#pretty sure he's a control freak. pretty sure he's also lonely. bad combination.

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Ok, I think I have a pretty good idea of why a lot of Akechi's dialogue is... like that.

So, even before his confidant truly started, I noticed that he has a real knack for directing the flow of a conversation. This is very fitting for someone who is both a detective and skilled at interviews - when there is a topic and a goal, Akechi is in his element.

All this to say, he's actually kind of controlling when it comes to conversational flow. He probes for information, or turns the conversation around to a particular topic, usually the Phantom Thieves. He manages to take a few of Joker's dialogue options and spin them so they sound mildly incriminating in the context he's placed them in - the only way to truly get around this is to pick answers that feign indifference, and even then, that's more than a bit telling. He's clearly very good at this kind of thing.

But then, we get conversations where either Joker does something he didn't expect, or else he doesn't have a particular goal in mind - and the conversation stutters. In the first instance, Joker does something (a particularly egregious example is putting his glasses on him and fluffing his hair in rank 3) which both leaves him wrong-footed and no longer in perfect control of the situation. He just kind of... freezes, for awhile. It's hilarious. He has no idea how to respond.

He picks up control again in the phone call afterwards, having chosen to play into it, turning this "fooling the crowds" into a kind of game or secret between them. Nice save.

But in instances where there isn't an obvious topic and the goal is somewhat nebulous, for instance, that one Leblanc scene, it becomes pretty apparent that Akechi doesn't have the right "script" to go off of. Again, it's particularly notable in that scene, because I'm fairly sure he didn't have any specific reason to be at Leblanc, other than him looking for a quiet spot now that public opinion has turned on him. And because there isn't anything specific he's digging for, he kind of just ends up throwing things at the wall to see what will stick. Probing for any kind of recognizable reaction that he can jump on and work with, and that just doesn't really happen in this scene.

He references Sae, a woman in a respectable position, to Sojiro, but instead of that netting a welcome, it earns his ire, given Sae's recent actions against him. He then tries to greet Joker, his... rival? friend? enemy? person who at least seems to somewhat enjoy spending time with him? But Joker's responses are somewhat short, and Akechi practically wilts. He tries to commiserate by oversharing. He tries to involve Futaba and reaches out for the only topic of interest he can think of around "young people". He compliments the coffee. He compliments Joker. He tries to invoke that connection between them. None of it is really sticking, nor does it serve as a jumping off point for him to steer the conversation, or even really start one.

So, he basically just ends up having a one-sided chat with himself and then leaves. Hilarious. Also a little sad, if I'm being honest. It's really giving "guy with no friends who only knows how to speak to adults" energy. If there's no specific purpose to the exchange, or he is not in control of its direction, he seems to be kind of out of his depth. He succeeds only in being a little awkward and confusing, more than anything.

[empty-blog-for-lurking]

If youre ok w sharing then i would love to hear your thoughts on lotor........ Hes such a weird guy. Dissecting him like a frog

If i get hate for this, i am blaming you/j but in all honesty i apologize if this kinda messy, as i have said it has beem awhile since i saw any of the episodes about him. Most of it is my personal interpretation and opinions of his character-

First of all i personally hate both "L0tor is evil rapist imperialist who did not have a single redeemable quality" and "L0tor is uwu poor baby who did nothing wrong", because yeah he had good intentions and he seemed to genuinely love Alura and care for Alteans but also he very much did do a lot of things Wrong. I am pretty sure a lot of his actions fall into category of Very Wrong

Lot0r to me is an absolute control freak, he has to be 10 steps ahead of everyone, he needs to be control of the situation no matter what. Whether it be through a silver tongue or by his blade (see N@rti's death, him vs White Lion). This is as much as a ruthless strategy as it is a trauma response. Being raised under Z@rkon, a father who only saw him as inferior half-bred, he had to learn survivor tactics. He will do anything to survive whether it be beg, lie, manipulate, and kill. He is a survivor of some genuinely godawful abuse he suffered for 10,000 years, combined with racism he suffered for being half altean

However this need to be in control extends to his allies and people he cares about. I am sure Lotor may have loved Alura, it doesnt change the fact that he very much abused her trust. Their entire relationship was based on a lie. He knew Alteans were still alive and not only did he not tell Alura about it he leaned into the "last survivors of Altea" for their relationship, which is why it was doomed since the beginning. And if it had not been this, then it would have been something else. Cause lying and manipulation are very much core of his character, that is how we are introduced to him

Like i see people going "Oh Lot0r could have been good if he had therapy and a hug", and i am not really not sure about it, cause like would he? Would he choose to be vulnerable and actually let his feelings out and be truthful in a an unbiased reliable way that will neither serve him in any way nor make him look better nor is a part of some machivilian scheme he cooked up because he doesnt trust the therapist he is paying? No

And thing is he does desire connection. He looks for connection in people who are similar to him. Half galran, altean survivors, Alura these are the people who he chose to get close to. He looks for similarities, people he can relate to, people who he sees as like him, people who he thinks can give him a sense of belonging. He is deeply lonely. However his desperation for control, absolute mistrust in anyone and everyone, and his inability to be actually honest dooms any relationship he'll ever have

Also this is probably just me, but for someone who is this morally complex character he has tendency to see things in black and white? Like it is His dad and empire= bad, alteans=good. He idolizes Altea to the point of seeing it as an Utopia, and this ideal was more important to him than any Alteans who are alive and with him. I also cant remember him ever caring about someone outside of the Dichotomy. Like at most i remember is after he became the emperor Lance pointing out how other planets need to be freed and he just brushed it off

Overall he gives me the "smart people dont always make good decisions, but they are good at justifying their bad ones" vibes. We dont know exactly why he decided to use alteans as batteries but i am choosing to go with my interpretation- "Lottor saw something fucked up in that future showing space whale thingy, decided the only way to solve was altean batteries except in true self fulfilling prophecy greek tragedy way it only made things worse and started a series of event that will cause the thing he saw causing real trouble a few years after his death.

