#rwby v7 enemy of trust

[fadedneonzzz]

Another Bleach inspired art piece by @Mikururun on twitter, this time of Winter.

[dextixer]

The ending of Volume 9 proves that RWBY is not about hope or acceptance, it is about meritless wish fulfillment.

Often have the topics of "consequences", of RWBY having "protagonist centered morality" and many other discussions surrounding team RWBY, and the plots inability to ever show them as being wrong. They might fail, but they are never wrong, and anyone who disagrees with them is instantly the enemy.

A lot of Fantasy stories at the end of the day are about hope. They are about the hero defeating a great evil and saving the day. This can take many forms, but unless a story truly aims for a tragedy or a more grimdark setting, hope always remains almost a constant companion to such stories.

The heroes fail, sometimes due to the enemy, sometimes due to their own failures, othertimes due to things that are outside their control. They can lose hope, and in fact, many stories traditionally have characters lose hope in their darkest hour. Only for it to be a set-up to some kind of an uplifting scene, or even an arc during which hope is restored.

Many fans of RWBY love to claim that RWBY is about hope, and admonish us critics for being "mean" or wanting a grimdark story. What these fans fail to realize however is something very simple...

What they are seeing is wish fulfillment.

In the last episode of V9, after Ruby reaches her lowest point. What is she told? That she is perfect the way she is. That everyone fails at some point. Ordinarily that would not be a bad lesson. But the thing with failure is that while it is inevitable, if the failure is caused by ones own actions that means that a mmistake was made, that a person is NOT perfect.

When in Volume 4, Ruby got Qrow stabbed by Tyrion by interfering in a fight that Qrow HIMSELF told her not to get into. Was she perfect? No. She made a mistake. But it was a mistake that came out of her selfish desire to play hero.

When in Volume 6 Ruby decided to steal an airship instead of doing literally anything else. Was that her being perfect? No. She made a mistake. A mistake that once again came out of a selfish desire, this time because she was told "No".

When in Volume 7 Ruby is trusted completely and utterly and given anything she wished for, a license, training from pros, upgrades to weaponry, unconditional trust of plans of national security. Only to then go out of her way to hide information and eventually betray the person who gave it all to her? She made a mistake, all because she decided that she will save everyone, even if it might kill everyone.

The first part of the wish fulfillment is that these things are not even acknowledged as mistakes. They are seen as "good" things, as "heroic" things, even by a lot of the fanbase.

The second part of the wish fulfillment is the lack of consequences. At the end of V4, Qrow is perfectly okay. In Volume 7 her decision to steal an airship is just ignored. In Volume 8 Ironwood is turned into a full on cackling saturday morning cartoon villain, so there is absolutely no need to even think about Rubys actions in V7 or her betrayal.

The ending of V9 takes the cake though.

The end of V9 has us see Vacuo with ships of various makings in the air above it. Many RWBY fans cheered! Look, Ruby was right! Ruby sent the message to everyone and the entire Remnant is now united! Suck it critics who said that her plan was bad! SHE WON!

Of course, these people fail to miss that they are cheering wish fulfillment.

Back in V8 the plan to warn the kingdoms was first hatched by Ironwood, and eventually stopped by none other than the "neighborhood hero" Robyn. Did the fanbase praise Ironwoods idea? No. They instead praised Robyn for stopping it.

Important part of it however was that once the message went out, it would create panic, thus Ironwood was planning to assist all of the states one by one to repel any Grimm incursions caused by such a message...

Yet Ruby went with this plan anyways... And nothing bad happened.

The narrative LITERALLY bent itself backwards to give Ruby a victory.

The SAME exact thing happened back in V8. Rubys plan of evacuating Mantle had no end point! It was simply evacuate Mantle to Atlas and then... There was no other plan. And while Atlas was suffering and its soldiers dying, Ruby drank tea in a mansion. The whole point of Atlas leaving without Mantle was to avoid getting swarmed by Grimm, to leave BEFORE it is too late to leave.

Now tell me dear readers, let us say that Mantle is evacuated into Atlas. What then? The Grimm have ALREADY reached Atlas. Its too late. Congratulations, the plan results in EVERYONE dying.

But wait, it does not. Because at the last second a GOD ITEM is revealed to be able to just portal everyone out.

That is not hope!

Hope is not the protagonist putting hundreds of thousands of people in danger with no plan to get them out of danger, only for the hand of the writers to come down and make them all survive.

Hope is not the protagonist taking reckless actions against their allies because they know that everyone will forgive them or that the allies will turn evil the next episode.

Hope is NOT the protagonists doing something that THE NARRATIVE says is impposible to do without consequences, only for those consequences to be deleted by the hand of the writer.

What HOPE at the end of the day is the protagonist keeping the fight on regardless of the odds, either to their heroic and expected death, or at a small but KNOWN chance of victory.

THAT is what separates hope from wish fulfillment.

Team RWBY being able to do anything and everything because the writers will give them a victory regardless of anything is not hope. And it will never be.

And it isnt Over

In case anyone has forgotten, Salem now controls the relic of creation. A thing that could be used to create anything for the sake of destroying ANY army that Salems enemies could wield. Let me ask you all. Is it not logical that Salem could just create a meteor shower and just destroy any and all airships over Vacuo? She has a literal god item that the protagonist gave to her by opposing Ironwood.

But i can tell you for a fact that she will never use it. The failure of losing the staff will never matter. Team RWBY will win regardless of how sensible or logical it is. The writers will make up a reason for why the staff doesnt work, or for why Salem does not want to use it.

And when that happens, be ready for RWBY fans to tell us all how stupid we are.

[silvermags]

RWBY Reaction Part 1

So! Storytime: When the RT shutdown was announced, I was of course very sad, but I also got anxious, because a very dear friend of mine, @ajelementus had previously expressed the desire to watch RWBY with me, and at the announcement I was worried that we would not be able to, since at the time we didn't know if RWBY would be coming back. So, we found a time, and we marathoned all the way through RWBY over the course of about four days, finishing just ahead of the website deletion. I spent the whole time writing down our reactions, and now, in honor of RWBY being so back (!) I'm releasing them. This will be part 1, covering volumes 1-6. I'll do a second post later with V7-Beyond, and maybe I'll even release the RWBYxJustice League reactions too!

Actual reactions under the cut. Important note, I had already watched RWBY before, but AJ never had. My reactions will be black, AJ's green, quotes from the show in bolded red, and any other notes in purple italics. With that, let's get to it!

-AJ twigged to Ruby's reference fast.

-I forgot how much of a piece of work Weiss is.

-“No one will know we're working together” “Sweetheart, everyone knows you're working together.”

-“I drink milk” “There we go.”

-”I'm pretty sure they'd actually intervene.”   “Let's hope.”

