon Faunus are tied to the culture and history of the Faunus. Dragon Faunus were considered the protectors of the Faunus when they had been much more common, due to having some…. Strange powers, to say the least. You see, in this AU of mine, Dragon Faunus are considered a ‘Ancient Faunus’. Ancient Faunus had powers and abilities the modern Faunus no longer possess. No one knows why or how the Dragon Faunus randomly appear, but the ones that do occur do have the full abilities and appearance of the ones in ancient times.

In appearance, I mean that they have more ‘animalistic’ look, holding much more traits than normal. Dragon Faunus typically have horns, a tail (or tails, sometimes), and wings. Often, there can be much more traits shown, but the variation is great. Great enough that there are actually different species of Dragon Faunus, something I will get into in the other half of this post.

I also mentioned having abilities lost to the modern Faunus. Ancient Faunus had the ability to shift into the traits they exhibited. Cat Faunus could be cats, wolves could be wolves, and thus dragons could become dragons. They could also push out a 'spirit form’, allowing them to battle without receiving bodily harm. They also have minor elemental abilities, like fire and the manipulation of it and variations of it with other elements. The main downside is that it takes quite an amount of time, typically, to be able to use the powers correctly.

The Dragon Faunus mutation replaces whatever Faunus traits the Faunus would have gotten, and there isn’t a specific type of Faunus that can become it. Any Faunus can gain the mutation.

The rarity of the mutation has caused a need to keep any and all Dragon Faunus hidden, to prevent any enemies getting their claws into them and gaining such a powerful ally. One Dragon Faunus can change the tides. Thus, Ozpin has developed a small program of sorts to train them and technology to allow the Dragon Faunus to blend into modern society.

This half will now talk about some of the species.

———————————

1. The Guardian

The Guardians are one of the two furred Dragon Faunus species. They are well known for their protective nature and calm disposition, and typically were the ones who protected the people and villages in times of war. They are one of the strongest physically, and are average magic users. They tend to be on the chubby side, and aren’t incredibly 'sharp’ in the sense of body type. They tend to be more intellectually inclined than the other species, and tend to be more strategic than the others. However, they tend to be passive and don’t tend to take a leadership role. The species is more of a follower type.

2. The Berserker

The Berserker species is the most deadly and unstable species. While they aren’t tough magically, they can do enough damage to be deadly. Their physical strength is unmatched, and it also makes it incredibly hard to severely harm them. They are the ones who would be sent in to obliterate the enemy, tho ones who typically fight and destroy. As stated earlier, they tend to be highly unstable. Either they feel too strongly and their emotions control them to the point of insanity, or they feel little to nothing, becoming cold and cruel if not controlled. They don’t typically live long due to their unstable temperaments, either from reckless behavior or being executed for decisions they made.

3. The Assassin

The Assassin are the other type of 'furred dragon, and are the more common one. They are excellent at hiding and stealth, and are called Assassin due to these skills being used to kill enemies in a stealthy manner. They tend to be much more energetic than the Guardians, constantly moving and never settling somewhere for long. They don’t have strong wings, only able to fly short distances; due to this, they tend to use them as weapons as their enemies never expect it. They are the smallest species of dragon, and use this to their advantage by hiding in places the others couldn’t. This also tends to lead them to be shorter than usual. They also exhibit the traits of the Faunus they would’ve been, but obviously more draconic. They use their magic to warp senses and hide in shadows, and rely on their speed when they can’t use magic. They aren’t much use in a close quarters battle.

4. The Oceandweller

The Oceandweller, alternatively called tho Messenger. This species is possibly the most unique one out of all of them, especially due to the fact they do not possess wings. Its speculated that since they tend to stick in the ocean, they eventually evolved to no longer have wings. They are called the Messenger due to the fact that they were typically the ones who facilitated messages and took them to where they were needed. They were given this task due to the fact it was much harder to track them and harm them than it was for the other species. They are possibly the weakest in physical strength, but do have surprisingly strong scales. What they lack in strength, they made up in magic. In fact, its believed that in many ancient stories, any powerful magic users in it were most likely a Oceandweller who simply happened to go on land at that time. Speaking of land, Oceandweller’s rarely ever go on land or show themselves, preferring the calm and comfort of the waters.

5. The Scale

The Scale are, simply put, the majority of dragons. They are the common folk of Dragon Faunus, being average in both magic and strength. They show the most variation in size, looks, body… The variations aren’t huge enough or common enough to qualify for a different species. These ones sure the footsoldiers, the workers, the roles that weren’t as specific as the others. While not rare, it does not make them any less useful than the other species mentioned.