Another thing! I think it should have been him being the focus of Evil Altean episode instead of A//ura. I hate that episode and everything it stands for but like if there Had to be an evil alteans episode then it should be around someone who is you know? Obsessed with Altean culture? Is big on control and manipulation? Is more geared towards big picture and "greater good" over individual? Is worried about turning into just like his galran father and so desperately wants to connect to his idealized version of his altean mother? Yeah

[tisfan]

Title: From Russia with Purrs Square: A3 - FREE SQUARE Warning: no animals were actually harmed in the writing of this fic Rating: Gen Pairing: Peter Parker & Ned Leeds / background Bucky/Tony Summary: Spider-Man doesn’t always get called in to help with the Avengers stuff, but when Peter is given a special, urgent mission from the Winter Soldier, he needs to call in backup Link: A03 Word Count: 2505 For @tonystarkbingo

The spidey-sense was a bitch, really. Bad enough all his senses were cranked up to eleven and a half, but then he was on edge constantly for the first year, or more. Spidey-sense wasn’t common sense. It wasn’t directional. About half the time it wasn’t even useful. Had him ducking spitballs by diving to the floor like there was an lone shooter on school grounds.

Not that Peter didn’t already have a rep for being a bit of a spaz, and at a school for top academics, that was saying a lot. There were many ways to bully people, and shoving them into lockers was only for the most uncreative.

Which did mean, after the first year or so, he got sort of… used to it. The spidey-sense tingling didn’t have him bolting upright out of bed at three in the morning to cling to the ceiling like a terrified bat.

Usually he woke up long enough to blink at his clock, pause a moment to see if whatever it was actually planned to break through his window, and then went back to sleep.

Not this time.

His skin rippled and electric jolts went up and down his spine. Spidey-sense was like licking a nine-volt. Not painful, but impossible to endure for long, and freaky-weird on top of that.

Rap-rap-rap.

Peter rubbed at his eyes. “I swear,” he muttered, pushing himself up from his bed, “if I’m getting danger signals because there’s a pigeon at my window, I’m going to hurt someone.��

(more below the cut)

He reached under his bed and grabbed one of his spare web-slingers. Not one of the fancy things that Mr. Stark had set up for him with five hundred and seventy-six possible combinations, but the regular old one. Because he was tired and he was pretty sure it was a pigeon, but he wasn’t sure, so--

Rap-rap-rap.

Peter was just peeking through the blinds when a hand shoved his window up. A metal hand, with black and gold fingers. A moment later, the blinds shifted aside and there was a man in his bedroom.

A familiar man.

“Hey, aren’t--”

“Hush, kid,” the guy said in a deep, smoky sort of voice. The kind that spies used in meetings with their contacts.

“Aren’t you the Winter Soldier?” Peter hissed, excitable. Better to keep his voice down, though. Aunt May would completely freak out if there was a superhero in his room. Especially one that had been wanted for war crimes.

“Look, kid,” the Winter Soldier said. “Stark told me you could be trusted.”

“Mr. Stark said--” Peter squeaked. “Yeah, I mean, yeah, he… we do missions. Sometimes. Together. We’re a team. Partners. Like that.” He crossed his fingers. “You can trust me, yes sir.”

“Great,” the Winter Soldier said. “I need you to watch this cat for me.”

“What?”

The Winter Soldier reached outside onto the fire escape and brought in a cat carrier. It wasn’t an ordinary, plastic PetsWorld thing, either, but a fancy, modular box. Shiny and sleek and bearing the Stark Industries logo. “This is Alpine,” the Winter Soldier said. “Don’t let anything happen to this cat. I’ll be back in about a week.”

Peter looked into the carrier and saw a pair of blue eyes looking back at him.

“Okay--?”

The Winter Soldier was gone.

At least the multilayered cat carrier had come with supplies.

And the highest high-tech litter box Peter had ever seen, which was not saying a lot, because Peter had never lived in a rental that allowed pets, much less ever had one. Aside from a goldfish he’d won at the fair one time, but that had died within a week, and really, the less said about that, the better.

“You--” He told the cat, pointing at it, “--had better not die in a week.”

The cat came forward to sniff at his finger, and then brushed her head under his hand.

The Stark-Box came with a very fine layer of particles -- like crystals, really, in red and gold, because sure, why not, let the cat poop on the Iron Man colors. That was probably a bet that Mr. Stark had lost, or something. Or a joke that he didn’t want to know about -- and did a quick removal of feces or urine, put it in a little air-tight bag like they were on the International Space Station, as well as performed basic medical analysis on the output and sent a text to Peter’s phone, telling him that Alpine was in perfect health.

“What are you, some kind of spy cat?” He couldn’t imagine Mr. Stark going this far out of his way for a housepet.

There were also several tins of food, packets of a semi-soft food, and some hard kibble. There were feeding instructions and an admonishment to water the cat (that also went directly to his phone and he wondered if there was some sort of bluetooth connection and onboard computer in the Stark Carrier.