-”YoU wiLL bE fAlLiNg”

-AJ’s current favorites:  Ruby and Jaune, but "Ren and Nora's dynamic is fun."

-About Pyrrha:  “Good shot.”

-Ruby Weiss partnership “Mwahaha.”  “Seems fitting.”

-“Attacked out of turn”  I forgot about that.  Man Weiss was sheltered.

-Yang watching Ruby “You and I know what that was.”  “My baby sister’s doing it!”

-”Why would you ask if they’ve been discriminated against?  It's like asking if anyone's experienced racism!”

-This is pretty humiliating for Cardin, Jaune's not even trained and he's holding his own better than him.

-I love Penny 

-”Wait, you weren't supposed to know she's a faunus yet.” “I'm not?  But her last name, it makes sense she's part beast.”

-”I like Blake's music.”

-Before docks fight “I can't wait to see what Penny does because I know she's gonna be OP.” 

-After: “I was right.”

-”Is she an android?” “You keep figuring things out way faster than you should.”

-“There's plenty of fish in the sea.” In unison: “Hint.  Hint.”  “He'll get a clue eventually.”

-“I've made friends that will last a lifetime.” Me internally:  aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

-AJ’s favorites as of the dance:  Blake and Pyrrha.

-”She's gonna lose because of the shoes, isn't she?”

-About the white fang “They are very bad shots.” “Although I suppose if they did hit we might not notice because of aura.”  “True.”

-“this doesn't make sense.”  Three seconds later “this doesn't make sense!”

-Blake kicks Torchwick’s head.  “Good shot.”  “He deserves that.”

-During the V2 finale “I don't trust them [Atlas] one bit.  They're gonna be the enemy, mark my words.”

-”I feel like there's something about the Grimm we're missing.”

-”I don't trust him.”  Ironwood “You have to trust me.” “I don't!”

-”The Amity colosseum flies.”  “Until it falls.  That's how it usually goes.”

-“I don't know who to trust.  These people are either evil or really bad at not being ominous.”

-”Silver, why are they being so stupid.”  

-”I don't want her to change. They're cute.  Don't ruin it.  Aaaaa!”

-“Wait, is this a show where people die?” (I laughed so hard at this.)

-We had to skip over Penny's death.  I told her what happened, but it was too much.

-“Grimm attack incoming” “Oh good, everyone's feeling super emotionally stable right now.”

-”They do not have enough airships for the evacuation.” 

-How did they get the Grimm on the airships?

-”Roman is way too casual to be participating in total civilizational collapse.”  “I get the feeling he doesn't know the big picture.  Then again, he's participating.”

-”Aha, they [the robots] ARE the problem.  Just not the way I thought.  Go Ruby go!”

-When the dragon emerged “That's great.”  (The most sarcastic I have ever heard her.)

-AJ’s least favorite character as of v3e11: Mercury.

-“Lie, steal, cheat, and survi-” “Well that was unexpected.  It was so random!”

-about Adam: “creep”

-”Well we're just dropping like flies.”

-AJ is doubtful that Oz is dead.

-In the tiniest voice I've ever heard from her:  “Pyrrha.”

-Wow that animation jump is bigger than I remembered.

-”I'm glad Ruby teamed up with Team Juniper.”

-Ooh boy, here she comes.

-I don't know what's wrong with Tyrian,  but it is not a small thing.

-Seriously, what is Oscar doing?  And why? 

-“I don't think that's gonna work.”  “big mistake.”

-“Right, then I will” Run for it.

-I forgot how great this music is.

-Me @ Jacques Schnee:  Blech.

-AJ about ironwood:  “I like him now, I was wrong, but I was right about the robots!”

-I reiterate:  whatever is wrong with Tyrian is not a small thing.

-Jacques is a terrible person.

-”Weiss needs to go to Ironwood.”

-As of now, Jacques is riding in AJ’s least favorite list, along with Tyrian.  Favorites are Jaune and Ruby again.

-”Qrow and Tyrian fight is cool.”

-”It's the shire moment.  [For Oscar]”

-Baby Ren is adorable and this episode tears my heartstrings.

-AJ doesn't think that the flashback in Kuroyuri has the characters' accents matching Ren.

-Poor baby Nora

-“You didn't drag us along, you gave us the courage to follow you.” “I knew I'd like this guy.”

-I'm literally crying, I forgot how much Ren losing his parents hurt.

-I hate the nuckelavee so, so much.  It makes the WORST sounds.

-“Go Nora!  Only close one of your boyfriend's hands around his ancestral weapon so he doesn't cut himself!”

-Weiss escapes:  “finally!”

-Watts really did just put his feet on the table, didn't he.

-AJ thinks Shay’s name is great.  I think he's a sleazeball.

-You startled my dog, Mr. Pilot man.

-Oscar's switch is creepy.

-AJ agrees with Nora.  

-I think Weiss would literally rather die than go back to Jacques, which is fair and valid.

-Oscar has jumped to AJ’s favorite.

-I love the old West music they keep giving Yang.  On a related note, AJ burst out laughing when Shay said he's dead.

-“I've known that Vernal is spring since the first time we saw her.”  (Me internally:  are you sure?)

-Qrow's list.  “That's not a good sign.”

-Raven’s voice is really nasal.

-I cannot believe a nomadic bandit tribe is hauling around all this crap.

-“Raven is a nosey spy.”

-“There's revelations left and right.”

-It's strange and amazing seeing Weiss defend Blake.

-“Someone didn't have her aura up and got the wind knocked out of her when she got divebombed.”

-“Oh look, he took off his armor.” “What was he saying about…”

-Watching this knowing all the songs is so cool, I'm catching way more details than the first time.

-“The return of the gun-chucks!”

-“Fennick is not so bright.”

-I love that Blake's crisscross straps are a Menagerie style.

-“[Cinder] needs to go down.”

-There's something wrong with Hazel too.

-AJ has called the healing semblance nearly ten minutes early.  Best guesser I've ever met.

-“That's a perfect semblance for Jaune.”

-After the raven reveal, “Should have gone with my original instinct.  We didn't know about the maidens then, but there was something.”

-Forever Fall playing when Jaune says he still believes Pyrrha!

-“I love how [Jaune's] semblance is what Pyrrha did for him.”

-“Why would you pose on something that's actively falling?”  “She can fly.”

-“It's interesting how there's layers of villains.  We don't like Raven, but we really don't like Cinder.”

-”What the heck is up with Emerald’s understanding of bones?”

-I forgot about Dee and Dudley.

-I didn't realize how early the diagonal checkerboard pattern showed up.  I think I saw it clear back at initiation.  Something to keep in mind for v9

-Cinder appears alive “Awwww”.

-“I was wondering what was up with the lady in the last season.”

