#so I'm curious what the general consensus is regarding the notes thing.

[littlemisssquiggles]

Why do people fel like penny took osar place in team ornj,rin just said no one is replaceable,I do wish we got. Bit more of Nora an ruby giving oscar a hug an maybe a talk to it feels like everything just go brushed over an now that ozpins back ,I'm wondering will oscar still get to be him self or will oz stay with everyone from now on or give oscar space

Hello there Dreamer. Hmmm…I don’t know about Penny taking Oscar’s place on the team since I neither heard any comments like that around the FNDM nor do I personally think that’s the case. However I guess I do understand people’s frustration with Penny getting a better team moment than Oscar since…that’s kind of how it looked in the episode.

Take this shot right here. Everyone is huddled together around Penny hugging her and praising her and…there is Oscar off to the side; close by but still relatively keeping his distance. It’s kind of strange. 

This is sort of a team moment and rather than joining in with everyone, Oscar just choses to keep far. What happened to Oscar starting to feel like he was actually a part of the team? Is the implication now that Oz is back, things are going to go right back to how they were before?

I don’t want to believe this is the case since we had the whole reconciliation moment between Oz and the group but compared to the scene with Penny, personally I felt like the Oz moment was tacked on at the end there. I genuinely wished the episode had focused more on the whole reconciliation with Oz since it’s been something that fans have been itching to be rectified since V6 and we finally got to it and it isn’t really given the nuance that one might expect. At least, that’s how I felt about it.

I’m probably one of the few Pineheads/Ozpinhead who didn’t quite like how Oz’s reconciliation scene with the heroes was handled in the episode. Like I said, I didn’t like how tacked on it felt. Like the showrunners just decided to slap it onto the episode at the last minute. I honestly felt that the Oz reconciliation moment with the group should’ve been given more precedence in the episode especially more than the whole Penny corruption scene.

While I’m happy we got the reconciliation moment---I’m sorry, ultimately it didn’t have the impact that I was hoping it would have. My first impression when I saw the Oz reconcile moment was that it felt shoehorned in and coming off the high of the Penny moment, the Oz moment felt almost out of place to me. Like it wasn’t the right time for this to happen but here it is.

I guess what I’m mainly trying to say here fam is that…I don’t blame some fans for being disappointed or even frustrated with how things were done last episode regarding Oz and Oscar and his whole place on the team. Despite Oscar implying that he was, quote, “going to explain everything to the others”, we as the audience still don’t have much  context on exactly what Oscar explained to the group. As I told an anon-ninja in my last response post, I have a feeling that Oscar probably wouldn’t tell the others about his caution of using magic and his fears over not being ready for the merge with Oz since it’s something too personal to him.

It bugs me how, despite everything he’s been through for this season---just as always, Oscar’s side of things is glossed over in favour of other characters. Instead of getting an Oscar focus episode following the aftermath of his rescue on the whale where he gets to share his experience and fears with the team with us as the audience being allowed to see the reactions of the team to all this news, we got…well what we got which is the same ole thing the showrunners have always done with Oscar. Give him the shorter end of the development stick. Even when they claim he’s getting development, it’s still always the short end. 

[...Or rather it’s a strange case where they give us exactly what we were hoping for but then they pull some weirdness later in the PLOT to make Pineheads like me confused...]

Personally, I stand by my point where I feel that the whole Oscar/Oz reconciliation and the initiation of Emerald Sustrai into the hero team on Oscar’s behalf should’ve been its own episode. Personally, I think the last episode should’ve ended with Oscar saying he was going to explain Emerald being with the group and left it at that. That way CH11 could’ve been all about the group reconciling with Oz with Oscar’s help BEFORE ending on the grim note of Ironwood’s ultimatum to surrender Penny.

That’s how I think it should’ve been done but…here with are.

In respect to Oscar being his own person and getting to live his own life--well the general consensus seems to be that Oscar’s experience with the Merge may be different than other Wizards in Ozma’s lineage. I still wish to stand by my theories and headcanons that Oscar is meant to be the last in cycle. I’d like to believe that the next stage in Oscar’s development would be him coming to either accept the Merge with Oz or not go through it at all since right now; he’s clearly not ready emotionally for what the merge means for him.