There were enrichment activities -- including a miniature of Cap’s shield that zoomed around the room under its own power and Alpine chased it a few times before batting it into Peter’s laundry basket where it stayed, buzzing fitfully, until Peter put it away.

A cat brush that Alpine turned her nose up at, and proceeded to attack his hand when he tried to use it. “Well, I went a week last year without brushing my hair-- don’t look at me like that, it was finals -- and it didn’t hurt me, so you’ll probably be okay.”

Alpine turned around and curled into a ball on Peter’s bed and went to sleep.

Which was great until Peter considered the fact that it was now four in the morning, he’d spent the last two hours poking and playing with the Winter Soldier’s cat, and he still had school in the morning.

And the cat… was laying in his bed. In the center of his bed. Where he wanted to sleep.

He poked her a few times. “Get up, that’s my sleeping spot.”

She ignored him.

Peter sighed, considered moving her. She opened one blue eye and gave him a Look.

Psychic cat, maybe?

“Ug, whatever.” He slung a web hammock and climbed in. He’d slept in worse places.

“You look like crap,” Ned said, sliding into the desk next to Peter. “Busy night crime fighting, rescuing stolen bikes? Giving directions? Oh, oh, I know, stopped a mugging?”

“Cat.”

“What?”

“I have a cat,” Peter explained, through a yawn. “The Winter Soldier showed up and left me a cat. A special cat.”

“Like, a lion? Or a radioactive housecat? Do you think if it bit me, I might get powers?”

Peter almost laughed.

Almost.

“I don’t think so?” Peter opened his textbook and turned to the page the teacher required. “I don’t know, he didn’t say much, just that it was important, and--”

“Mr. Parker, is there something you’d like to share with the class, or can I get on with our history lesson?”

“Sorry, sorry,” Peter said. “Go on, it’s fascinating.”

“Sarcasm, dude,” Ned hissed at him.

He waited until the teacher turned away again. “So, come over and help me out?”

“With a cat?”

“Dude, you have pets, I need advice! Help!”

“I have sea monkeys that I ordered from a comic book,” Ned said, with vast patience. “That’s not exactly the same as keeping a mutant cat under control.”

“She’s not a mutant,” Peter said, “at least I don’t think so. I don’t know, maybe she’s housing nano-tech or something. Just come over and help me out, okay?”

“Mutant nanotech cat,” Ned said. “And yet, somehow, this seems like work.”

“You’re the one who wanted to be a hero, pal,” Peter told him.

“Guy in the chair, Peter,” Ned corrected. “Q to your Bond.”

“Why is your room covered in webs?”

“She keeps knocking stuff off the shelves.”

“Really? Like that’s an actual thing, I thought it was just a meme,” Ned said.

“Sure, sit something there-- just on the edge of the desk.”

Ned pulled out his cellphone and put it on the side of Peter’s desk.

“Now come over here, so you don’t scare her,” Peter told him.

And sure enough a few seconds later, Alpine hopped up onto the desk. Sat next to the phone.

And knocked it on the floor.

Alpine was strong, Peter discovered. After pushing over Ned’s phone, a pile of algebra books, the casing for Peter’s old computer, a few dumbell weights that he’d used back before the spider bite and rarely even thought about now…

“This cat can push fifty pounds,” Ned said in awe. “Maybe it’s got the super soldier serum in it!”

Peter scoffed. “I can pick up an eighty-thousand pound cargo truck.” For a few seconds, at any rate, and really, it was more like he caught it. And it had kinda knocked him on his ass. A bit. But Ned didn’t need to know that.

“Well, not everyone can be Spider-Man,” Ned said, philosophically.

“Peter, you need to be -- are you listening to me?”

“Yes, Aunt May, “ Peter said, grabbing a bag of granola from the drawer and emptying into his mouth, chewing like a chipmunk. The worst thing about the whole Spider-Man gig was how he was always freaking hungry, no matter how much he ate. And he knew they couldn’t afford it. MJ had gone on a tear a few months ago about a diet that the goal was SNATT -- slightly nauseated all the time -- to obtain the perfect beach body.

One time his stomach had growled in biology so loudly that the whole class turned to stare, and Peter had said he was doing the kimkins diet. Almost everyone had stopped worrying about it, then, except for MJ, who started bringing him articles about eating disorders.

“--you need to be more careful about leaving your window open. There was a cat in your room.”

Slightly nauseated all the time.

The granola turned into a rock in his stomach. “So--” casually, casually “--where’s the cat now?” And how the heck hadn’t she noticed the cat box and food and litter if Aunt May was in his room?

“Her owner came and got her,” May said, blithely unaware that she was single handedly destroying Peter’s entire existence. “Nice man. Michael-- what did he say his last name was? I don’t remember. He said he saw her in your window, and came over to get her. I said we didn’t have a cat here, he must be mistaken, but when I opened the door to your room, she ran right to him. Says she’s his companion animal -- suffers from a rare blood disorder and she can smell it when he needs to medicate. That’s so smart, you know, having an animal that can do that.”

Morbius.

His aunt was less than six feet away from someone who drank human blood? Peter just about swooned.

“Peter, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I mean, you know, cat. In my room. I should go check and make sure she didn’t leave any presents.”

Aunt May made a fair enough sort of shrug and Peter bolted, leaving the rest of his snack on the kitchen counter. Threw on the spider-suit, stashed the Stark KatCaddy in his closet, and was out the window in a moment.

“Now, aside from a castle, if I was a nasty old vampire with a cat that I wanted for some reason, where would I go?”

Alchemex.