-I never noticed that og Ozma sounds just like Oscar 

-Me and AJ @ the brother of light:  “what the heck?”

-Oh goodness, the unison guards.

-Ruby's theme in the background of the silver eye conversation, followed by “This'll Be the Day.”  So cool!

-“Emerald needs to put on a freaking shirt.”

-“They were all searching the city for him, and he literally just went shopping and came back to cook dinner.”

-Watching Lost was emotional for us.

-As of v6e9 AJ's favorite character would be Pyrrha if she was alive but is currently Oscar.

-We decided it would be easier and include less ads if we just found supercuts on youtube for the Adam vs. Blake and Yang and Cordovan fights, so some stuff here may be out of order.

-“Man Adam is a creep.”

-Me @ Adam every time he opens his mouth:  gagging noises.

-“Well, I think he's dead.”

-“An impressive mech.”

-“What is even the point of this [for cordovan]?” "Ego?”

-I feel like if you hadn't brought the giant robot out to try and beat up a bunch of teenagers, it would still be operational to fight the giant monster.

-“Oh boy, this one has a breath weapon.”   “That's no fair.”

-“Better go, before [Cordovan] changes her mind again.”  

-“All these floating things make me nervous.”

-I forgot they put the northern lights behind Atlas.  So pretty!

-“Oh boy, now she has flying monkeys!”   “I love all the things they throw in, they're fun.  Bad, but fun.”

[rosekushina]

Everything GREAT about RWBY Volume 7 that Volume 8 Completely Ruined (A Retrospect / Salty Opinion) 

You can disagree with me if you like, but everything below is 100% canon :)

~~~

V7: Maiden Powers recognize Penny as a “real girl” even though she’s a robot and has the aura of a man (her father) - an incredible subversion of the Pinocchio trope that validates Penny and sets up her journey as a Maiden

V8: Penny is turned human against her will and DIES (again), the powers transfer to someone else - copy/paste of Pinocchio

V7: Salem is moments away and fast approaching, so the heroes have literal SECONDS to come up with a plan before she invades Atlas. Salem arrives at the end of the season, ready to strike

V8: Salem WAITS in her whale and doesn’t attack right away, completely retconning the urgency and stakes at the end of Volume 7

V7: Ruby, Blake(?), and Nora want to help Mantle the whole Volume. Team RWBY is angry Ironwood is leaving Mantle behind and want to do something about it - have no plan but are willing to try anyway (very noble but naive)

V8: Ruby abandons Mantle in episode 1 and steals Ironwood’s idea for Amity, Blake and Nora go with her. Yang helps out in Mantle for one episode before abandoning it (everyone abandons Mantle, Salem doesn’t even attack Mantle)

V7: The Staff can only be used for one purpose at a time and if someone else uses it, the previous creation will disappear, foreshadowing that Atlas will inevitably fall and Salem will get the Relic. Ironwood establishes the Staff is keeping Amity up and that the Gravity Dust is a cover-up story for the public

V8: Gravity Dust is apparently holding up Atlas anyway so they have time to use the Staff and evacuate people before it crashes. Team RWBY PURPOSEFULLY destroy a whole continent and takes the Relic out of the Vault for no reason (they do Salem's job for her)

V7: Ironwood wants to save all of Atlas’s citizens, Mantle citizens already evacuated, TWO RELICS = saving Remnant (keeping them away from Salem), and a Maiden. Wants to save who he can in the VERY short time he can, knows that in war there are consequences and you cannot save everyone. They cannot beat Salem so why risk his entire city/two Relics in a battle he knows he cannot win? (Salem is immortal). A HERO/war veteran who recognizes the cost of war

V8: Ironwood kills his own citizens for no reason, threatens to bomb his own city for no reason AFTER Salem is already defeated, and only cares about the “plot of land” that Atlas is on, the upper class, and technology. Turned into a one-dimensional antagonist because he disagrees with the protagonists 

V7: Ironwood sacrifices his own arm to successfully stop a bad guy in the greatest act of heroism the show has ever seen (“Hero” plays in the background)

V8: Ironwood "losing limbs represents him losing his humanity" and how he “has sacrificed everyone else”. Now has a Semblance that he cannot control that can potentially control his mind against his will (never brought up and can be attributed to mental health)

V7: Ruby VS Ironwood - different ideologies on how to save people, but neither of them are wrong. Will they come together and stop their common enemy (Salem), or give-in to fear and become divided? No right or wrong answer - complicated, morally grey, trolley-problem

V8: Ruby denounces Ironwood to the world as she preaches about being united, Ironwood is the big-bad of the season and dies a villain while Salem is right there (common enemy). Team RWBY’s way of thinking was right all along even though they only came up with a plan after Salem was defeated and ended up evacuating anyway, the same thing Ironwood wanted to do from the beginning. Do not acknowledge the parallels between them and how team RWBY did more harm than good - Ren tries to bring this up but is later forced to apologize and treated as wrong even though he was spitting straight facts

V7: Ruby lies to Ironwood and gets called out for it, arrested and loses Ironwood’s trust (immediate consequences of her actions). Ruby did the same thing Ozpin did (lie with good intentions), which they got mad at him for but now she is put in his shoes - start of some great character development for Ruby!

V8: Ruby’s lie is never brought up again and there are no long-term consequences for her actions. She gets away scott-free and never admits to her mistakes. Ruby never realizes that she did the same thing Ozpin did and shows no empathy toward him, makes OZPIN apologize to them while Emerald (a bad guy) sits on the steps and watches that happen

V7: Ruby is put in the same position as Ironwood - who can you save in the short amount of time you have ? Has to learn what it truly means to be a leader in a time of war

V8: Ruby sits and drinks tea for half the Volume wondering what to do and then destroys an entire continent on purpose and loses two Relics in the span of two days - does not acknowledge that Ironowod had a point

V7: Salem cannot be beaten, how will they fight her and her Whale?

V8: Oscar blows her and the Whale up half-way through the Volume after Salem does absolutely nothing the whole season. Ozpin now has a magical bomb in his staff he could have used any time

V7: There is NO WAY to save everyone

V8: The Staff has the power to do literally anything so let's create portals to get everyone out

V7: Vacuo is the next target

V8: Team RWBY dump the entire population of Atlas and Mantle into Vacuo, causing a refugee crisis with the knowledge that Salem is heading there next (Emerald knows this and is on their side now, she would have told them)

V7: Ironwood instantly trusts team RWBY with his entire plan, gives them back the Relic, gives them their huntsman licenses. Meanwhile the girls do not trust their allies (good-guys) and lie to them and go behind their backs and betray their trust - a good message on trust the girls will eventually have to learn

V8: Trust Emerald and tell her everything about their plan, trust Hazel with the password to the Lamp. “Trust is a risk” now after they didn’t trust a GOOD GUY for an entire Volume (hypocrites)

V7: Qrow is indirectly responsible for Clover’s death but takes it out on Ironwood in his anger, wants to fight Ironwood and probably kill him in rage. Probably lets himself be arrested so he can get closer to Ironwood

V8: Qrow gets over his grudge and never confronts Ironwood (we all wanted this to happen right?) after sitting out in prison the whole Volume. Doesn't seem to care that his nieces are out there facing Salem as he's in jail

V7: One question left in the Lamp, but they cannot summon Jynn unless they actually have a question this time (via. Volume 6)

V8: Oscar shows Jynn to Hazel and Emerald, and she lets them go without asking a question

V7: Weiss’ mother tells her not to forget about her brother

V8: Weiss sticks a sword in her brother’s face and only thanks him after he proves himself useful 

V7: Fall of Beacon 2.0 promised

V8: Battle of Atlas lasts one episode while the girls drink tea and watch it happen, none of the main characters (or villains for that matter) take part in the battle (it is pushed to the background)

V7: Salem vs Ozpin epic fight/reunion approaching

V8: Salem and Ozpin say two sentences to each other and do not discuss their pasts and/or fight (Oscar is the one who fights Salem)

V7: Amity is NOT finished so they cannot get a message out

V8: Amity IS finished it just needs more dust to launch

V7: Oscar is separated from the group at the end of V7, will the heroes get to him before Salem does??

V8: The heroes instantly find Oscar in the first few minutes of Volume 8, but then Salem gets him anyway (what was the point)

V7: Every single bad-guy ALIVE in the show is present at the end of the Volume

V8: Mercury and Tyrian leave half-way through the Volume after doing nothing, Ironwood is now the main villain even though Salem is right there. Ruby never comes face-to-face with Salem.