These are not all of the species and variations, but these 5 are the basics and the ones important to the story I plan on telling. If you wish to see more about the different species and variations, tell me and I’ll do my best to inform you. Now, I’d like to mention a bit about the story.

In this story, I turn a few characters into Dragon Faunus, tweaking their stories and their character. It will follow an alternate timeline quite obviously, one that is… Darker than the current one in many aspects. I’ve turned Yang, Ren, Neptune, and a few others into this type of Faunus, as well as implanting my own characters into the mix.

~~~~

HOLY SHIT THIS IS SO COOL???? I LOVE IT???? Please tag my main (@cherrybmblby) in any other posts you have for it because this is really neat!!!

-🍒

[yangingaround]

i've heard people speculate that Sacrifice & This Is The End are both Cinder's songs, not Raven's; thoughts?

This Is The End is definitely Raven’s, there’s a prevalence of corvid imagery (murder, unkindness, conspiracy) and the line ‘embers extinguished in effigy’ doesn’t really make sense for a Cinder song when an ember is a synonym for a cinder -

Sacrifice is harder to pin down but i think that one’s a Raven song too - the singer is talking to someone who wants to use and manipulate people and how she won’t be used as a sacrifice in what they’re doing, which fits well with Raven not wanting to be involved in Ozpin’s fruitless (from her perspective) crusade as another tool to be used and discarded when she’s inevitably broken. Cinder meanwhile is pretty all in on Salem’s gameplan

plus we did get Sacrifice right before we ‘met’ Raven for the first time, so… i dunno, i think it makes more sense if the song is Raven’s

-Mod S

I believe both are definitely from Raven’s perspective.

For Sacrifice, there’s a clear distrust present, a distrust that doesn’t match Cinder’s relationship with Salem. Cinder is more than willing to do Salem’s bidding, while Raven rejects Ozpin for her own freedom (”You can’t have my life/I’m not your sacrifice/you can try but I’m free/and you won’t conquer me”). Then we also have “I won’t fall for you” which lines up with Raven refusing to fall for Ozpin’s plans like her brother and team did.

She’s also very insistent that Ozpin lies and hides things which lines up with the song (”The more you try the more you just breed hate/and lies”), something Cinder has not expressed towards Salem. “All your faith in ancient ways/leaves you trapped inside a maze” is also interesting given that it’s been noted by some that Ozpin doesn’t really learn from his mistakes.

And of course, the whole mention of sacrifices and and dying potentially serves as a reference to Summer, who is speculated to have died on a mission for Ozpin.

All Things Must Die feels a little easier to place, with the above mentioned corvid references plus that fact that it play when Raven fights and defeats Cinder.

- Mod H

I actually hadn’t considered it but, as Mod S and Mod H pointed out, the lyrics work a lot better from Raven’s perspective than Cinder’s. Cinder is a perfectly willing follower of Salem for the gain of power, and there isn’t any indication that she’s known Ozpin at all prior to the Vytal Festival (and it definitely leans more towards Ozpin than Salem).

Considering the amount of foreshadowing we get via these soundtracks, it makes total sense that Jeff would write a Raven song when her appearance in Volume 2 is minimal. This IS the volume where we got info on Raven and Summer via Yang as well.

These lyrics from the bridge in Sacrifice are also very telling in hindsight:

What if all the plans you made
Were not worth the price they paid?
Even with the lives you stole
You’re still no closer to your goal

This sentiment is pretty much the entire talk Raven has with Yang and Weiss about Ozpin in Volume 4. It portrays the idea of fighting a losing battle (according to the singer) and a loss of life that hasn’t proven worth it.

Sacrifice also got itself a remix in the Volume 4 soundtrack, where Raven made her first voiced appearance outside of an epilogue dream sequence(?). I see a pattern where remixes and acoustic versions of songs come about when their themes or the character they’re tied to play a bigger part in that volume, and since Cinder was dialling up the determination to get her power under Salem’s guidance, I agree that Sacrifice is looking like a Raven song.

- Mod L

[epicmoonintensifies]

Preferences: Jealousy

Requested by @iamanemotionaltimebomb and @harpo-groucho

I will happily add more characters to this list if anyone requests them.

Ozpin knows how to deal with his emotions. Jealousy is, admittedly, one of the uglier ones, and one that still makes him uncomfortable, but you don't need to fear him lashing out or being unreasonable. If anything, jealousy makes him unsure of himself. He wonders if he's not capable of giving you everything you need, and if you'll seek affection elsewhere. He may, if he is capable, manipulate a situation to give himself an excuse to be closer to you. The real problem with this is that sometimes Ozpin can be too quiet about his worries and not express himself, leaving you wondering what's gone wrong. To resolve feelings of jealousy, you'll have to push him a little bit, or he'll never tell you and things will only become tense. In the end, everything will be alright, but keep an eye on him. Ozpin plays jealousy close to the chest.