Alpine was, of all crazy things, asleep in Peter’s lap. He’d webbed her twice trying to get her back from Morbius, she’d spent half the day with a crazy vampire, and then she’d taken a trip across the city via the spider-street.

That she was curled up in his lap, absently kneading his thigh and purring little cute snores while she slept was…

“This cat is something else,” Peter said. He scratched between her ears and she opened up one eye to peer at him, then mewed softly and went back to sleep.

“So, like a mutant cat?”

“Well, no,” Peter said. “I’m not sure. Morbius thought she might have been injected with the super soldier serum. He was planning to drain all her blood and analyze it, with the idea of making a cure for himself.”

“A vampire who wants a cure,” Ned said. “Why is he a bad guy again? I mean, if I was a vampire who could go out in the day time, I’d go to high school every day and be cool and broody. Like Twilight.”

“Ned, you do go to high school every day,” Peter pointed out.

“Oh, right, yeah…”

Spidey sense didn’t wake him up.

The knocking on his window did, though.

Peter groaned. “What’s the matter with you? Can’t you just come by during normal daytime hours?” He shoved the window up to let the Winter Soldier in.

“You look tired, kid,” the Winter Soldier said.

“Yeah, well, your super cat’s like super useless,” Peter said. “Three villains, two nights of knocking all my stuff on the floor, one day of puking on my bed, and a partridge in a pear tree. Does she have any abilities, because you should totally train her up some.”

“Villains?”

“Dude, your cat got catnapped -- and not like in the cute, sleeping in my lap way -- four times. Twice by Morbius, who either wants to drink her blood or test it or something.”

The Winter Soldier’s eyebrows went up and his face took on murderous intent.

“Look, I got her back, everything’s cool, you do not have to get Cap to drop another 18-wheeler on me,” Peter said. “Everything’s perfectly fine right now, we’re all fine here, how are you?”

“I’m still stuck on villains,” the Winter Soldier admitted. “What’d you do, take out an ad in th’ papers that you were cat sitting?”

“I don’t know how Morbius knew,” Peter admitted, “but once the Sinister Six saw that Spider-Man was rescuing a cat, they decided the cat had to be important for some reason, I guess.”

“Well, shit, kid,” the Winter Soldier said. “I didn’t think that would happen. I just-- Tony… last minute--”

“You had a mission?”

“I had a vacation,” the Winter Soldier said. “Vacation. I love the sound of that word. Va-caaaay-shun.” The Winter Soldier rolled his shoulders and stretched his neck and --was that a hickey?

“I thought you had healing factor,” Peter said, “so-- who-- I mean, how har-- you know what, don’t answer that. You had a good vacation, that’s all I need to know, it is not my business if Mr. Stark was gnawing on your neck like a starving vampire, we have enough vampires around here, that’s all perfectly normal and fine.”

The Winter Soldier laughed. “Somethin’ like that, kid,” he said. “Sorry about the trouble, though. She wouldn’t have liked a kennel and I jus’ didn’t have anywhere else to take her, to someone I trusted.”

“You know what, Mr. Winter Soldier, sir, any time,” Peter said.

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Vol. 6 “The Lost Fable”

This is a re-posting from Nov. 10th, 2018 in an effort to get all my recaps fully on tumblr. Thanks!

Today is a glorious day. Today, Ozpin stans and Ozpin haters must unite in friendship against the real assholes on this show:

The Gods.

But I’ll get to that. First, we start off with the clip that we were given earlier this week. Thrown into a high def pocket dimension housing all of Ozpin’s personal backstory (still not letting the girls off the hook for that one) we see Salem when she was still human, a lonely girl locked in a tower by her “cruel father.” She desires freedom above everything else, but can’t achieve that without help, despite her own magical power.

Lucky for Salem, a warrior by the name of Ozma arrives. He’s a man of “pure heart and courageous soul,” driven by righteousness and justice, not greed at the prospect of securing the maiden’s hand. So here we see a possible explanation (though not justification) for Salem’s father’s actions: it sounds like she was the prize for whoever could fix the problems in the kingdom. Ozma does this and, through the common irony found in fables and fairy tales, wins the girl’s heart because he was never looking for it in the first place. They fall in love, travel, and Jinn gives us a “happily ever after,” only to pull back and say that’s how it should have ended. Of course, we know that’s not the case.

The beginning of this tale is everything RWBY is trying to undermine: the simple, predictable fairy tale. There’s a helpless woman, a warrior arrives to save her, they fall in love and live in bliss. End of story. However, even in the simplest tales there’s still conflict and I want everyone to keep that in mind as we move forward. The original world Ozma and Salem inhabited was by no means a paradise. We’ll come back to that.

So, despite surviving beasts and battles, Ozma falls ill and dies, leaving Salem a wreck at his passing. Let’s keep in mind that this was an abused woman who, presumably, was locked up for most—if not all—of her life. Ozma was the one person who cared for her and then suddenly she was left alone in a world she’d never learned how to navigate. We’re told it straight out: Salem found freedom in Ozma’s eyes, not the act of leaving her tower. Without him she doesn’t know who she is. The idea that you’d go to any lengths to win your true love back is always a good story. Combine that with your true love being your only link to the outside world and suddenly Salem’s actions read as pretty inevitable.

She immediately heads to the God of Light’s temple to ask for Ozma back because, presumably, that’s what the temple is there for. To pray for things. The Gods literally want the mortals to kneel, beg, and then they get to decide whether they'll grant the favor or not. In this case Light says no. Resurrecting Ozma would upset the balance of life and death.