~~~

Volume 7 was (still is?) my favorite Volume. It wasn't perfect, it had flaws, but for what it's worth it gave us an INCREDIBLE set-up for what should have been the best Volume ever (Volume 8). I was beyond excited when Volume 8 came out - we were going to see legendary fights! Ruby was going to get some much-needed character development. But instead, the show completely fumbled the ball HARD, ignored everything amazing it had established the previous Volume, and completely buffered every theme, fight, character, and story-line it had going for it. :( As a fan, and as a Screenwriting Major, this is just disappointing. I'm more sad than I am angry, and this leads me to believe that everything I loved about Volume 7 was created by accident.

[onewomancitadel]

(same anon as before) im glad i opened the floodgates lol! I think another interesting aspect that comes from knightfall + the pair being genre savvy has to do with how rhodes betrayal of cinders trust is kind of reminiscent of pyrrha sending jaune away, because in that scene she also betrays his trust. but unlike with rhodes, pyrrha does it to actually save jaunss life, so as genre awareness goes you have jaune constantly trying to die/get himself killed but not being allowed to (the Hero) vs cinder constantly getting beaten but still surviving everything (the unkillable Dragon), they are literal cockroaches in the context of RWBY as a story because for all their 'insignificance' as characters they literally*cant* be written out

Someone letting me talk about the Haven sequence when I'm fearful that I obsess over it too much is great. Thanks for enabling me, anon.

I really like your perspective here, and I especially like that parallel of Rhodes-Cinder and Pyrrha-Jaune, especially because the way Cinder touches Pyrrha when she kills her is the way Rhodes touches Cinder. There is definitely meant to be some sort of a dark echo there - then you've got the fact that both Rhodes and Pyrrha are the 'fallen' Huntsman/Huntress archetype, the failed idealism, because Rhodes effectively betrayed/condemned Cinder, and well - Pyrrha died. Pyrrha 'failed', even if her tragedy does mean something, the one who survived is Jaune. The guy who sucks.

I'm not sure that Cinder is necessarily constantly beaten - I don't think her plans always necessarily succeed in the way that you think they're meant to, but she's also an inadvertent agent of necessary pain/growth. But even the situation with, say, V7 (and V8), Cinder basically wins. She flees at the end of the fight with Winter and Penny because of Ruby's silver eyes (and - well - Penny's moment of compassion has given her ultimate power). Her failures (and her fleeing) is symbolically meaningful, partly because - well - I think she is meant to transform into a heroine in the story, so really her failure as a villain is her success as a hero (one day, Cinder won't flee Ruby's silver eyes; her failure to secure the Maiden powers except for the Fall Maiden's is her redemption).

That relationship to success with Jaune is... basically mirrored. He's a 'failure' but he's more successful in this story for that reason. I mean, this is the story where from brokenness comes wholeness, a character like Pyrrha (unless she was severely broken at the Fall of Beacon and stopped being a Huntress for most of the story, until near the end) can't survive. (I do think it's more complex than this, because Pyrrha can assert herself on non-Fall Maiden power terms, but for the sake of this post I'll leave it here. People get sensitive about the Pyrrha topic, so I don't want to come off callous).

The idea that their failures are actually their successes is connected. The idea that their enemy is actually their ummm true love is more of that dramatic irony and I adore it.

But to circle back to that genre awareness - say, in the case of Cinder, she's pretty set on the idea that fairytales are bullshit because hers is an ostensibly broken one - and with V9, Jaune knows he couldn't 'even be the make-believe hero', but he can be the real one, the one who he truly is, that can see past the false stakes of the story. It actually makes so much sense, it's completely fucked up and I hate it.

Of course what I really mean is I love it, because it's so good it makes me angry. It perfectly encapsulates the ideas of the story and perfectly explains their characters and their role in the story and perfectly fucking justifies everything. Cinder's 'damning moment' with Pyrrha is actually the seed of redemption because it ties her to Jaune. Jaune is meant to have a Fall Maiden love interest. It's painful and it's beautiful.

Thank you anon, this has been a great back and forth. It's been so interesting to hear your thoughts, and I love that Rhodes-Pyrrha parallel you pointed out.

[malice-death]

RWBY Song Analysis: Winter vs. The Path to Isolation

Now I know what some of you are probably thinking, "The Path to Isolation is a Weiss Schnee song and has nothing to do with her sister.

But after looking at the deleted V9 epilogue, I can clearly see that this song can work for V7-V9 Winter.

And here's the reason why.

To start it off, Winter's return in Volume 7 was something that I couldn't wait to see, considering she is one of my favorite characters.

Winter as a whole is a very serious character, trying her hardest to keep up with the people around her, and make sure no one sees any sort of weakness, or disloyalty to Ironwood and the whole of Atlas.

Now when push came to shove during the volumes, She had to make choices she wasn't proud of nor dejected the orders in certain areas.

Even worse was probably all the deaths caused by the things around them.

Back of course this is about how V10 Winter suits "The Path to Isolation" now.

