#the ravens are technically the better team and I want as little friction as possible for the niners to win the super bowl so

[jamestaylorswift]

unfortunately I find myself rooting for the chiefs

[emiyaseraph]

Character Analysis : Qrow Branwen

Here we go, let’s talk about the most popular character in RWBY since Volume 3, our favorite uncle : Qrow Branwen. Sure, he was always cool, but did we understand his motivations or anything else important ? No, I say ! So allow me to analyse Qrow so we can all appretiate him better !

Anyone who thinks Qrow isn't a complete train wreck of a character is lying to themselves. Sure, he's cool and he has this super awesome sword that does this clinky clanky thing and turns into this super awesome scythe that shoots shotgun shells and he's got this radical red cape that's all tattered and he's one of the only characters to wear a cape like wow, what a badass ! He's messed up. Big time. This poor guy's never had it easy. He has a lot of psychological issues that make him one of the most vulnerable characters in the series. It's why I love him so much. Complex characters FTW, am I right ?

Qrow, like Raven, was most likely raised by a bandit tribe, which seems to resides in Mistral. As to wether he was born between a bandit couple or if he was just taken in by the tribe remains unclear.

Now, there's two possibilities as to how Qrow was during his time with the bandits.

1. He was completely one of them : He may have been a lot like Raven, thinking of the bandits as his "family", completely turning a blind eye to what they are really doing.

2. He never agreed with them : He could've never truly felt like he belonged among the bandits, disagreeing with their way of doing things.

Either way, the next big event would change his life forever.

At some point in time, Raven and Qrow decided to attend Beacon Academy, most likely just to become even stronger than they already were, to ensure the bandit tribe's survival. Once again, there's two possibilities as to how events turned out when they decided to go to Beacon.

1. Raven was the one who decided that : Quite simple. Raven was like "lol training sequence" and Qrow was like "lol k" and tagged along. Not much else to say.

2. Qrow was the one who wanted to attend Beacon : This is the more interesting variation. If Qrow was the one who first said he wanted to go to the huntsman academy, then it might've been that he used training as an excuse to get away from the bandit tribe.

So, what happaned during Qrow and Raven's time at Beacon ? There's really only one confirmed story of team STRQ's time at Beacon, and that would be the story of Qrow wearing a skirt. One might think that that story only has comedic value, but let's think about that for a second: Qrow was so oblivious to fashion, that he litterally didn't know what a skirt was, or at the very least what a uniform was supposed to be like. In my opinion, this illustrates perfectly well just how seperated Qrow was from regular society.

The next thing to talk about is obviously... So Qrow became an uncle. But what does that truly mean to him ? For the first time in his life, Qrow had a real "family", other than Raven of course. Taiyang more or less became his brother-in-law and after Raven went back to the tribe (leaving Yang), he would later meet his second niece, whom he technically isn't related to if you think about it.

Ok, but before we get to Qrows relationship with his nieces, let's first go back a little to the part where Raven leaves for the tribe.

Surely, that must've been cause for an argument between the Branwen twins. On one hand, Qrow didn't want to go back to the bandits, and on the other, Raven was willing to leave behind her newborn daughter. Neither could accept what the other was planning on doing. In short, I think Qrow had a falling out with his sister.

This line of thought also lines up well with Tai saying that the team fell apart due to Raven. I actually wondered if Tai and Qrow came to blows over Tai thinking Qrow knew where Raven went, but wouldn't tell him. If Qrow did know, I could see him staying silent out of fear of Tai getting killed by their tribe or Yang getting taken by them if he went looking for Raven given that he didn't want anything to do with the tribe. Summer probably would've tried to smooth things over though.

Now, let's finally get back to Qrow and his nieces. Quite honestly, I think he thinks of them like his own daughters. They are (or at least Yang is) his first blood related family besides Raven. Qrow loves his nieces nontheless, which is quite evident, seeing how he always helps them out, gives them advice or even protects them from the Grimm, as shown during episode 4 of volume 4 and Yang's flashback from volume 2. He obviously cares deeply for them.