Except… it’s already upset? Because of the grimm. It would be one thing if this was a world where people lived and died naturally; by old age, disease, and even by one another’s hand. But this is a world where one God has created an un-ending stream of destructive monsters that Humanity has very little defense against, and we know from past stories that the grimm have frequently pushed Humanity to near extinction. Death is already winning. What freaking balance?

Regardless, Salem isn’t happy with this decision.

Salem: “That’s not fair!”

Now we start getting into the morality attached to this episode and you know what? Salem’s right. We—meaning the actual humans watching the show and currently reading this recap—understand that the cycle of life and death is something we need to accept because for us it’s inevitable. On the surface that seems like a good thing for Light to demand Salem come to terms with. However, Salem is not living in our world. Why does a cycle of life and death exist for her, particularly one where death comes violently and unexpectedly to those who don’t deserve it? Because this God said so. He and his brother have the power here. They could change things if they wanted! Make a different world with different rules! Again, we think of death as inevitable because for us it actually is, but given the option why not create a world where everyone’s immortal? I’m not claiming that’s actually the solution here—people need space, resources, they want freedom from the pain life can bring—only that Light is acting like this balance is something intrinsic and not of his own creation. He could literally say, “Yeah okay, from here on out if people die when they’re not ready they can come back until they want to move on.” But he doesn’t. He's denying her this because he wants to, not because he has to. I can already hear people going, "Too bad, snowflake, the world isn't fair" but the entire point is that this world could be.  

Light tells her to “let [Ozma] rest,” establishing that these beings are hypocritical as well. He preaches letting a mortal move on, but then drags that exact mortal into an endless existence when it serves his purpose. So yeah. These guys are dicks.

Ultimately, they want an unfair world. Why? So people will revere and pray to them. If they actually created something that was close to a paradise, well, then Humanity wouldn’t have need of Gods anymore. And as we’re about to see, the Gods are far more arrogant beings than Salem ever was.

God of Light won’t grant your prayer? Well, there are two brothers. I’m not blaming Salem for making use of her options here especially when, as established, she recognizes that things don’t have to be this way. She approaches the God of Darknesses’ domain and we have a more overt characterization that paints him as incredibly fallible. He’s not some omniscient, greater being that stands above Humanity in terms of ethics. He’s a megalomaniac, thrilled to have the “prize” of a “low woman kneeling before him.”

Keep the parallel imagery in mind: Salem is under the thumb of her “cruel father” and now she’s at the mercy of brothers who delight in her subservience. She’s a woman who is pushing against the presumed power of men… and she’s about to be punished for it.

Salem recognizes that the Gods have emotions just like Humanity because she’s careful not to mention the God of Light, acting like Darkness is the first one she approached. Thrilled at her supposedly blind faith in him (catching the theme here with Ozpin?) he immediately grants her prayer and Ozma is resurrected in a panic. For a brief moment Salem thinks everything is going to be okay.

Then Light shows up and the brothers start squabbling like, well, siblings. Just like it’s bad when teenagers with powerful weaponry and relics throw temper tantrums, it’s bad when super-powered gods start bickering. We see clearly for the first time that they really view Humanity as toys to fight over, rather than beings to be respected: Ozma is resurrected, killed, resurrected again, and killed again as they fight. Salem has to watch it all.

The fight finally ends when Light says that he doesn’t want to control his brother, but Salem does. She lied about approaching him first. So… she’s evil incarnate?

Seriously, this is some crazy manipulation on the Gods’ parts. They claim that Salem is punished for her arrogance, but what’s arrogant about praying to the gods who wanted your prayers in the first place? Of course, the real issue is she didn’t pray in the right way. They’re not upset that she’s messing with the (not intrinsic!) balance of life and death, they’re upset that she dared to question them. Light hates her because she didn’t say, “Okay, master” like a good girl and drop the subject. Darkness hates her because she didn’t feed his ego and actually approach him first. He doesn’t have any problem with resurrecting Ozma until he learns that the measly mortal managed to trick him, and then his pride is hurt. It’s not about the resurrection. It never was. It’s about a woman who won’t stay in her place.

“You monsters!” Salem cries and yeah, I agree.

They claim that they made her immortal so that she can learn the super important lesson that death is supposedly inevitable, but the real punishment is announced just a second later: “You cannot be with your beloved.” The immortality isn’t to teach her, it’s to make her suffer. It also says a lot that Light literally tortures her before explaining the curse: he swallows her in dragon form, has her fall from a great height, briefly drowns her, and then slams her against the now hard water. They want to bring her low.

Which might make sense to some people because in the real world a lot of religions teach that God is absolute and we must never, ever question Him. But in this world the Gods only have authority because they have the power to enforce it. We’ve been shown no reason why Humanity should obey them like this.

Oh but wait… it's because the brothers created them. So Humanity should be grateful and obey them in return, right? Except that argument has never worked for me. We see the same logic applied to parents and their children: I created you, so you have to do everything I say. Um, what? Keep in mind that I'm not talking about basic respect or parents enforcing rules because they have actual experience to draw from: i.e. you have to eat your vegetables because it's my job to make sure you grow up healthy and I actually understand why vegetables are important in a way you don’t yet. Rather, I'm talking about parents who see procreation as a catch-all excuse for blind obedience in all things. A child didn’t ask to be born and eventually they’re going to grow up. They’re their own, autonomous person who is not beholden to the people who first put them into the world. Have you ever heard parents claim that you should keep quiet because they gave you existence and food and a roof over your head? As if those aren’t the basic requirements of deciding to have a child in the first place? Have you ever had or met a parent who refuses to let their children become independent—including forming their own opinions and asking their own questions—because they like the feeling of power the current dynamic gives them? Yeah, we’re seeing the same thing here. Salem is starting to question her parents’ actions and they’re coming back with the God equivalent of, “How dare you defy me I am your father!”