"It starts with the unexpected loss of something dear."

Already got one notch on the board. At the very end of V8, Winter witnessed the loss of her dear sister, Weiss.

"The warmth that comforted and cradled. Just disappears."

This one can pertain to Penny in a way, another person she lost, who physically disappeared, someone who sought to make sure she knew her life was valued.

"And in its place, there's nothing, just than endless empty hole."

Winter clearly shows how she felt in the deleted animatic, speaking on a more negative value, and really doesn't know how to cope properly with the grief she is feeling."

"The light that showed the way is gone and darkness takes control."

This one goes to Winter talking Ruby in a way, considering to everyone who came because of her video, but since she is dad, Winter doesn't think she can believe in such a voice, allowing the darkness in her heart take control.

"Bitterness and anger, are quick to fill the void."

"The path of isolation is littered with the dreams that lay destroyed."

While studying the song, this line alone was harder to think about, cause in the original context of thinking about Wiess, you can clearly see where this fits into her story.

But Winter's I had to rewatch a lot of the series to see where such things could take place in V10 potentially.

In the end I decided that this was talking about the hope that Winter could've felt after defeating Ironwood, and "saving" Atlas/Mantle, but because of how the cards were dealt, those thoughts could be ruined.

"The cold seems to grow in my soul, its consuming me."

"Confused and I'm losing myself in the storm."

This one goes out to fighting physically and for fighting emotionally.

Winter spent a long time forgetting about how she felt about the things around her, always just following orders. But when everything happened, when everyone fell, and with Ironwood dead, she has no choice but to face the things that she never considered before.

"Growing jaded, being pushed, I'm unraveling."

"Can't find myself when I'm constantly pushed to conform."

Before Weiss was suffering at her father's whim and will, it was Winter who had that heiress seat, who was being pushed around to make sure she always followed through on everything.

Think about how she speaks, how the solider grows cold when she knew that she could have others standing there beside her.

"Enemies surround me, but the worst appear as friends."

"Liars and pretenders, only seek to reach their ends."

Winter has known many people, but Ironwood was someone she trusted, someone she knew for the longest time, but to see him falter to see him make orders that she couldn't approve of morally, was breaking her, making her remember all the things she probably to get away from such ideals.

And when you're in the military its harder to know friend from foe.

"Everything is breaking, right before my eyes."

"Looking in the mirror, I see someone that I don't recognize."

When Penny died, and Winter became the Winter Maiden, she didn't get a real chance at goodbye, just like when Weiss fell, she didn't get a proper chance at goodbye.

So, while she stands in the back breaking into pieces, the person, the maiden she sees every time she wakes up wasn't the person she wanted to know or see.

It was still that hard to remember who she was in the end.

"The joy my heart use to know is eluding me."

"Removed and the one thing I feel is alone."

"Smile's faded, and I'm spinning and sinking. I'm weakening."

This one brings us to the V9 epilogue, and how broken and alone Winter is. She stands away from her mother and Qrow, and even when she stands around anyone else, she seems to be at a distance.

"Frozen in solitude, loneliness chills to the bone."

"Memories escaping me, as my heart begins to drain."

"Scars that cover wounds, can't hide the self-inflicted pain."

To be honest, I was thinking that Winter must hide her own scars that she got over the years. And the fact that she decides that she doesn't want everyone back.

She believes that they aren't going to come back.

"Everything my mind wants, in conflict with my heart."

"Fighting back surrender, but every day I'm falling more apart."

Winter as a solider and a sister, and friend as well, but in the world she was born and trained in, she wasn't thinking about those things.

Her mind thinks in orders, while her heart thinks in feelings.

It's one of those things that almost never add up in certain types of military trained induvials.

I was the same sort of way for the first few months in my training.

It can take a lot of time to ease back into your heart.

"Mirror what's this thing that I see?"

"Who is staring back at me?" "A stranger to my heart has filled my mind."

This one goes to Penny and Winter, considering that when a maiden dies a bit of their spirit goes into their next host. Not to process or make a new person, but to give them new perspective on things that they never thought of before.

"Mirror"

"Help Me"

"Who Am I?"

Winter is not Snow White, she is the mirror, the thing that Weiss relied on.

And whose to say that the mirror never quesitoned themselves?" In the end sadly, until V10 comes out all of this is pure speculation.

But personally its my way to celebrate the end of V9, and the hopes of a new Volume on the horizon.

Until next time.

Thank you for reading.

And thank you, my dear Winter Maiden.

[justkarama]

First off ironwood never killed a woman for her powers that's cinder every action ( unless you're referring to v8 which again he wanted penny alive) ironwood took with the exception of him shooting Oscar in v7 made sense and was justified ironwood only started to panic because Salem was coming right at his door step he wasn't prepared to fight her she was right under his nose

The people he trusted openly lied to him and went behind his back ironwood is clearly suffering from PTSD and trauma and fear

He isn't a coward like Leo who immediately folded to Salem function and sold team RWBY out

The Mantle population most of it was in Atlas Salem target is atlas there at war Scarface have to be made team RWBY wanted to stay and risked everything in doing so the relics are in Salem hands now ironwood knew at v7 they couldn't fight they didn't have the resources or the man power team RWBY wanted to stay and call for help despite the fact that they have no concrete plan to actually deal with Salem Mistral has no huntsmen vale is still dealing with the fall of beacon

Vacuo needs it's huntsman the most given the context of their situation team RWBY plan wasn't any better than ironwood it was stay and literally risk everything so they can play hero

Ironwood had material law because Salem forces are able to infiltrate the kingdoms he didn't do it because he was being a dick

He did it because he knew his enemies were there and in hiding

Ironwood actions post shooting Oscar is just straight Saturday morning cartoon villain on his part

But majority of his actions in v7 had context behind it

Ironwood is a tragic hero who fell from grace

The RWDE is obsessed with Ironwood not being let in on Salem's immortality.

Because there's nothing they hate more than women not giving a man the absolute and unquestioning respect he believes he's entitled to from everyone.

[jeevesandcrow]

when you’re on your way home from the club but one of you almost died

[shera-princess-of-power]

Salem drop that clothing brand ASAP that tiddy window look made me SCREAM

[ma-lemons]

Roosterteeth just went oh—Let’s Let EVERYTHING HAPPEN IN A MATTER OF 24 MINUTES

This was so chaotic, but I was so happy with it. Everyone doing such uncharacteristic, and at the same time characteristic things. Weiss having to leave her sister who was going to have them arrested. Qrow and Robyn being arrested. Cinder’s emotions, her losing control. Neo realizing that this partnership thing isn’t going how she planned. PENNY. She... she just did it all. Ren and his emotions, I mean?? And OSCAR. Like... tin man can really went out and shot him and HE DID MAGIC??? I NEED MORE

On another note, I kinda liked seeing Ren break down and say they’re not ready to be Huntsman, because they didn’t finish their training, and they were thrust into this. Ren was crying. He’s literally like... 19. And he’s fighting this huge war, and it seems everyone is up against them. Where are all the adult Huntsmen? All being brainwashed by Ironwood? Turning into his soldiers? I think they ARE Huntsmen; they’ve proved themselves to be over and over again.