Now, his drinking habit most likely originated around the time Summer died. It is still very unclear as to what happened at that time, so I can't say anything about that....did you really think I would say that ? No ! There's a lot of room for speculation. Firstly, Qrow seems to know much more about how the world works than Taiyang for example. And judging by the fact that he seems to know Salem, or at least what kind of being she is, we can guess that he may be the second most knowledgable person after Ozpin himself.

He knows about the Maidens, the Silver-Eyed Warriors, Salem, where Raven is and what the "relic" is. There are probably many more things that we've never even heard about, that he knows about. So, what does all of that have anything to do with Summer's death or Qrow's alcoholism ? Quite simple ! We should ask ourselves:

Why does he know all that in the first place?

It's easy to just say: "Oh, Ozpin told him all this because he trusted him !", and it would probably be correct. But why, of all trustworthy huntsmen and huntresses, was he chosen to join Ozpin's "brotherhood" ?

It's because he was already deeply involved. He found out about the Silver-Eyed Warriors while fighting alongside Summer Rose, his sister was the leader of a presumably powerful bandit tribe, with whom he can trade information with and finally: He found out about Salem most likely when they had directly confronted her, ending with Summer's death.

By the way, I also have a little theory about that : Taiyang might've been absent during that mission Summer died in. Why do I think that ?

For two reasons in particular :

1. The way Yang described the day Summer disappeared : Yang, in volume 2 during her flashback, stated that Summer had 'one day gone on a mission and never came back'. Notice the wording here ? She never said that BOTH her parents had gone on that mission.

2. Qrow and Taiyang’s frictional relationship : During this mission with Summer, I think Qrow came back home alone. Maybe Taiyang blames Qrow for not being able to save/protect Summer, or if Taiyang is aware of the effect of Qrow’s semblance, he grudges him to be one of the causes of her death. I don’t know it’s just a theory, but it’s the wibe I fell from their interactions with each other. In volume 4, when Qrow speaks in his sleep which refers to Tai and one of his wives. It is implied that Qrow blames himself for her death because of his misfortune but that is still up in the air.

Plus, that friction between Taiyang and Qrow arose because Taiyang is still trying to protect the girls from the world, while Qrow feels that they're ready to confront it on their own. Also, during the volume 3 finale, Qrow asked Taiyang for a moment alone with Ruby. During which, he told her about the silver eyes.I think the reason Qrow wanted Taiyang to leave for that part of the conversation was because Qrow was telling Ruby where to go when she leaves, something Taiyang would obviously disapprove of. And, I might simply be reading too much into this, but my theory is that Taiyang might not even know what the silver eyes are yet. That in turn makes me think that Taiyang is still mostly oblivious to the bigger picture.

And finally, what’s make him more a wreck mentally : his Semblance ! After Qrow has been posioned by Tyrian, he once again explains a lot of information to RNJR, showing his knowledge off once again. He also explains that he followed them from a distance because of his semblance, misfortune. This made his character even more interesting, making me want to learn a lot more about his character and made me feel for his character. This also explained why he drinks so much because of how his misfortune may of affected some events in his past.

Before we wrap this up, there's one more trait of Qrow we haven't discussed: His womanizing aspect. Granted, the womanizing is mostly Taiyang's thing, but Qrow shows this trait as well sometimes. So, does that have any significance to his character ?

Maybe. Unless RT just added this for the heck of it, it may be that Qrow's womanizing illustrates a secret wish to start his own family as well. A man of his age thinking about children isn't really such a weird thing either. In fact, I think these two would make a cute pair : I LOVE SNOWBIRD/QROWIN !

Overall, I love the way Qrow has been presented as a character and I cannot wait to see how he develops as a character in Volume 5 and what we learn about him. Thanks for reading !