[Insert obligatory Star Wars GIF here.]

Light: “Your selfishness and arrogance have led you astray”

Seriously, that line reads as a lot less damning if you question why Salem is selfish and arrogant for asking for happiness--happiness the Gods can easily grant her.

So she’s a prisoner again and Salem lets her anger guide her, deciding that she’ll take down the men who cursed her for—again—doing nothing except questioning them and their pride. She unites all the kingdoms together… which is supposedly what Light wants from Humanity. But oh, your unity is at the expense of worshiping us? Yeah no, don’t want it anymore, sorry. Granted, Salem unites them under a falsehood—she didn’t steal immortality from them—but the goal of this crusade, achieving immortality for all, is something that can happen. Salem has gotten all of Humanity to ask the question she started out with: why do you insist on governing an unfair world and why should we stand for that?

The Gods’ response? Kill everyone who’s questioning them.

From the Gods’ perspective Salem has infected Humanity with real independence. They don’t have blind faith in them anymore. So they should just be wiped out. Darkness kills every human alive for the actions of a few, further reinforcing that they’re interested in promoting an unfair existence. Light does absolutely nothing to stop him.

Salem calls it what it is, a “massacre.”

Then the Gods decide to leave. They made what they saw as pets, the pets started questioning their masters, so they slaughter them and move on to try again. “This planet was a beautiful experiment, but it’s merely a remnant of what it once was,” meaning that the time when Humanity possessed blind faith in the Gods was supposedly when it was “whole.” Darkness destroys the moon on his way out (finally that’s answered!) and “once again, Salem was alone.”

They’re still torturing her though. They’re mad at the pet for its lack of obedience, so what’s the best way to hurt it? Leave it isolated. The worst parts of Salem’s life were when she was alone in her tower, so now she can be alone once more with an entire planet as the tower instead.

And this is a common abuse tactic, the “see how better things could have been if you’d just listened to me?” The Gods are setting up a lopsided comparison. If you’d just obeyed us from the start you could have had the world even without your love, but because you didn’t you get nothing. Think about that the next time you want to question us.

So Salem wanders alone, trying to find some way to die. What else is she going to do? Really can’t blame her for throwing herself into the grimm pool, thinking that would finally get the job done. Instead that magic creates a “being of infinite life desiring infinite destruction” and the Salem we know today emerges; one who is literally incapable of working towards true peace. Destruction is all she understands now. In some ways, from then on she’s lost some responsibility for her actions. Oh, I’m not saying team RWBY and co. can just ignore her—still trying to destroy Humanity here—but if magic warps you into something that literally can’t be reasoned with, and you had no idea the magic would do that, and the magic was your only hope after the Gods royally fucked you over… yeah, talk about a tragic backstory. I certainly don't claim to know whether RT is going to go the redemption arc route (even if Ruby’s silver eyes look a lot like Light’s power and could perhaps destroy the grimm part of Salem…), but there’s leeway to do that if they wanted to. Remember our opening?

Salem: “There will be no victory in strength.”

Ozpin: “But perhaps victory is in the things you’ve long forgotten… a smaller, more honest soul.”

Strength quite literally won’t work because Salem is a cursed immortal. All the armies and relics won’t put a dent in her power. She can’t be killed… but maybe she can be redeemed. To me Salem the human and Salem the grimm are distinctly different people and if you can get rid of one half, the other might finally take responsibility for her actions and find some peace.

For now though, we get this bullshit between Light and Ozma.

Talk about further manipulation. Light tells him that “a tragedy has befallen your home at the hands of my brother” and while technically that's true, he’s spinning it like Darkness went AWOL and caused all this without Light’s knowledge or consent. He’s painting himself as the Good God here that Ozma should listen to. He was dead for pretty much all of these events and thus doesn’t know how cruel the Gods have been to Salem. If he had, I doubt he would have listened.

Light then gives Ozma a job: unite Humanity and then summon us with the four relics. If we like what you’ve accomplished we’ll live among you again; fail and we’ll destroy you. Oh, and here’s four powerful relics to help you achieve this. Remember though, what the Gods actually want is obedience, not harmony. There never was harmony! This is why I wanted everyone to keep “cruel fathers” and a kingdom at war in mind: even when the Gods considered Remnant “whole” there wasn’t peace. Things were still awful for humans, it’s just that humans had blind faith in the Gods at the time. That’s what they want again. It seems significant to me that Jinn—a being created by Light and probably a reflection of his beliefs—says at the very beginning that this was the age where Humanity was “capable of greatness.” Only in the shadow of Gods is Humanity supposedly at their best.

So basically, “Re-train the puppies so that they’re obedient. If you don’t we’ll just kill everyone a second time.”

However, all of this hangs on Humanity actually wanting the Gods back. I wouldn’t, and at this point I don’t think Ozpin does either. He’s trying to unite Humanity in his own way—bring about true peace by getting rid of Salem and defeating the grimm; working through the problems they have amongst themselves—and intends to use the relics’ power to achieve that goal. I’d be super shocked if after 2000 years and hearing at least part of Salem’s story, he’s still all, “Yeah let’s bring the Gods back! They seem like cool dudes.” Not unless he thinks that’s the only way to get rid of Salem’s immortality. The lesser of two evils and all that. 