Oobleck, unlike Ozpin, isn't so good at dealing with such things (not that Ozpin's all that great at it, but at least he can keep it together). Oobleck is very comfortable with you and it's not easy to make him feel jealous, but when it happens, he gets very nervous. Oobleck will talk circles around anyone he thinks might "steal" your favor, partially in an attempt to prove himself as intellectually superior but also to confuse them to the point that they back off. He'll try to grab your attention as often as possible, distracting you. Thankfully, Oobleck is rather obvious and you'll be able to figure out what his problem is very quickly, whether you're typically good at reading people or not.

Jealousy makes Qrow Branwen get physical. Not in a violent way, just in an assertive way. PDA levels skyrocket. He postures and makes himself look bigger than he is, not to mention he'll toy around with his scythe more than necessary. He gets overly snippy with any "rival" in an attempt to passive-aggressively warn them off. He usually tries to keep you from being aware of this, just because he doesn't want you to... well, think that he's jealous, but you'll figure it out. He's not as subtle as he thinks he is.

James Ironwood glares. Not at you, just at everybody else. He folds his arms and reminds himself to breathe deeply. He's not used to dealing with this. He's never really cared before. All of his previous relationships were short-lived and casual, never leaving room for something as harsh as jealousy. He hates feeling jealous, but you are your own person and he doesn't want to crowd you, so he won't step in or interfere. Much like Ozpin, he tends to watch from a safe distance and hope that he didn't just screw things up. He'll say something to you if he feels particularly uncomfortable, but he usually just tries to breathe through the emotion and be a reasonable, rational person.

Made somewhat of a pragmatist by his work, Roman Torchwick knows that you're going to be around other guys and he's going to be around other women. That's life. Whoop-de-doo. But he is also the most jealous baby ever to grace the face of Remnant. He crosses his arms, scowls, and makes sassy commentary from the side. He will one-up, push around, and talk down to any perceived rival, to the point that you have to have a talk with him about immature behavior. He hardly thinks this is fair, seeing as you don't seem to get jealous at all (and he sort of feels bad about that sometimes, because don't you want him to yourself as much as he wants you?), but he's done a lot for you. Keeping his jealousy in check won't be the most difficult thing he's done to please you... until next time, that is.

Lie Ren is surprisingly used to being jealous, to the point that he hardly even registers it anymore. He's jealous of children with families. He's jealous of people who are brave enough to speak their minds. He's jealous of Nora's energy and Pyrrha's ability to make everyone like her. So when he gets jealous about you, he almost doesn't realize it. When he does, he's disappointed in himself. He keeps quiet and keeps his head down, reminding himself that jealousy is unattractive and unbecoming and a distraction from his training. He's used to jealousy. He can deal with it. But if he sticks a little closer to your side than usual and makes more of an effort to keep your focus on him, you probably know why.

Much like Ren, Jaune Arc is used to jealousy. Having fallen short of everybody's hopes and expectations all his life while surrounded by amazingly talented people has made him very familiar with that feeling. Unlike Ren, however, he doesn't deal with it so well. Maybe it's immaturity or just inexperience, but he feels absolutely hurt when he's jealous, and sometimes lashes out in response. This almost always leads to a fight. He'll apologize before the end, but in the beginning, he turns all his hurt outwards, and it tends not to go well. You have to work to break him of his jealousy and he has to work to overcome yet another flaw, but no one will work harder for this than him.

Sun denies it at first, reminding himself that he is reasonable and it's awesome that you have guy friends and it's cool that you like hanging out with his team so much and it doesn't matter that Sage has a little bit of a crush on you and it's fine that Scarlet gets so excited when you come to visit them. But then he realizes that he is, indeed, jealous, and he starts making excuses to keep you away from his team or whoever it is that's making him feel this way. This is always very temporary, and he actually tends to admit to it. He doesn't like tension and he doesn't see the point of secrets. He tends to feel guilty about being jealous because he knows he's being stupid, so he feels like he has to confess to you and have your forgiveness.

Neptune, the secretly insecure lil bean that he is, immediately begins to wonder if you're bored with him or if you've realized that he's not nearly as cool as he's made himself out to be. If he would stop and think for five seconds, he would remember that you already know about how not-so-cool he really is, but Neptune gets... anxious, about your relationship. He also doesn't want to say anything, because you have to reassure him about things all the time and he feels bad about this being on more problem that he causes. He very often feels inadequate, especially as a boyfriend, and jealousy amplifies that feeling by about ten. He stresses out and gets a little depressed until you confront the issue. Then it's over as quickly as it started, but for a while, he's just miserable.