One thing I really wished the showrunners had given us was a scene where Oscar came clean to the team regarding his worries about the merge and exactly why he seems so fearful of it. Initially my assumption was that Oscar’s fears of merging came from him being worried that the others wouldn’t accept him as part of the group anymore since at the time, things were still pretty tense between them and Oz. It makes me wonder now if Oscar still fears the Merge now that the others have made peace with Ozpin. I’d like to think that he’s still quite apprehensive about it and there will be more to that plotline to come from him in respect to this. However…I don’t know what the showrunners are doing anymore so I don’t want to assume too much of where they might take Oscar’s story next.

If Oscar is meant to merge with Oz, I would hope that we’d get to learn more about his backstory before any of that stuff happens. Y’know have Oscar return home to his family farm some way or another and we get to finally meet his aunt and learn more about him in the process. Plus it’d be great to see how Oscar feels returning “home” after all his experiences between V4 to present. Kind of like a lil nod to the “Girl Who Fell Through the World” fairy-tale that was first mentioned by Oscar in V8CH9 and was recited yet again by Oz in CH11.

Since Oscar seemed to be fearful of becoming “someone else” and ceasing to be himself anymore, I feel like now would be a great time for us to meet his family and see how Oscar responds to returning him and seeing how his own family saw after he’s been gone for so long, y’know what I mean? That too can tie into Oscar’s reservations on the merge. 

Imagine if…Oscar returned home to the Mistral countryside and his own family rejected him for leaving; not even recognizing him anymore since although he looked like their Oscar, it was evident that he had changed while he was away from home and wasn’t the same boy they knew him to be anymore; for better or worse.

Imagine if that happened for Oscar and he had to deal with that emotional conflict on top of his fears?

I think that could be pretty great for him to go through for the next stage of his story. But…as always, I’m not a CRWBY Writer and as it stands, I’m curious to see how the last three episodes of this volume will shape up for Oscar’s side of things.

In the meantime, those are my thoughts on that. Not sure if I actually answered your questions Dreamer but I hope I did.  

~ LittleMissSquiggles (2021)

[wingletblackbird]

I appreciate your nuanced and respectful anti-abortion post, and I want to raise a question that you didn't address. How do you regard medication abortions, which account for about 30% of abortions and can be performed extremely early? Your argument about fetal life wouldn't seem to apply as well at three or four weeks gestation. I'm not trying to pick a fight, just genuinely curious.

Don’t worry I don’t think you’re trying to pick a fight. I can dialogue with anyone on any subject really, so long as we’re both willing to listen and be respectful, even be willing to change our minds if we are exposed to something we hadn’t considered. I actually, generally, quite enjoy a good discussion. ;) I also am a firm believer that as long as you’re sincere, there is no such things as a bad question. I appreciate the ask, and I’m glad you felt my original post was respectful. I was worried about setting the wrong tone.

(On that note, before I get into this, I really want to make sure I make it clear I don’t think women who have abortions are any better or worse than anybody else. I don’t think most people who are pro-choice are bad people either–No more than the rest of us anyway. 1 in 4 people or so in the States, iirc, will have an abortion. It’s ludicrous to suppose they are all horrible people, or that their supporters are. I cannot know what women feel like going into those clinics, but I am given to understand that helpless, panicked, and desperate are common emotions, and if you are not given the proper support, or information, it is hard to make good decisions like that. Beyond even that, people make mistakes. I am not here to judge them, and if any woman is struggling post-abortion, I would say there is forgiveness, and redemption, and support out there for you.) 

You’re right; I barely touched on the issue of medication abortions. I felt the post was already longer than most people would care for anyway. Before I get into why I oppose those too, I should stress first that by the time most people know they’re pregnant there will already be a heartbeat, and likely discernible brain waves. Ergo, I think it would be rare that it wouldn’t be blindingly obvious you were dealing with a young child, even without the further evidence I am about to offer that life begins at feritilistaion. To offer a personal example, when my parents were trying to conceive my brother and I, my mom was very in tune with her natural cycles. She always knew when she was ovulating from the left side because she could feel a twinge in her lower  back, so she and my dad were able to conceive by brother and I on just the one attempt. Likewise, within a couple weeks after my conception, my mom knew she was pregnant even when it was too early for it to even be detectable by a pregnancy test, so she went to the hospital and asked for a blood test which confirmed she was pregnant. Then she and my dad went to get an ultrasound, and discovered my heart was already beating. That was when my dad went from pro-choice to pro-life, because he realised even at such an early stage, before it could easily be detected, I was alive!