Back to the conversation though. It’s important to note that Ozma doesn’t want this responsibility. He wants to join Salem in the afterlife… who he apparently doesn’t know is still alive? He’s been dead for a while now so I guess Light just had him hanging unconscious in this space between worlds?? Idek it’s so messed up. It’s more manipulation. Ozma goes back not because he thinks the world should really rest on his shoulders (something that will change in time as survivor’s guilt starts eating at him—our current Ozpin think it’s “all [his] fault”), but because he wants to see Salem. He goes back for love of her, just like all of this began because of Salem's love for him.  

This is why choice is so important to Ozpin. This is why he didn’t let Pyrrha rush into the decision to become a Maiden and questioned her convictions all the way up until seconds before flipping the switch. He once made a decision impulsively… and this is where it got him.

How the world was re-populated and why it’s so different isn’t made clear, but it sounds to me like Light deliberately created an even harder challenge—a more interesting “experiment.” Ozma has agreed to unite Humanity? Okay, okay, but how about we make two separate races that already hate each other? And take away all their magic? And scatter the relics so he doesn’t have easy access to them? And have him reincarnate in other people so it’s constantly a battle to balance their lives with his duty? And change all the cities so he can’t pull from any of his former political power? And keep the grimm so the people he’s trying to bring peace to are constantly threatened and terrified? Ozma is a rat running around a very complicated maze, one the Gods keep chucking traps into while wondering curiously if he’ll still manage to succeed. I don’t think they really care if he does or not. It’s a win-win for them. Ozpin either creates a world willing to worship them again, they destroy the world and move on like they’d originally planned to, or they just never come back at all. What have they got to lose here?

So Ozpin reincarnates in a man with short white hair and a green necklace, tiny bits of personality that he’s clearly held onto. He emerges into a world literally on fire, but after a panicked “Where am I?” and the staggering trauma of no longer being sure of who he is, he immediately jumps into saving people mode, cutting down a grimm that threatened a civilian. Ozpin is a good man.

During his travels he learns about someone known as The Witch and realizes it must be Salem. It doesn’t surprise me that after everything they’d just bask for a while in finding one another again and eventually question whether they shouldn’t be Gods in the brothers’ place. That’s the kind of arrogance that caused all this trouble to begin with. Not Salem’s supposed arrogance for questioning them, but the Gods’ warped logic: you should bow to me because I happen to have more power than you. Luckily, Ozpin realizes after a couple of years that this isn’t how to bring peace to Humanity. Especially when your wife wants to kill everyone who doesn’t agree with you.

Who did that before? Oh yeah! The brothers.

He doesn’t leave before having children with Salem though and oh my god they’re such cuties I'm so upset. They’re also clearly the first four Maidens: girls pure of heart who can wield magic. I don’t think Ozma’s daughters are literally reincarnating though. Rather, I think during one of his lowest points he met four kind sisters and was reminded of his own children; what Humanity is capable of achieving when driven by hope and love. So he gives them his magic and tells a story that further reinforces the connection in his own mind. Every time a Maiden is created there’s a little piece of his girls still living on.

Which puts an entirely new spin on how much he cared for Pyrrha… and how difficult it must be seeing Cinder wield that power.

Ozma tries to sneak his girls out during the night, but Salem finds them. Here we finally see how the grimm pool twisted her. It’s not just a nebulous “oh we should destroy people who don’t agree with us,” now we—and Ozpin—see first hand what a magical appetite for destruction creates. It has you attacking your husband while your children stand directly beside him; burning him to death while he tries to talk.

Yeah. Regardless of whether or not we think Salem is responsible for how she got here, the fact remains that she has to be stopped. A force like that can’t exist among Humanity.

Oh, and for the record? This is why Ozpin has trust issues. Even putting aside all the other times he’s been betrayed, the first time he spilled his secrets to someone he trusted, this is what it ends with.

And Yang is yelling about how he hasn’t shared shit with them. His own wife murdered him and their kids when he told this story and you literally just pulled out your weapon. Yeah, I’m sure Ozpin is feeling real comfortable right now.

We see some of the lives he’s lived since then. Old men just trying to get by, younger men who drown everything with alcohol (no wonder Ozpin doesn’t criticize Qrow for his drinking), but also men who keep moving forward and try to make a difference. Dadpin creates the cane—and I really like the idea that he did that so there’d be no more killing. Like Kenshin’s reverse blade sword or the Doctor’s screwdrivers. You might need a weapon in a war, but you don’t necessarily need one that kills. Ozma has seen (and experienced) enough death already.

Ozma finds peace with his hosts, learning to live among them instead of fighting them, and he hopes he can achieve the same sort of cooperation with the rest of Humanity. So he finds the relic of knowledge and asks the three most important questions:​

Where are the other relics? 

What are their powers?

How do I defeat Salem?

Jinn’s answer to the last question? “You can’t.”

It’s hardly the hopeless situation that the last frame paints it as though. As I said last time, jinns and genies are notorious for twisting wishes or taking questions too literally. So though that perhaps adds a grain of salt to all that we’ve learned today, it also means that Ozma’s initial question may have been too specific. “How do I defeat Salem?” You don’t. Not alone.

It reminds me of (minor spoilers!) Castlevania, where Big Bad meets Big Good and Big Bad wants to know why they think anything has changed. After all, you couldn’t defeat me before.

Big Good: “I was alone before.”

(Seriously please watch that show it's great.)