Mercury can get jealous very quickly and, I won't lie, but he can be a bit of a jerk about it. He doesn't get upset as much as he gets irritated, because, on one hand, he knows that he probably doesn't have any real reason to be jealous, but on the other hand... it just. drives. him. crazy. He has no problem with you knowing he's jealous. He wants you to know. He wants everybody else to know, too, because if anyone thinks they can get a way with getting between him and his girl, they've got another thing coming. Mercury will physically put himself between you and whoever he thinks is a problem.

[bokubutts]

LONG POST

I’m doing this because half of my break is over, and I’m doing this w/out proofreading bc I’m about to get shit-faced in a few hours. For the most part, I’m still on board with this original train of thought (see http://bokubutts.tumblr.com/post/139333690934/theory-time), but here are some more thoughts (post season 4) mostly inspired by a few Reddit threads I couldn’t help but agree with. Apologies in advance for the poor articulation, I’m thinking much faster than I can type.

There are still many unprecedented things in the world of Remnant like the magic behind the Branwen twins shapeshifting into birds or the prowess that comes with each fairytale (maidens, silver-eyed warriors, the two brothers). But what I want to focus on are the more convoluted things like whether Ruby’s semblance is speed or “bursting into rose petals,” Raven being able to rip portals through the fabric of space, and the importance of Yang’s flames which’ll bring me to my main point later.

Ruby’s semblance was originally posted as speed on the official RWBY wikia, but Qrow mentions “bursting into rose petals.” This has left a lot of people confused. My guess is that there has to be more to this semblance thing.

Qrow’s semblance of misfortune has been confirmed, but I’m sure there’s more to it than that and the animagus bonus. I’m re-raising the split-second shot in his fight vs. Winter in season 3 (which I’m so so happy I wasn’t the only one that noticed) when Winter strikes him in the face and he strikes back even harder with a glint in his eye. If you’ve read the Reddit threads, most speculate it’s his experience as a hunter, but I’m thinking it’s a Branwen thing as seen with Yang, but not (yet?) seen with Raven. Anyway, I refuse to overlook it.

Another widespread fan-theory is that Raven's semblance is being able to predict the future. She told Qrow “Beacon would fall and it did. Ozpin would fail and he has.” There are three possible limits/catches to her prophecy. 1) They come to her at random, which most people believe. But wouldn’t it be interesting if 2) they came easier to her depending on who she prioritizes. I hoped this to be true when she was willing to come out when Yang needed some serious saving, because how else would she be able to know when she’s in grave danger if she’s never present? I thought this until it was thwarted by the fact that she didn’t show that time Yang nearly got herself and Ruby killed AND when she had to go out of her way to ask Qrow if “Salem has it.” So we’re back to 1) or 3) it’s blocked out by something purposefully negating it. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I’m thinking of Alice from Twilight and how the wolves presence somehow interfered with her foresight. Other than that we know she can shape shift into (shocker!) a raven, and have seen her open portals on two occasions. Many are assuming that the shapeshifting and the portal thing are tribe-related, but you don’t have to necessarily disagree when I propose The Point™ later.

The least-flawed ordeal I came across in the RWBY tag is the theory that in the far (or near) future, Yang will be able to shape shift into not just any bird, but a phoenix. Given all the folklore of phoenixes, it all makes way too much sense. But pushing that aside, the main in-story selling point that makes me think it’ll come true is the fact that her mother and uncle can canonically shape shift into birds. But another significant telling that I overlooked at first which should be considered are her flames.

Keeping in mind one of RWBY’s first World of Remnant videos where “semblances are a manifestation of one’s aura,” what if most (if not all) semblances are hereditary in some way but presents differently in individual’s aura? I’m getting at the Schnee’s who use glyphs. Both Winter and Weiss were able to use them, but Weiss happened to have a harder time summoning. What if that had to do with her aura? What if her forte lies in another area of glyphs. Though this might not be fair to equate with the Branwens; I might have this all mixed up since each of them are under different conditions, but what if shapeshifting and/or “getting stronger with each hit" is a shared Branwen trait, but each of them has their own originality to it (Qrow with his misfortune, Yang with her flames, Raven with the portals/prophecy)?

If this is true what if both Ruby’s and Summer’s semblances are “bursting into rose petals,” but Ruby’s is accompanied with speed and Summer had some other insane wild card up her sleeve (don’t even get me started on this, it deserves an entire post by itself).

Other thoughts/assumptions/headcannons I’ve collected from reading the tags/randomly just thought of.

