#while we are on the topic of team strq and how they always got some fucking secret

[erros429]

GET THAT MILF A REDEMPTION ARC

[rwdestuffs]

Done dirty: Team STRQ

I’m having way too much fun with these screenshot openers.

Team STRQ is one of the most interesting things about the show, and at the same time, the most boring things about the show.

Each character listed above has been done dirty in some way, either by the writers, the narrative, other characters, the audience, or other such circumstances.

One of the things is that we don’t know whose partner is whose. It would be interesting to find out who ended up partnering with whom, but that’s another story all together.

Let’s start with the dead bitch. You know her. She’s super-mom: Slayer of monsters, baker of cookies (At least, according to Yang). So, obviously, she has a lot of time dedicated to her, and how big of an influence she was on Yang and Ruby, right?

NOPE! But, if there’s literally anything I could give this show over Soul Eater, it would be that at least we know what Ruby’s mom looks like, and her name. We don’t get that for Maka’s mom. But then again, Soul Eater also didn’t make a big deal about Mama Albarn. Off-Topic tangent aside, Yang says that Summer never came back from a mission. Implying that she died.

Now, this wouldn’t be much of a problem if we didn’t see a grimm being beaten by a corgi.

(Look forward to a done dirty on the grimm in the near future).

So, unless it was a member of Salem’s faction (which it might be, as it was Hazel who mentioned that they had ‘taken care of’ Silver-eyed warriors in the past), it feels really unlikely that Summer died on a hunt.

And speaking of Silver Eyes, that causes another problem due to how they work.

If they’re supposed to be destined for the life of a warrior, then you’d think that Summer wouldn’t have gone down so easily. Summer got done dirty because despite how important she is to other characters, she is hardly a character herself. In fact, by the sounds of the commentary, she seems to just be a copy/paste of Ruby’s character.

Also, isn’t it nice that Yang no longer considers “Super-Mom” to be her mom, and then refers to her as “Ruby’s mom”?

Seriously. Summer’s influence needs to have a bigger impact on the characters. Sure, her ‘leaving’ made an impact on Yang, but Ruby rarely talks about her, and only really visits her gravestone twice in the same volume. Yang, on the other hand, has mentioned Summer different times in different volumes. Which seems to indicate that Summer’s supposed death had a bigger impact on Yang than it did Ruby, but the fact that she seems to be more willing to call the woman who abandoned her ‘mom’ it just seems like… Yang’s being ungrateful, or that she’s having feelings of inadequacy.

And with Ruby rarely mentioning Summer at all, it just shows that the creators had Summer leave their lives too early. Maybe Ruby had no real choice in the matter of becoming a huntress, and it was the way of the Silver Eyed Warrior that compelled her to do so, but it says a lot when Summer isn’t important enough to Ruby for her to mention her often.

And again, Summer sounding like a copy/paste of Ruby feels like one is being robbed of a fleshed-out character that left an impact on others.

At least we know how Tai reacted- Speaking of which…

Next up is the insensitive bitch, Taiyang. Now, I’m sure that if anyone knows me, they know my… thoughts and opinions on Taiyang “Imma call the manifestation of my daughter’s soul a temper tantrum” Xiao Long isn’t really positive saying the least.

It’s no secret that I don’t like this guy, so please excuse any comments that make me seem like I’m making him out to be the devil incarnate. I have a hard time with this, and I also project my mother’s shitty attitude onto him, so I have issues. Regardless, I am going to try to be as civil as possible when discussing Taiyang. Though, as a warning: It may not last. Scroll past to the deadbeat bitch if you want to skip me being overly critical of Tai, and how he was portrayed and received by the audience.

I don’t care what the writers do, this line is never going to fly if they also want to say that Tai was a “Super caring and supportive father.” Tai being too depressed to take care of his kids is an explanation for this behavior. Not an excuse.

I don’t know what the writers are trying to pull here, but trying to say that Tai is a good dad while also having these lines of dialogue exist isn’t going to fly. It’s like trying to have Batman tell someone off for teaching an orphan martial arts and having them beat up dangerous criminals- It’s just going to come off as something really empty.

Tai’s comments about wanting to go out and look for Ruby also come off as empty as well. The next time we see him, he’s gardening. If him staying behind was so important, you’d think that the writers would have him teaching at Signal, or helping out in the Vale effort. But no. Tai is just gardening. Because that was more important that going out and looking for Ruby.

Tai fails here, because the narrative (and the writers) refuse to acknowledge the fact that he fucked up. Tai had one job as a parent, and do you know what that job was?