But, of course, what if you have unprotected sex, or for whatever reason you have cause to believe that you could be pregnant really, really early? You’ve pretty much asked for an abortion from the first moment you could possible be considered pregnant. Even then I would say that this is wrong. The child is still a legitimate human being. There is overwhelming scientific consensus on this: Life begins at conception. 

First of all, we know that from the moment of conception the individual is alive. They have all the characteristics of a living entity. Cells are the smallest form of life. That is one of the basics of cell theory and biology. Moreover, once fertilization occurs they are the offspring of two humans, and they are humans genetically. Perhaps most importantly they are human organisms. They are not merely masses of tissue, or clumps of cells, because body cells do not have the capacity to grow, and change, and develop the way that an organism does. This is why sperm cells, egg cells, muscle tissue etc. do not have rights, while the human organism does. The zygote, blastocyst, embryo, fetus, infant, toddler, child, pre-teen, teenager, and adult are all humans in different stages of development, and each is as valid as the other. Furthermore, it is expected in our society to protect the most vulnerable of us such as children. To not do so is considered terrible, even monstrous, except when it comes to those who are developing in-utero. This makes no sense to me. Life begins at fertilisation, and if allowed to grow over the course of a couple decades, results into a fully mature adult of our species. This is the scientific evidence. To terminate that development is to kill the youngest of our kind, to deny them to right to continue to grow and learn and change. You would think every stage of human life from the zygote to the senior citizen would be equally as valuable. However, in the interests of profit and convenience, they are not. (Frankly, this applies to many seniors who are mistreated as well, and aren’t granted the respect and dignity they deserve.)

If you look at embryology textbooks you’ll see quotes like this:

Although human life is a continuous process, fertilisation is a critical landmark, because, under ordinary circumstances a new, genetically distinct human organism, is thereby formed. –Human Embryology and Teratology

Human life begins at fertilization.—The Developing Human 

Development begins with fertilisation—Langman’s Medical Embryology

Even amongst the pro-choice side we get:

There is no doubt that from the first moments of its existence, an embryo conceived from human sperm and eggs is a human being.—Peter Singer, Practical Ethics

Hence, the moment you terminate a pregnancy, whatever the stage, you deny a life the right to exist. You will never get it back. You will never know what that child could have been. 

Other issues that have to be considered with the understanding that life begins at conception is the issue of hormonal birth control, (since I’m on the subject and don’t really get into it in the first post...). I recently read an outraged News article talking about how some politician said that the Pill caused abortion. The man in question was called a religious nut, ignorant, and uninformed, but I rather thought the journalist was. Few people seem to realise that the Pill does not always stop ovulation, and hence, fertilization. While it makes it very difficult for fertilization to occur, it can still occur. If that happens, the Pill will usually result in a lost life, because the Pill also prevents implantation of the fertilised egg by altering the endometrium. This is why many claim that the Pill has the potential to be abortifacient. If you believe that life starts at conception, as I do, hormonal contraception is out. The morning after pill is really just a higher dosage of the regular pill anyway, so really this shouldn’t be surprising. 

Taking the next leap from the understanding that fertilization is the earliest stage of human development is the nature of IVF. To promote greater levels of success, multiple embryos are nurtured. They are screened for “undesirable” qualities whether it be for disabilities, or gender. (I’ve already talked about why that’s awful in my original post.) After successful implantation, the other embryos, the siblings of the lucky implanted ones, are terminated or frozen. Moreover, if the pregnancy results in multiples, because all embryos implant, there is often an abortion to reduce the pregnancy to something safer. Some mothers refuse to do this and you get “Octomom.” I respect them for not terminating their children, but it definitely made for some very high-risk pregnancies. The fact is if you are going to say that you believe something, you cannot pick and choose what it applies to. The evidence points to life begins at conception which means artificial methods of conception need to be looked at as well. I touched on this in my viability argument and I’ll just post that again here:

What about embryo adoption though? Did you know that that is possible? That that is even being done? It has already happened that parents who use IVF, and have no further need for the other embryos they have frozen allow other couples who cannot conceive naturally to adopt them. It has been called the earliest form of adoption. Well, how does this fit into the viability idea? If you can take an embryo and implant it into someone else’s womb? What if you can develop artificial wombs? What if you can remove a fetus in the first trimester and still keep it alive? The whole viability argument makes me feel a bit uncomfortable to be honest, because it is so inherently subjective.

