#rwbyvolume8spoilers

[moonlightkitkat]

“I won’t be gone. I’ll be a part of you!”

[dusical-moodle]

I.. I just think she's pretty

og:

[chocochipcookiecake]

The Actual Issue(s) with Penny’s Death

I saw the rwby volume 8 finale and I’m here to give my opinion! Specifically when it comes to Penny and her fate.

I overall feel . . . . mixed.

On one hand, I adored how dark and cruel this whole finale got, it slapped me around like a little bitch with all the angst and I was THERE FOR IT. But then came Penny.

Isolating the concept, I’m not peeved that they killed off Penny. If there were any characters to choose from and had the best foreshadowing of a forthcoming death to kill off, she was the best choice. If we could get through with Pyrrha’s death, then we could with Penny’s. And initially I was all on board with the execution. 

But then I remember the warning sign at the beginning, the SUICIDE warning sign, and my brain finally fully realized what her death was. A suicide. Which is obvious to everyone as they watched it, it was her choice to die etc etc.

But then the weight of the implications of it being a suicide finally set in, and I have to analysis what this implicates and the message it’s sending to the viewer.

From how it was framed in the story, how she repeating have asked others to kill her or would her herself in harms way for only the sake of others, showing she’s had suicidal tendencies all this while, but then when she finally is able to get a human body and therefore a free will, she uses that to kill herself for the sake of others. Obviously, the story framed her death as pro martyrdom, which alone is bad, but what’s worse is that H\her death can easily be interpreted as pro suicide alongside that.

To sum it up, from how the story it’s framed, they made it so it was actually a good thing that a suicidal girl after years of living under and abusive household(ironwood) and finally has a taste of freedom uses that freedom to fulfill her mentally unwell wishes of death for the sake of martyrdom. 

Obviously, this is a horrible message to send to any audience, especially rwby’s which is made up of vulnerable zoomers and millenials.

it doesn’t help the fact that she’s a trans character, as is obviously coded as a trans girl, and arguable the only trans character that plays a more crucial role in the narrative that’s comparable to characters like Nora and Oscar(Love you May but you are very much an eternal supporting role) and they killed her off in such an insensitive way in regards to mental heath, as the LGBTQ community are known far more than cis allosexual people to suffer from mental health issues, especially suicidal tendencies.

I don’t hate the show, I don’t hate crwby, the reason why I’m pointing all of this out is because I care and I know crwby cares, but once again they did a big screw up, and they need to be held accountable so they don’t do this shit again(after the next two volumes as volume 9 and 10 have already been written because that’s how it works)

Though I feel this is comparable in importance to criticize to the whole lucky charm queerbaiting/bury your gays ordeal, I doubt it’ll see as much attention.

I can see people excusing it’s poor use of suicide for it for simply being edgy, or not liking it and criticizing crwby not because of the issues and problematic themes that surround Penny’s death but simply because their favorite character ate the dust and they’re sad, which when it happened with Pyrrha was meaninglessly stressful and therefore this’ll be meaningless stressful as well.

And when it comes to Penny’s transness, the issue is that people won’t be as mad because it’s not obvious, it’s all coded. And the majority of rwby viewers aren’t going to look that deep into such writing details as the queer coding of characters and therefore simply won’t see that specific issue. 

And finally, though mental health awareness has been at some of it’s best as of late, as a society, we’re still pretty behind, and a good chunk of people just don’t really understand the issues surrounding depression and suicide unless they experience it themselves, and it happens that a lot of people, especially young people, have yet to experience it, or if they had, many aren’t well educated enough to see the signs of it when experienced or have the privilege to to get medically diagnosed.

But those same kids who don’t know better will still be affected by the problematic message subconsciously, and if you say that’s a stretch then I say to you, “all media affects us in how we may interpret and view certain things(emotionally and mentally) in insidious and subconscious ways. It doesn’t need to be obvious in in your face, it simply just needs to be there. Maybe not visible to your eyes, but visible in your reception and reflection of them later on.”

 And therefore, I think they’ll only see Penny’s death on a surface level, and that is the shock and sadness from her death alone, not what her death implies.

But yeah, I’m not here to hate, just here as someone who’s part of the LGBTQ+ community that has experienced depression and feelings of suicide to critique(a nice way to put it).

[gothboy666]

Tyrian’s New Level.