As much as I don’t like Cinder, her voice actress went OFF and she just showed off so many emotions and her powers are so cool. So maybe she can stay alive a bit longer. As a treat.

PENNY AND WINTER. THAT WAS MY FAVORITE PART. That fight in the air against Cinder blew my mind. Winter in combat is so cool and Penny... she’s so amazing and I’m so happy she’s making her own choices now. She chose to go with Ruby instead of staying with Ironwood and having to succumb to him now that she’s the Winter Maiden.

I feel so sorry for Weiss. So sorry. She really loves Winter, she does... but her sister is so, so, so far up the general’s behind... its insane. Doesn’t Winter realize this is no different than her father? Jacques was abusive and Ironwood literally uses you, he doesn’t give a crap about you, he just wants you to do as he says. That being said, I’m not saying Tin can man can’t be redeemed, but he’s upsetting me so much (you literally shot a kid... I’m...)

I swear when the gang gets to Vacuo, the headmaster better be nice. PLEASE CAN WE GET A NICE HEADMASTER.

so volume 7 is now one of my favorites. 8/10, had to take some away cause Salem’s here. But RT outdid themselves. The animation, the lighting, the emotion, the PLOT. I’m not one to get upset over every little thing they do, but I’m satisfied with what we got. Rest In Peace Monty and thank you for creating this goodness. THANK YOU RT

*goes in the corner and thinks about it all day*

[oddlyhale]

You gotta love how James is STILL somehow being spun as an evil person in Arrowfell, when he's been doing absolutely NOTHING the whole playthrough.

Seriously, 0 things he has done.

All he's done is act as a quest giver for Team RWBY. Surprisingly he's remained calm and cool-headed the whole time, having a very neutral good presence to everything.

James and most of the V7 cast has taken a backseat in Arrowfell. Team ORNJ is not there - which, good, I'm sick of Jaune. Team RWBY has finally been given the wheel and has driven the bus. Wonky driving but they still got us to the end.

James then shows that he is on the people's side as he confronts Bram at the end of the game, having him arrested and taken away.

After that, James returns to being a neutral dad, congrats the team as he leaves the room.

Lol, trust issues are so funny lmao.

Arrowfell is a world where everything is fine. James Ironwood is a neutral good. The minority is the enemy. Team RWBY still act like pricks.

[goldenart0]

Is it too much to ask to have The Enemy of Trust sheet music so I can’t figure out the fucking key

[dextixer]

The various inconsistencies created by RWBY:Arowfell in regards to V7-8 Atlas.

Many various creations have the ability to grow into something bigger. Into sequels, entire series and even universes. RWBY is no different, RWBY started out as a humble web show, and yet in the RWBYverse we now have Comic Books, Books, video games, some canonical, some not.

The problem with these various works is of course the questions of canonicity when a work is confirmed to be canon to the series rather than a spin-off or an AU. Many various franchises have encountered such problems, RWBY being one of them.

And in this specific thread i would like to cover a few of the inconsistencies i noticed made by RWBY: Arowfell in regards to Atlas in Volumes 7-8.

Important notes

Before going into the inconsistencies i have noticed i first have to address some pre-emptive arguments and make a few notes.

A - CRWBY was behind the writing of RWBY: Arowfell, the writing was directed by Kerry and people from WayForward have said that their writing was approved by RT themselves. I am only doing this to prevent any of the "Well, RT did not know" kind of excuses. Arowfell is also a fully canonical story.

B - This is not a huge world breaking issue. Everyone should keep in mind that this is in my opinion a problem, but it does not break the show in a major way, nor is this a massive failure or anything of the sort. I find this a problem, but not an extreme one.

C - Some allowances will be made due to Arowfell being a game. When analyzing games and the stories they present one has to know when to and how to not talk about game mechanics. For example, in RWBY arowfell you fight against the same "people" many times, the generic humanoid enemies, that is a gameplay thing and not a story thing of there being clones or anything of the sort.

Importance of Consistent Storytelling

So, inconsistencies and why do they matter? They matter because a coherent story flows better and is more easy to follow and understand for the audiences. It also makes it so that the audience can theorize, learn about the setting and be more immersed in it, as they feel that they are learning of the setting.

When storytelling is inconsistent, all of this can be lost. Immersion is lost, things that are learned are now deemed useless because something has replaced them without reason, and the story can become weird and look forced.

One of the main things with writing is that the writer is hidden behind a curtain. Even if a work expresses their opinions, their feelings, their knowledge. It has to look like the work is separated from the writer, that it is a world of its own.

Of course, this is just but a small overview of immersion and its importance in my opinion, if i wanted to talk about it more i would need an entire thread, time to get to the actual analysis.

Mantle

Talking about Mantle, Arowfell is extremely strange with many choices. First of all, there is, as far as i remember, not a single mention of Robyn, nor the happy huntresses. Its a bit weird because the game is full of newly created OC characters and almost the entire secondary cast of V7-8 are present. But HH and Robyn are conspicuous with their absence. This is definitely a minor thing, i just wanted to mention it.

Although, Arowfell does impact the perception of the choice of Blake and Yang to trust Robyn with information about Amity. Because in Arowfall most of the people they trust end up betraying them, so them trusting Robyn afterwards after even more betrayals seems extremelly strange

The a lot bigger things are in regards to the hole in the wall plotline in Volume 7-8. We are lead to believe in V7 that Ironwood redirects supplies to the Amity project instead of fixing the wall. That is alright. The problems start to occur when Arowfell seemingly establishes an entire criminal underground in Atlas, smugglers, mercenaries some of which are probably huntsmen level. Its very strange because Robyn and anyone else could have used these resources to fix or at least mitigate the damage created by the hole in the wall, especially since team RWBY do not even arrest the smuggler that they encounter in the game.

Whats more is that this Amoncio Glass could have easily helped people like Watts, Tyrian and even Jaques when Jaques goes full evil. And yet his absence in the show is huge since in RWBY: Arowfell, Weiss herself notes that Glass is kind of a big deal.

A similar thing partially applies to the elections and the entire work system of Atlas/Mantle. We hear about the supposed abuses by the SDC and the like, and yet Arowfell establishes that Mantle has unions that would work to prevent such things. The same goes with Jaques talking to Watts about how he wants to fire his workers but cant due to wanting the votes. And once again, should an union not prevent such firings from happening in the first place? It just seems so strange how Arowfell establishes existence of unions in Mantle, and then none of that is in the main show which just ignore that.