As a side note, I wonder how those embryos who were adopted feel when they grow up. They know that they weren’t the lucky embryo chosen by their biological parents. They were the one frozen, unwanted, and then lucky enough to be granted a chance to truly live when they were given up for adoption. How do they feel knowing they have a biological sibling living with a different set of parents? That maybe they have more still frozen? When an infant is given up for adoption, it is usually a loving decision based upon the mother’s, and possibly even the father’s, recognition that they cannot care for the child. Frozen embryos though…they’re just children, or potential children if you don’t recognise them as being alive, stuck in a freezer. Their parents just have no need for them.

Since I’m on the subject I’ll just go all out and talk about that last point too: The family. 

I remember reading an article years and years ago about how in a family one child was given away, and one was allowed to stay. It was years ago, so I remember few of the details, but I do remember the parent was confused that the child who stayed kept acting out. Surely since she was the one who was kept, she would have felt more safe? In truth though, the child felt worse because she never felt “safe” in a family where people left. She learned that being loved seemed to be conditional. She wanted to know what the limits were for her. When would she be sent away? 

I was conceived right after my mother miscarried my elder brother. He was miscarried so late, he was almost born stillborn, but if he had been born, I would never have been conceived. It’s a crazy thought to me, because I was almost miscarried too. (My mom really struggled to carry a pregnancy to term.) I think sometimes about how it could have been James that was born, and me that was lost. As a consequence, I view my life as even more of a miracle then it already is. My brother died and I was able to live. It’s a humbling thought, and I can’t take it lightly. James is a part of my life, and while my family and I don’t speak of him often, when we do it is with love and grief and respect. My mother even cried once saying she could never have chosen between us, and she wishes she could have raised us both. I often find I want to live a good life, for his sake, as well as my own, and my family’s, and others. James is as important to me. I don’t want to waste the gift I was granted. I wonder though how it would feel if James had been aborted instead. There are, of course, few studies done on the siblings of aborted children, but what I have found indicates grief, anger, and survivor’s guilt–especially those who were once part of multiples that were “selectively reduced”. There have even been developed support groups for the siblings of aborted children who are struggling with it. Abortion rocks the entire family.

One woman who works at a Pregnancy Counselling Centre stated:

“Abortion teaches children that they have worth because they were conceived in the right conditions and at the right time; that they have value because their parents want them. Up to 50% of all American children have lost a brother or a sister to abortion, making it much more likely that they live with a performance view of love: I was born because I was wanted therefore I better perform so they will continue to love me.”

I imagine this is particularly understandable for those who were kept because they were a girl or a boy, and the parents wanted a girl or a boy rather than the opposite sex. Do you only love me because I’m the right gender? 

The above woman also said:

“I think one of the most difficult things for me to face is a woman who is attempting to justify an abortion for the sake of her other children. I always want to tell them…the best thing for her little ones is to have a brother or a sister. In fact, explaining to sons and daughters a few years in the future as to why they aborted their sibling will probably be the most difficult thing they will ever do[.]”

One sibling described how her mother felt unequal to raising a fourth child so aborted the baby. She was left wondering if she’d been that fourth child, would she have been aborted? It’s an uncomfortable question. Love is unconditional, and that should never be in question, and neither should someone’s right to live. These concepts go hand in hand. The value of a life does not rest on it’s convenience, gender, or health.  

This is the heart of the pro-life movement. It is about the inherent dignity of all human life from conception to natural death. It means to be so respectful of the dignity of the human person, you could not fathom supporting anything that would harm them. It means such a fundamental respect for human life that you do not terminate it, rather you do everything you can to support it. It means a respect for life so deep that you do not take the risks of having sex if you aren’t willing to carry a pregnancy, however unlikely it is to occur, to term. It means looking at children as blessing not burdens. It means loving the people you have in your life, young, old, or middle-aged whatever their physical or mental state. It means asking yourself the difficult question: Are people an inconvenience to you? It means pushing for better maternity leave, paternity leave, social services, health care, foster care, adoption services, palliative care, and so on and so forth. More than that, it means being willing to pitch-in and help out yourself. It’s not just about what happens in the abortion clinic. To truly believe in life and love means making a commitment. It will not always be easy, but it is worth it. Abortion may be the “easy” option, but it is not the best one. It shouldn’t even be option at all, and it is devastating in basically every way.