#source: I’m a gypsy and I speak romani

[nightwingsgypsyrep]

I literally made a new sideblog to make this post

As a Romani speaker, it will never not be funny to me that Dick and Kori were together, given that Kori is the Romani word for Dick.

[dragynkeep]

*BBC narrator impression begins*

Oh dear. It appears that Rooster Teeth Productions have cocked up Miss Blake Belladonna's fairy tale allusion upon wrapping up the story arc with her Beast.

We now turn to the well-informed pair of siblings, Owl and Luke, for their conclusions on how the allusion to Belle even fits any longer.

*BBC narrator impression ends*

The hell happened to Blake and her supposed to being Belle? Sure, in the original Beauty and The Beast novel, Beast's real name was Adam. Duh.

But let's take off our "Fuck RT" caps for one second for a more in-depth analysis. Does her Belle allusion really even fit anymore?

nerd fixation on beauty and the beast goes into overdrive.

did it ever really fit? belle in most iterations wasn’t a freedom fighter, she wasn’t part of an oppressed class, hell in most reading & a love for books & adventure wasn’t a defining trait of belle’s. it was her kindness, contrasted to the spite & greediness of her sisters, who wanted only monetary things from their merchant father. hell, even with the development of blake in volume 4 where we find out she’s basically the princess of menagerie; that contrasts the original belle as she was a merchants daughter turned peasant after he lost his wares at sea, who’s sisters abused her & made her clean & do work in order to try and buy their home back. the only time she’s ever really applied to a “belle” allusion is reading with disney’s iteration of belle, & every other rwby allusion in that team takes from the original tale, not any other more modern iteration. also i don’t know where you heard the beast’s name being adam in the original tale from but from what i’ve researched, he was only ever referred to as la beté & adam was a name given purely for the disney version.

now, the most defining traits of blake in the show are her drive for justice, her determination, her courage, being defined as a faunus, but isn’t above despising or hating those who are prejudicial & pick on those who are smaller than them. taking all of those into account, she honestly fits esmeralda better than any other fairytale protagonist, or quasi protag in this case. so many of esmeralda’s lines in the movie feel like they could’ve come straight from early volume blake, so much of their defining characteristics match up far better than blake & belle. like some of these lines?

you mistreat this poor boy the same way you mistreat my people.

[ silence ! ] justice !

what do they have against people who are different?

you saw what he did out there. letting the crowd torture that poor boy? i thought if just one person could stand up to him then...

you speak of justice, yet you are cruel to those most in need of your help !

i don’t see any. [ see what? ] monster lines. not a single one. now, you look at me. do you think i'm evil?

LITERALLY THE ENTIRETY OF GOD HELP THE OUTCASTS !!

blake being esmeralda is the one time i would endorse rooster teeth taking inspiration from the disney iteration instead of the actual source material as there is a lot of anti romani sentiment in the novel that disney managed to make less egregious [ by having esmeralda actually be romani instead of a french girl who was stolen by them & was a sex worker. ] it also keeps in with her french theme & doesn’t allow for any vagueness around what her potential coding could be; blake can be poc & french, many roma are.

blake being esmeralda also lends to some actual poc representation on screen without falling into the oofness of making blake black / poc with her current mother’s name meaning a slur. the belladonnas could still exist in the storyline if wished, just don’t have them be blake’s parents. blake could finally count for some very rare romani / gypsy rep that we don’t see in media often, let alone animated media; & with her being nonsexualized most of the time & her defining traits being her righteousness & her compassion & drive for justice, she wouldn’t fall into the stereotypical traps of a sexualized gypsy.

also fun fact, red is an unlucky colour in romani / most gypsy cultures; which could be a cute nod to adam being unlucky for her & their cause.

so yes, this is my blake should’ve been based on esmeralda propaganda post ♥