SPOILERS FOR THE LATEST EPISODE OF RWBY VOLUME 8. 

People who haven’t watched it gone yet? Ok good, let me continue. 

So, it seems that Tyrian is the only one who fully understands Salems’ true goal of complete and utter destruction. Watts and Hazel seem to think that Salem is a means to get revenge on those who wronged them, and Cinder is under the belief that Salem will bring her the power she so desperately craves. 

Tyrian however fully comprehends Salems end goal and relishes in it, even as far as mocking Emerald and Mercury for not seeing the bigger picture. This, to me at least, puts him on such a scarier pedestal when it comes to the Villains. He’s the only one that, in terms of ideology, is on the same level as Salem and that’s terrifying. 

[hotelchicken]

SPARE CRUMB ROOSTER TEETH

Yang is talking about...Blake

[dusical-moodle]

i can't believe this episode was just nuts and dolts the movie, rooster teeth really out here serving me dinner before fucking me

[dusical-moodle]

i edited the new rwby op to fairy tail op 16, it just fits

[dusical-moodle]

im just,,, this episode was rough ok?

whitley doesn't deserve this OSCAR ESPECIALLY DOESNT DESERVE THIS, LET THEM BE SAFE HAPPY AND GAY. im sorry my mind picks something and makes everything about that so excuse me while i get my snow pines thoughts out

WHITLEY OFFERED TO HELP WEISS AND SHE SAID "GO TO YOUR ROOM" I M M AD. is this the youngest sibling in me talking? yes. im mad because this has happened to me and the rejection he felt of being shot down immediately shook me to my core. HE WAS BEING GENUINE YOU CAN TELL BY HIS CHANGE OF DEMEANOR. i know it's because Weiss is stressed and CRWBY probably wanted to show there was really a two sided disconnect between them rather than just from Whitley's end before trying to fix the schneeblings, BUT IT STILL HURTS. GIVE WHITLEY RESPECT! plz

NOW OSCAR NOOOOOO. OSCAR NOOOOOOOOOOOO. yknow, everybody in this show needs some baggage but... my boy deserved to be the only baggage free main character. AND TO MAKE THAT BAGAGE TORTURE AND EXISTENTIAL CRISIS. help,,, im on the floor girl... im crying girl- im HGGGGGGHHHH. Mercury better save him, he knows what abuse is like and he may be a dick but i know he doesn't want everyone to suffer. im just,,, ozpin at least tag out with oscar so he doesn't take all the hits. activate dad mode m'dude p l e a s e. im begging leave oscar a l o n e.

Anyways, now that the tears are over, oh my god did i love the motorcycle scene, the camera was moving perfectly with the action and my eyes never felt too overwhelmed with the direction of the fight! it was very satisfying and CRWBY even managed to make me believe they could get Oscar, especially with emphasizing Ren climbing the rope. Overall a massive improvement from previous volumes, even though i believe they've been steadily improving.

OH AND REN. at first i didn't really like the abrupt change in his character from honor bound and collected to sassy and peeved but this episode really brought it together. Having him blow up on everyone really felt like a breath of relief for his character, all the passive aggressiveness was getting hard to watch so seeing him just be agressive felt soo satisfying, like watching the payoff of a buildup i didn't know was being built up to. this'll definitely make rewatches easier on my mind knowing that Ren isn't being petty for the sake of putting a more negative backdrop on the volume and instead being more of progression of his character arc. ALSO, i like how both Yang and his criticisms are valid! They were led on to believe they were ready for huntsmanship due to the Beacon situation but they're all still kids, Ruby being the youngest of them all yet still being forced to carry a huge burden. And while it is true the world has manipulated them and they aren't ready, Yang isn't wrong for believing this is a job only they can so and that they've done their darnest at trying to protect everyone. It's such a hard arguement to balance yet this scene said enough on both ends to have them both be justified

as much as ive never cared for Cinder i really like how this volume is humanizing her and painting her situation as more of an abuse story than just a power hungry woman terrorizing children. i dont have many thoughts other than keep it up CRWBY! for the record, plain evil villains arent bad but RWBY as a whole has evolved past the point where pure evil villains are appropriate and its about time their main villains have evolved with that change.

For story reasons i love this episode but for personal reasons this was painful to watch im going to drown myself in fluff. ✌