Just another reason as to why Tai threw dirty looks at Qrow: He thinks he’s manipulative which he didn’t deny when he “used Ruby as bait.” Tai found out Qrow purposefully left kid Yang a hint to finding her mother to lure Raven out which led her and Ruby to an abandoned shed and nearly had them killed. 

This is assuming he knew about Raven’s rule about her saving her once since Yang’s birth, which also leads me to believe when Qrow was hallucinating and groaning “she’s not coming back, Tai,” he was referring to Summer not Raven.

Keep in mind that Raven’s outfit is exactly the same at Beacon and when she returns to her tribe and RT said colors are important in this series. Qrow and Raven were barbaric when they were first admitted to Beacon. They get lumped together with Summer and Tai. Summer is a kind spirit who tries to warm up to a closed-off Raven, she even tries mimicking her color scheme (key=black skirt). Tai is jealous is Qrow because he naturally gives off the bad-boy vibe and draws all the ladies attention, so he tries to make him look bad by tricking him into thinking the quilt was a part of the uniform. Qrow actually thinks Tai is the cool one and wants in. Tai lets him in (both of them wear similar shirts in a similar way) under the condition that he gave him pointers on how to get at his sister. Raven wanted to/didn’t know how to respond, so she finally asks Summer for help. 

TEAM STRQ didn’t have (as much) bad blood and was totally functional at some point making them the best team Beacon’s ever had.

I brought up earlier that Ruby’s getup (red cape and crosses) is all too similar to Qrow’s but we can’t be sure if this is because she was inspired to look like her teacher or, like father-like daughter, they share the same “crummy" fashion sense.

Let’s assume EVERYTHING I’ve presented above, even with bad blood given Raven’s “faults.” She’s out and about with her tribe, completely avoidant of all the baby-daddy drama, Ruby is born but she’s willing to come through for Yang. She still low-key cares about everyone on STRQ to some extent. This is where I jump back on the second possbility that Raven sees visions based on those she "prioritizes.” She sees a vision involving Summer and makes an exception to warn her. From what we know, Summer was super mom. When we look back on the lyrics to Red like Roses parts I + II, she didn’t plan on leaving but she knew it was something she had to do. But one day, “she went on a mission and never came back.” For whatever shitstorm Raven told her was coming, Summer went on that suicide mission. I’d like to think she had a choice… or the relic for (as Qrow quoted)  “the most important gift" of choice.

The lyric “so baby please don’t do what I did” also leads me to think Summer’s major character flaw was that she thought by handling it on her own and sacrificing herself, everything would be solved. There wouldn’t be a world to save, and her daughter wouldn’t have to follow in her footsteps. And I’m afraid Ruby has huge potential to fall down that same path. She’s already been set apart from her age group when she got accepted to Beacon two years early, she was set apart from her team when Oobleck handed her the answer to what it meant to be a huntress while her teammates had to figure it out for themselves, and even though she joined JNPR, she was the only member of RWBY to remain active after the fall of Beacon. 

Angst headcannon: (an affectionate) Qrow finds out too little too late, brainlessly rushes to the scene and unintentionally kills her due to his misfortune. 

Another world of remnant video noted that people tried fusing dust with their bodies. Well what about fusing with grim? (I’m looking at the humanoid grim we know as Salem)

Someone made a video a while back somehow connecting Into the Woods to RWBY. He basically theorized that a character representing the color gold/Rumpelstiltskin would become an important key to the story, but would run away from the huge responsibility he was tasked with before Oscar was even introduced. I think that Oscar is this Rumpelstiltskin. 

I think the King of Vale and The Wizard might be the same person, but there’s a good chance he’s not.

I also think both Oscar and Jaune are somehow linked to this King/Wizard (tons of evidence on tumblr) and will both become love interests for Ruby

Pretty sure Glinda Goodwitch and James Ironwood were/are/will be romantically involved somehow

Something about Glinda and Salem are too alike. Their demeanor is similar, they’re both references to witches and important to Ozpin in some way. 

I’m a firm believer that Adam is another silver-eyed warrior. He took down that grim effortlessly and Monty did say he and Ruby were connected in some way. 

[kitkatopinions]

You know, when I first watched the RWBY ep where they all go into Oz’s memories and find out about him and Salem, I came out of it... So sure, that this was just going to make everyone’s relationships with Oz stronger, because now they fully saw where he was coming from and how much he had actually gone through that made him the way he was. And instead, everyone yelled at him, decided they could never trust him again, Yang called him a bastard, and Qrow punched him in the face.

Let me clarify; I don’t mind that they were mad about him lying about Salem being able to be defeated. That’s a big problem. And I can see why that would hurt Qrow in particular.