The Faunus

What also is extremely strange and inconsistent is how Arowfell seems to bring up the whole faunus discrimination issue again with the character of Mikado Lem, a faunus civilian girl one can meet in Mantle. Who seems to be in awe of Blake being a huntress, acting as if she did not know that is possible. While Marrow is a part of the ace-ops and Neon Katt is part of the Atlas academy too.

It just seems to inconsistent to bring back the faunus abuse point when this entire scene makes no sense. Its just, it seems that Arowfell, and by extension RT still want to bring up the faunus subplot, but do so in the ways that are just so artificial and make little sense.

The cold

What i do think is the biggest miss-step is the whole issue of cold. At the end of V7 and during V8, the shutting down of Mantles heating Grid initiates massive problems for the people. In fact if i am not mistaken it is V8 where Jaune/Yang/Ren are outside the city and are losing Aura because of how cold is basically "damaging" them. Heating is shown to be a massive problem and it has even been previously established that even the Grimm did not do very well against such cold.

Only for Arowfell to put villages that seem to have no natural heating sources and seemingly only have warm clothes for protection (Which people in Mantle should also have). The houses we see in the game dont exactly look to be the most insulated and very much remind me of wooden village houses hat i have seen in my own country even. And yet the villagers live there, with seemingly no problems.

Which just raises the question of how exactly that is the case when this same cold could prevent Grimm from surviving well in the area, this same cold is strong enough to damage aura, and to put an entire city in danger of freezing.

It just seems that little thought was put into all of this. Yes, the villagers wear furs, but i doubt that would be enough to withstand colds that can literally damage aura shields.

That is without mentioning that someone, an artist if i am not mistaken who worked on the game seemingly was told that the Mantle center has no heating, despite the fact that in the show RWBY, it does have natural heating. Which seemed extremely strange to me.

Conclussion

I will apologize to those who waited for this a longer time, if it does not exactly fit ones expectations. I dont want to make a mountain out of a mole hill, in my opinion while these inconsistencies exist and are problems, they arent incredibly major, nor so numerous that i could talk about them for 4k+ words or anything of the sort.

This is simply what i feel about Arowfell. I think tommorow i am going to have my last thread with this game as a topic, covering both the sales of this game and the general trend of RT seemingly trying to attach the RWBY name to anything it can.

Anyways, any disagreements, additions, comments and the like are welcome as always.

[everafterfrisk]

Now time to go over Penny Polendina and how her Arc works well for the Importance of Choice

Starting from Volume 1 -3

Penny saved Ruby from a Car Crash and accidentally revealed she was a robot. However Despite this,Ruby still wanted to showcase kindness to the girl as she's still a real girl at heart.

Though, As you can tell Penny never gets any time to herself all that much

-Always being followed by Atlas Soldiers and being ordered to isolate herself from her peers so they wouldn't know the truth of her being Mechanical

In a Way Penny and Pyrrha mirror eachother with how they are used to fulfill the Expectations of the situation by others

The weight of Situation caused them to feel as though **They're Choices don't matter**

I.E Pyrrha becoming the next Fall Maiden and Penny being escorted by Atlas military & later down the line with Ironwood's Inner Circle

Speaking of which we move to V7-V8

We see Penny's Arc come full circle here

Penny being Corrupted by the Virus believing that she can't decide what to do anymore but to do as commanded

"Yes you can! It’s just a part of you, remember? If you were only a machine, you never could have fought back for this long"

Nora to Penny

Rwby Volume 8 Risk

All until Nora and By extension others support her till the end saying that Penny can still fight back & make her own decisions cuz she's just as much human as everyone in the long run

In V8 The Enemy of Trust,she was willing to sacrifice the mission to save Winter instead of going after Cinder because **She choose to**

And Finally the Finale of V8 "The final Word",in her last breath Penny makes the choice that Jaune should kill her in order to save everyone else(I've seen people criticize this decision but think of it this way Penny thinks Ruby died,Winter needs assistance against Ironwood and Weiss and by extension Jaune are gonna get bodied by Cinder at any waking moment)

On a side rant:

For the people complaining about her not having much screentime as a human

Well that was the point

In the End, Penny not only made a dear friend along the way but she also managed to make decisions for herself now and finally get her wish as a person similarly to Pinocchio

As they say "Enjoy the time you share while it lasts"

Anyways In Conclusion I think Penny was an Excellent Representation of how despite how hopeless our situations are, we always have a choice to decide our paths

[enigma2meagain]

Raising Atlas vs Fall of Atlas: What was the difference?

It’s easy to look at the actions of Team RWBY/Ruby and Ironwood and deem them to be the same, with Ruby being a Designated Hero for seemingly doing the same thing that Ironwood wanted to do.

It’s also highly reductive and utterly lacking in context that highlights what the big difference is.

Ironwood wanted to raise Atlas because he BELIEVED that it was the only option, but in reality that was not the case. Ironwood at the point of wanting to raise Atlas in V7 still had options, but due to his stubborn unwillingness to deviate or consider those options and his lack of understanding of Salem’s manipulative strengths, basically cut himself off from any possible ways of resolving the matter in a way that didn’t result in a 3 way war between himself, Salem and RWBYJNPR. Furthermore, many of the problems that Ironwood ran into was the end result of many of his own bad decisions in the past, or at the least was the result of his home kingdoms’ toxic culture that he allowed/enabled/did little to try to resolve.

Plus the fact that raising Atlas also involved abandoning the rest of humanity to Salem for the sake of preserving only what Atlas/Ironwood deemed “worthy” of saving, a horrifically callous act that, even Atlas survived and the rest of the world survived, would be seen as Atlas basically condemning the rest of the world to death by immortal demon goddess to save their own wretched skins.

RWBY/Ruby ultimately only ended up causing the Fall of Atlas in V8 because she WANTED AND TRIED to try to find other solutions, even continuing the idea that IRONWOOD had started off with. She was not flawless in her planning and made a number of mistakes due to being more tactically minded, but was willing to trust in her friends and allies to do the best they could to aid her, even if she didn’t always agree with their plans or views. She and her team also had a somewhat better understanding of Salem’s methods and thus were more resilient to it compared to Ironwood.

But due to Ironwood and Salem’s interference, found herself essentially being cut off or having exhausted almost every other possible solution, until all she had left was the best of a bunch of really bad solutions. And even that failed in many areas simply because of outside interference that she had no way of predicting, like Cinder’s own interference with her Vacuo evac plan.

Also, she and the protagonists made it a point to try to save as many people as possible BEFORE Atlas crushed Mantle. She and her team(s) didn’t try to abandon the people she was supposed to be saving.