But that’s RWBY. From the Beacon teams to this entire volume talking about trust, cooperation is the key to survival. For reasons both personal and practical Ozpin has been fighting this war primarily on his own, like the God of Light willed him to, but that’s just another manipulative distraction. Saving Humanity is not Ozpin’s sole responsibility and even if he thinks it is, going it alone will never work. But with Team RWBY and company? Now he stands a chance.

I’m hoping now that the end of RWBY sees the destruction of the grimm and Salem (either completely or just her destructive half) with the acknowledgement that Humanity will never find paradise… but they can keep striving to make things better. The relics are destroyed, the Gods can no longer be called, and these creations live out the rest of their existence without cowering in any being’s shadow.

I’d like that for them.

So yeah. That’s the takeaway. The Gods are dicks. Direct all that visceral hatred towards them instead of Ozpin. I’d like that too.

See you next week!

Additional Notes

So when does Ozma change to Ozpin? He seems to have been Ozma for all of his reincarnations up until the one we originally thought of as Ozpin—unless Jinn is just picking a name and sticking to it. Still, I wonder when and why that syllable changed.

A couple of other fans have pointed out that the markings we see around Salem’s room look like an incomplete version of Jaune’s symbol—the one that would have been facing outwards on his shield when Tyrian says that Jaune interests him. It could be that Jaune is a direct descendant from the revamped version of Salem’s kingdom. The kind of person that Ozpin might have a soft spot for and let into his school even though he can’t fight yet…

I enjoy the twist on “ever after” here: Salem wanted to be with Ozma for forever—he wanted the same in the afterlife—and they both technically got what they wanted, just in the most horrific way possible.

The God of Darkness moves the same way the Nuckelavee does. Creepy.

Ozma is destroyed by the God of Light in the same manner that Cinder killed Pyrrha. Hmm…

Jinn says that “fate led [Salem] back” to the grimm pool, which is another odd mention of fate in a world where the Gods are canonically fallible.

“The brothers’ grimm”—excellent line.

I’m kinda bummed that the Faunus theory didn’t pan out. The one where Ozpin accidentally created them while figuring out how to turn people into animals lol.

So magic is inherited even if the rest of the world doesn’t have it… is that connected to semblances somehow? Because they still seem pretty magic-y to me. I hope we get an explanation of how those abilities tie into Humanity 2.0 this volume.  

[galvesharmaine]

In a nutshell, this passage is about holding on for me, that if we only hold on despite the trials, we will soon see the glory of Jesus Christ.

A few years ago, I attended a talk of Fr. Syquia. The audio was bad but I got one lasting sentence from it: God doesn’t like siguristas.

At that time, I applied it in terms of occultism. How we loved believing in superstition, in paganistic beliefs, in the horoscope, in what will bring luck. We have a Sto. Nino in our altar and beside it is the feng shui waving cat. We have so much devotion to Mama Mary and yet we say, wala naman mawawala kung susundin mo.

This behavior is being sigurista. We want to make sure we have covered all the bases. So we throw in all kinds of beliefs just to cushion us so no bad luck, or what should be called hardships, will happen.

God hates siguristas because 1) occultism breaks the first very commandment: You shall not have other gods before Me. And 2) this shows how we lack faith in Him.

How can you completely surrender your whole life to Him if there’s a safety net? How can you say you are really a disciple of Jesus when you have others gods? And how do you prove yourself worthy of His glory if you don’t allow things to happen to you?

It is Thursday today as I am writing this, I am in a good mood even though my rhinitis is still badly pestering me. And I’m thinking about this quarantine, how, if I think about it, I’m actually not that bothered by it. I should be. Our family business from which I get my allowance isn’t doing that well. It’s like I had a 50% salary cut. My tenant just moved out, the proceeds of which I use to pay for the car I bought early this year. But I’m not that freaking out.

In business, sigurista is a very good character trait. Being sigurista is being conservative. And I was a very sigurista businessperson. I think I also applied that discipline in my life. I became very sigurista as a person as well. Everything was careful, everything was anticipated, every problem had to be nipped in the bud before it becomes too problematic, everything had to be controlled.

Until one day, all that neatly organized, obsessive compulsive sigurista life became pointless.

When the lockdown was first announced I, if I can be honest, liked it. Our world has become too complicated, it needs to shut down. It needed to go back to basic, it needed to go back to its roots.

It became pretty lonely for a time but then something always comes up and it’s going to be ok again. I would get depressed, I would freak out, I would get angry. I would sometimes worry myself silly deep into the night. But all in all, I’m more contented than any of those combined.

Before this pandemic, I kept praying for something, and no matter what, no matter how I pray for it everyday, nothings happens. It was the same stress day in and day out. And as much as I wanted to get out of it, I didn’t know how. During one of my prayers, I realized or maybe the Holy Spirit whispered to me, don’t you still get it? You never have to ask for anything for yourself because God always gives you what you need even without asking. And it’s true, He really does.

I remember when I was much younger, when I was more innocent and less arrogant, I never prayed for myself. I always prayed for other people. My belief was He will just give me what I need when I need it.

I’ve gone back to that old self, now the only thing I pray for myself is forgiveness for the day’s trespasses.

Still I experience trials. I experience tremendous trials. Sometimes my trials are so farfetched, my shrink would say, hay sharmaine, the things you get yourself into.

When I experience these trials, now, I let it happen. I accept it, I take it in, I live through the question, as one poet would say.

It’s hard to swallow sometimes. I clench my fist sometimes. But I would offer it to Him. Give these sufferings virtue. I just need to hold on.

When the time comes I want to go to heaven. I want to meet God. I want to, as the passage lyrically explained, rejoice in the glory of being with God.