But. They saw Oz’s memories. They know he was screwed over by the gods, that Salem gaslighted and then murdered him and his children. They know she’s been hunting him down and brutally murdering him. Oz can’t get over what happened with Salem because it keeps happening, over and over again. The person he once trusted the most now spends her days hating him more than anything and constantly hunting and murdering him. When I first saw this episode, I assumed that despite disappointment and anger, every single member of the team would come out of the memories with incredible sympathy and understanding of why Oz is the way that he is. I thought some of them would be guilty over having made Jinn reveal all his deepest, personal secrets and forcing him to relive it in high def. I thought that Blake in particular would sympathize with watching Oz get manipulated and then murdered by the romantic partner he once trusted. I’d thought Yang would be upset at herself for having doubted him so much in the first place. Qrow seeing one of his oldest friends who he seemed to care about more than almost anyone go through so much pain and heartache and hopelessness... I’d thought Qrow would only double down on the trust and loyalty he’d shown towards Ozpin, not because he believed that Ozpin wouldn’t lie (which he never believed,) but because it was now reinforced that Oz has spent thousands and thousands of years trying to save humanity at great personal cost to himself.

They could all still be hurt or angry. Qrow could still feel like Oz had taken advantage of him. Yang could still feel like Oz had owed them more honesty (although it’s hypocritical considering she lied about Raven and Spring, but no one ever said Team RWBY can’t be flawed.) Weiss still could’ve started questioning why they’re even trying. Ruby still could’ve come more into her own as a leader. But their violent, mean reaction of screaming, insulting, and punching just really seemed to me like they were irrational and being particularly cruel to an abuse victim who they just saw get screwed over by the gods themselves. And maybe I wouldn’t mind them having this over the top, cruel reaction if the show treated it like a mistake and had them feel really bad about it later. Instead of just feeling bad because Oz lied and their mission is much harder than it was, they could’ve tried to apologize, they could’ve tried to get Oz to come back, they could’ve expressed to each other that they feel really bad. Instead, the show continued to portray it as Ozpin’s fault all through their time in Argus.

I hated the dumb Haven fight, but that episode is what made me start disliking RWBY.

[real-jaune-isms]

Volume 7 Chapter 4 Review

First of all, a really nice episode with many good moments and scenes. However... it overall left me feeling kind of down. Like some of the air had been let out of my sails. It put some more back in, but it took a lot. Let me explain...

The whole thing starts positive enough, if a little foreboding. The sun is setting quite beautifully, though it makes you wonder what time the mission started and how long RWBY and the Ace Ops were down there. A convoy of armored trucks drive up the path to the SDC Mine’s entrance, flanked by the looming shadow of Amity Coliseum being brought to its new temporary home until the proper launch. Some Faunus seem to be watching from a distance, and by the look of a pin one is wearing these are two of the Happy Huntresses. Wonder what they’re doing here?...

As the trucks stop, our adult professional huntsmen and huntresses strut confidently out of the mine entrance, though some are trying a little harder to look serious than others. Very cute Marrow, we can definitely tell you’re the rookie of the group. But we don’t have time to dwell on that, because the real heroes are out of the cave too, and most of them are trying to just behave and stand at attention. Not Ruby, Nora, and Jaune though. They’re going gaga over the Ace Ops. Jaune is super impressed with the superior leadership and strategizing of Clover, and how the whole team’s synergy is so flawless it barely requires communication, to which Clover responds with some wisdom about knowing and covering for one another’s liabilities. This of course leads to some nice banter within the Ace Ops at Marrow’s expense, the poor pup. Meanwhile Nora wants to make fellow hammer user and bruiser Elm her new best friend, complete with Street Fighter text graphic for their pairing.

Thunder Thighs!

And Ruby is just wowed that Harriet is so quick and reliable to come in clutch and have her team’s back so well, something she aspired to do too. But she apparently makes a mistake in calling the Ace Ops “friends”. Harriet keeps this purely professional. It’s a matter of trust and teamwork, but they’re still just coworkers. Clearly a difference in teaching style between Beacon and Atlas, because I definitely got the feeling from Volumes 1-3 that Ozpin wanted everyone to form meaningful bonds in order for their teamwork to be at its best. But this really shakes our girls. They just saw the most impressive huntsman work they’ve ever seen, and they’re being told that was from people who aren’t friends? Makes them feel like they’re doing things the wrong way, or worse that they won’t be able to stay as close if they want to get serious about their work. And it’s especially hard to hear now. Blake and Yang just killed a man the other day, they all stole Atlas property, Weiss put her faith in her team to stay by her side in order to go back to Atlas when she had just escaped from there a few volumes ago. They risked everything to find each other again and stay together... and that’s apparently a naïve way to look at being a Huntress? I don’t know about the rest of you, but I felt like that stuck with them for the rest of the episode and I really hope they all have a talk about it soon. This is a crisis of confidence like nothing they’ve encountered, and I love it.