Ruby did cause Atlas to fall, but she had her back to the wall and tried to save as many people as possible with extremely minimal resources and enemies all around. Ironwood had many options and the resources of an entire nation at his disposal, but allowed his fear of Salem and his failings as a leader to blind his judgment, and tried to abandon Remnant to save only those HE deemed “worthy of saving”. Thus he ultimately only cared about being heralded as a hero for sacrificing others for HIS “greater good”, and in the end only ensured that the worst case scenario would happen, with said scenario only being mitigated by the people he scorned as traitors and obstacles.

There was no good solution to such a situation, but one person kept trying to make it better, even if only a little bit, while the other was so caught up in his own arrogance and despair that he kept on making things worse.

I had a longer version in mind to write down, but my brain is being lazy at the moment, so I might write an expanded version somewhere down the line.

[itsclydebitches]

Hey, this is old question but why do you think Raven left Yang? We never get an explicit answer but why would Raven accept the bird powers from Ozpin, decide to have a baby with Taiyang but leave soon after? Especially when this is before Summer died and Ruby was born. Personally I feel like we should have seen Raven in V7-8 because Yang's arc with her just feels so unresolved.

Yeah, it does feel pretty unresolved right now. However, based on what we have gotten and what we know about Raven, I personally headcanon: 

She'd have accepted the powers no matter what, once they were offered. Raven, by her own admission, has a survival of the fittest mentality going on. The strong survive, the weak die, and therefore anything that has the potential to make her stronger is automatically something to grab hold of, no matter the cost (example: killing the Spring Maiden. Power equals worth taking a life). Whether Raven took the bird powers with an intention to use them for good, only to abandon that desire once she learned of Salem's immortality, or whether she always had one foot out the back door, ready to abandon Ozpin's cause at the slightest whiff of real danger, the result is still the same: hell yeah an ability that allows her to spy on others, escape bad situations easily, etc. She’ll take it. Personally, I lean towards the latter option. We learn that she and Qrow entered Beacon with the intention of killing huntsmen later and there's almost nothing, to my mind, to suggest that Raven turned away from those views as Qrow did. Not when she so passionately returned to the tribe and took up activities that, although indirectly via grimm, absolutely kill huntsmen. I think Raven played the part of a good little Beacon student, was a decent enough actor and fighter to become a member of Ozpin’s inner circle (benefited by Ozpin’s own tendency to trust/see the best in others, as well as being part of a team made up of Good Guys), happily accepted a HUGELY beneficial bit of magic, and then said, "So long, suckers" when things actually got tough. If Summer hadn't disappeared and Raven had never learned about Salem? Maybe she would have stayed long term, doing the work of a huntress with a few extra war missions on the side. But an immortal enemy who may have killed a teammate? Way too dangerous for Raven's liking. I think she cares about others to a certain extent - years of friendship, a relationship with Tai, and crying beside Yang all point to that - but I don't think that care has ever overridden her own self-interest. If it had, she wouldn't have allowed Vernal to take on the risk of being the Maiden instead of her. If it had, she wouldn't have allowed Yang to take on the risk of the Relic instead of her. If she had, she wouldn't have left not just Yang as her mother, but everyone once she realized how much danger they were all in. Raven puts herself first, always.

Which I think is the explanation for Yang too. We don't know that she decided to have a baby with Tai, we just know that she did have a baby. Accidental pregnancies happen, pregnancies where the father wants the child but the mother doesn't happen, pregnancies where the mother is chill with it at first but once the child is born decide this isn't for them happen... and in Remnant terms, pregnancies where the mother learns more about the war she’s in during those nine months and only then decides to bail could happen too. There are a lot of possibilities here. Personally, being pro-choice and all, I'm of the opinion that Raven is not a horrific person for leaving Yang, more-so due to... everything else she's done lol. Would it be great if life worked in a way where every mother was emotionally ready to parent a child and never ever had one unless they were? Of course! Is that realistic? Not by a longshot. Raven did the Remnant equivalent of giving her kid up for adoption, except actual adoption wasn't needed because the father was in the picture and quite obviously wanted to keep the kid. So Raven has Yang - carries the pregnancy to full term for whatever reason she and/or Tai may have had. Hell, we don’t even know if abortions exist in Remnant - and then wipes her hands of things. If I remember correctly (outside of the comics anyway) Raven really does keep completely out of Yang's life from then on. Summer is her mom. Raven was just the biological parent. For however horrible Raven is in other respects, she had the right to let Summer and Tai raise Yang instead. She stepped out of her life, seemingly unaware that Tai said little about her, resulting in a Yang who grew desperate to find out any scrap about her "real" mom, tracking Raven down despite Raven keeping her distance. But all of this is a long-winded way of saying that Raven never struck me as someone interested in motherhood. We don't know why she decided to have Yang, but once she did... what's a self-serving bandit going to do with a newborn? Unless Raven had decided to raise Yang as a totally loyal second or something, a baby is a danger. A liability. Children, until capable of defending themselves in Remnant, are grimm magnets who provide nothing except love which, as established, Raven doesn't prioritize. She cares about things that will keep her alive, not things that make that life emotionally rich. A child is a wonderful addition... provided you care about that bond more than you care about the effort and, in Remnant's case, the danger a child poses. Raven doesn't seem the type for me. 

So I imagine our timeline is something like:

Raven joins Beacon with an intent to learn how to kill huntsmen

Over four years Qrow changes his views. Maybe she does too, though not as much

Ozpin offers magic (magic!!) to help in this war and Raven grabs the chance to become more powerful with both hands

She has a relationship with Tai

Has Yang, for whatever reasons of her own

Goes back to run her tribe, perhaps already pulling out of the war, or perhaps with one foot still in the door. Either way, she’s not about being a mother 

At some point Summer disappears. This may have clued Raven even more into how dangerous this war is

Finds out about Salem, perhaps via the mysterious missing Jinn question (or others like the Spring Maiden and Lionheart found out from that and Raven learned second-hand)

Completely nopes out of the war from here on out, if she hadn’t 100% left already, because she's all about survival and you definitely don't survive by fighting an immortal enemy. This includes eliminating all contact with her team and family, outside of getting info from Qrow

Gets ahold of the Spring Maiden at some point, killing her to make herself even more powerful 

Is approached by her daughter for a portal and tries to talk some "sense" into her, much like she occasionally does with Qrow 

Joins up with the baddies in an effort to keep herself safe from Salem

Realizes the Relic is actually a danger, so let's Yang have it instead

Goes to Tai for either unknown reasons, or just escaping the vault via his portal, with no intention of stopping to say hi

But if she did, she no doubt had some reason that involved keeping herself safe

All of which is taken with a grain of salt given RWBY’s, uh... less than logical timeline lol