While the Ops go check in with Ironwood, Ruby tries to drum up enthusiasm for a team activity such as exploration of the city, probably as a direct response to Harriet’s claim they won’t stay friends if they want to be Huntresses. She wants to strengthen their bonds through quality team time. A noble aspiration, if only they weren’t tired after a busy day of the mission, and they seem to still be worn out by the Argus escape stuff and sick of city stuff after Argus and Mantle. A shame, I’m sure Atlas has plenty of wonderful sights to see. But they need time to rest and recuperate. Sorry Ruby... But there’s no time to dwell on that either, because Ironwood wants to talk with Jaune, Ruby, and Qrow. They barely catch the end of his conversation with Clover, something to the effect of keeping a low profile in Mantle while doing recon on a recent problem... and that Marrow can’t come because low profile isn’t his strong suit. That’s when they get the worst news yet. New Best Boy Forest has been murdered, the third killing of someone speaking out against Ironwood in a week. This revelation of course devastates our young heroes. Qrow points out the obvious, the connecting thread of all the dead being anti-Ironwood makes a pretty damning case against him. The General’s not egotistical enough to prioritize the damage that does to his reputation, instead worrying it’ll worsen civil unrest. He can tell he and the rest of Atlas are being framed for such brutal blows to the truth seeking lower class, and the frame fits the current painting rather nicely. Jaune claps back that the unrest got so bad to begin with because of Ironwood’s Dust embargo so he has no one but himself to blame. Savage. But even Ironwood admits he’s right, that the issues of Mantle are going unanswered while he has to deal with the grand designs. So that’s where RWBY and JNR come in, good people to help make a difference in Mantle. How thoughtful.

But all noble thoughts go out the window as a new ship enters the area, one that practically screams wealth and privilege. Papa Schnee has come to trade verbal jabs~ And he starts firing off with indignant blustering the moment the doors open, saying the repossession of his old mine is an outrage the Council will not stand for. But Jimmy thought of that already, and he’s already told them he was commandeering this private property, AND since this is a military operation of top priority and confidentiality he doesn’t need Council approval. The very idea baffles Jacques, and James advises him to learn a thing or two about how the Council works before he has to watch the seat on it he wants so dearly slip through his fingers. Jacques only got to land here because the General let him, and he won’t be doing so again. Any blathering about the disrespect Ironwood is showing him goes out the window as he notices what’s been keeping us all tense this entire time; Weiss is just a few feet away. Papa Schnee of course gets fired up all over again that Weiss is working with Ironwood now, as if she was nothing more than another piece of property Jacques was swindled out of and had no agency of her own where she chose to go. Weiss stands up for herself at least that much, saying it was her own decision to come to Atlas and work with the General, the same way she decided to get the fuck out when he put her under house arrest, lest he forget that cruel move. He gets quite ruffled that she would talk back to him about his own recollection of his decisions, that he has not been shown the respect he should as her father. But she makes it clear he’s getting exactly how much respect he deserves, if not more than his kind is worth.

Jacques looks about ready to wind up for a swing at her and tries to let her know as much, but he forgot the man running the military and police is standing right behind him and already not his biggest fan. So he does something just as bad if not even worse. He guilt trips and gaslights her by saying that Mama Schnee’s condition has gotten even worse BECAUSE Weiss left, that it’s all her fault her mother has been made to suffer like this. I truly wish he could be on the receiving end of a sniper bullet or several blades and punches. But no, he cracks her confident defiance and upsets her, mission accomplished, and he gives an infuriating little villainous smirk. Feeling a little better about himself because he got to emotionally manipulate his daughter, Jacques claims Ironwood’s recent actions will be the noose that hangs the dear General. More importantly though, Weiss is lifted from her anguish and self-pity by Blake taking her hand in a show of support. She knows exactly what is happening here, because she was in Weiss’ shoes for years with Adam. She can and will help her friend get out of this. The whole team will, they’re all standing with her and for her. 

And maybe with a little help from her friends, Weiss’ abuser can go the way of Blake’s. Publicly humiliated and reduced to a petty shell of their former self concerned only with revenge, before dying to those they sough to control. Yeah I still have some thoughts about Adam and how glad I am he died how he did...

Regardless of our hatred for the thankfully deceased, when Jacques gets done indirectly threatening James he turns back to see Weiss feeling a little better and flanked by her team. So he tries to insult them and make Weiss feel guilty that she left her life of luxury and influence for a few friends. Too bad she knows now they’re more of a family to her than he is, and she lets him know. He doesn’t like that very much, she’s got confidence and emotional support, she might actually try and get out from under his thumb. So he leaves with a grumble, and as soon as he’s gone Weiss lets out the breath she was holding and relaxes a bit. And hey, Winter shows up! Almost as if she didn’t want to be there while her Father was and waited until he had left to come any closer. Guess she’s afraid of his domineering influence too. In much better news, Penny lands in the middle of the scene quite suddenly and knocks our girls away comically. Seems she’s here to celebrate... something that has yet to happen. But we find out what that is quite soon.

Next thing we know everyone is center stage in the Amity Arena, and Ironwood is making a speech about how much RWBY and JNR have grown since the last time they were here. And that growth deserves recognition, so they are given an impromptu graduation ceremony and awarded their licenses as Official Huntresses and Huntsmen by Penny... because she’s the one with the Scroll hitting the check mark on each of them to finalize the process. It’s everything they ever wanted back in the first few Volumes... but he’s right. Everything has changed since the Vytal Festival, including what they all seem to want in life. They... think they’re still happy to have this, but it doesn’t feel like it means much of anything anymore. Still, it is a big moment and he reminds them that they will all be working together on equal footing to get the satellite launched and communication restored. And whatever happens with Salem will be faced all together. He can’t think of a much better way to end the speech so he leaves them to enjoy some cake. Nora is very enthusiastic about eating a lot of that cake. While everyone else gathers around to watch Penny cut the cake with her swords, Ruby sits on her own in the bleachers and watches. Nora gets a stack of about 5 pieces of cake much to Ren and Weiss’ amusement, Yang shows off her detaching arm trick to Penny which earns a laugh, then goes to take a burst of selfies with a humorously unprepared Blake. How adorable.

Less adorable and more meaningful is Ruby and Qrow having a talk about all the tough choices she’s had to make recently and how much things have been changing around her without giving her any time to stop and adjust. This is what it means to be a leader, and her secrecy about Salem and Jinn is apparently less egregious than what Ozpin did according to Qrow. While Oz never trusted anyone with the whole truth, Ruby is planning to once Ironwood proves himself trustworthy. That’s a point in the win column. Ruby feels like she hasn’t earned her Huntress title, that she doesn’t feel any different than she did at Beacon, any more skilled or special. That feeling apparently never goes away. Qrow assures his niece that her mom would be very proud of the woman she has become and the choices she has made. But that raises the question, was the mission Summer disappeared on another Oz secret? Apparently not, even Ozpin had no idea where she had gone or why. Summer kept a few secrets all her own I guess, I just hope we learn more about all that and about her herself soon. For now, Ruby wants to know if Summer would have done the same thing about Salem if she were in her daughter’s shoes, and the best answer he can give is she would press on. She was the best of the lot, if not a little bratty, which he claims he doesn’t mind from her or Ruby~

That sweet moment ends as the group is shown a mission board of jobs they can sign up for around the Kingdom, much to Ruby’s glee. She has many ideas about what she wants to do for her first official mission~ Marrow, Elm, and Vine show up to guide the young’uns through the process for their first time around, though Vine and Ren seem to miss the point of Marrow’s metaphor about fresh meat. Elm is just amused the kids are so gung-ho to get right into huntsman work. The first job sounds like promising enough volunteer work to get most hands in the air, but when it’s revealed to be escorting preschoolers along their walk to pre-K Jaune is the only one with his hand still up so he gets stuck with it, and unfortunately Marrow doesn’t know how to pronounce his name... Meanwhile the others are all too eager to sign up when Elm tells them about a mission to take down a massive Sabyr loose in the Mantle sewers. They all have a good laugh that Jaune missed his chance to be a part of that since he said yes to the preschool escort. But hey, helping out the kids is sure to get the attention of some

Real.

Thirsty.

Moms.

But we can’t end on a positive note, so we cut to Jacques drinking in his study when Whitley makes his return, hooray hooray. He reports that a guest has let himself in and wants to speak with the patriarch... and oh what a delightful surprise! It’s Watts, and whatever words will be exchanged between them are not for the young lad to hear. Those words being that dear Arthur was thought by the masses to be dead, and that’s just how he likes it. So that explains why he’s not a suspect in the Black Queen virus stuff in Volume 3. But now he has a mutually beneficial proposition to deal with Jacques’ Ironwood problem~ How foreboding.

Sadly, or not depending how you view it, that’s all she wrote.