But no. Tai up and decides to fuck. up.

If the writers wanted me to believe that Tai didn’t end up giving the job of parenting to Yang?- Then they shouldn’t have had Yang explicitly say that she was alone in picking up the pieces and in keeping things together

For God’s sake, if the narrative and writers were trying to make me think that he wasn’t an asshole, I have only one grade to give them:

And the absolute worst part is that his fucking stans keep touting him as “father of the year.” as if Ghira didn’t exist or something.

No. Tai isn’t a perfect dad, nor is he a horrible one. But the mere fact that he didn’t even get a sitter for Yang and Ruby is very telling. And I still need to reiterate:

Despite wanting to go out and look for Ruby (and inadvertently blaming Yang for his inability to do so), once Yang is ‘armed and ready,’ he opts to…

Garden.

He’s not protecting Vale, he’s not teaching the next generation… the writers thought that showing him gardening would be an important scene.

Let’s move on to the deadbeat. The bitch who couldn’t be bothered to raise her own kid.

Admittedly, Raven was a real big enigma back in volumes two and three. She was a big deal.

She was shrouded in mystery, and there were a lot of theories going around. She was working for the bad guys, she was working for Salem, I remember maybe one where she was using Sienna Khan as an alias. Raven was a big deal. And her uncaring nature came into question when we got the Raven stinger in Volume 2.

And when we found out that Raven was the leader of a tribe of bandits, there was some more intrigue. She was now, all of a sudden, a powerful force to be reckoned with. She could intimidate opponents far out of the protagonist teams’ reach. She was in charge of a group of people who could decimate an entire village in a matter of minutes.

She took Weiss hostage, and she was a woman with a plan.

And then…

Raven’s bandits are taken down really easily. By her daughter. Who was in physical therapy for a few months. And only recently got back into fighting.

You see where the problem is?

Raven isn’t intimidating in this scene. And her conversation with Yang and Weiss leaves us with no reason to distrust Ozpin. Raven had one job in that scene. That job was to give Yang and Weiss (and by extension, the audience), a reason to believe that Ozpin is not to be trusted.

But instead, she turns into a bird, and then turns back.

Because for some reason, that is supposed to convey to the audience that Ozpin is not to be trusted.

Raven doesn’t really do much after sending Yang and Weiss to Qrow, so let’s move on to her plan of double-crossing Cinder.

Which, is arguably, the best thing she has done as a character. She sets everything up, and we also get a fairly decent fight scene with Cinder too.

But, we run into a few issues here.

Like how Raven killed the Spring Maiden and took her power. Which is an underwhelming way to display the character being cunning.

Had Raven been given the powers by OG Spring as a means of spite, Raven wouldn’t be an idiot for taking the powers when she wants to stay out of the Ozpin vs. Salem war.

Not to mention that she seems to want to play the sympathy card for killing OG Spring.

Raven doesn’t really earn any sympathy points. She does earn some idiot points for thinking that taking the relic would keep Salem and Ozpin off her back, though.

Overall, Raven, despite being the most human character of her team, fails at being an interesting or compelling character due to the sheer idiocy of her actions, and the lack of being able to accomplish the one job she had of instilling distrust in Oz to the audience.

Finally at the end, and now we deal with the drunk.

See, Qrow fails at a lot of things. Most notably, not being a condescending piece of shit towards guys like Ironwood. Qrow blames Ironwood for not keeping in contact with him… when Qrow is the scout, and he should be the one to report in. This is like a doctor being mad at their patient when the patient doesn’t take their medication, when the doctor never prescribed it.

Qrow also wants to be such an edgelord too.

Here, we see Qrow bemoaning that his semblance, stating that it is “Always there” whether he likes it or not.

Then the writers said this:

Now, whether they needed to clarify what they meant or if this was a retcon, the choice of words made it pretty clear that Qrow’s semblance was out of control, and the line of “It’s always there” implied that it was constantly running.

There is a difference between “out of control” and “always there.” The writers should know the importance of word choice, and should have simply said “out of control.” Then again, they would run into the same problem if they had then clarified that he can amplify it in a fight, implying that he can control it, but they would also have to clarify that it’s to a certain degree.

But they didn’t. Not only does this imply a retcon, but it also makes Qrow out to be a melodramatic edgelord. He bemoans his semblance, but it’s not as bad as it seems since it’s actually not “always there, whether he likes it or not” so his sob story gets ruined.

Not to mention that he falls into the designated hero trope pretty often. He starts the fight with Winter, and for some reason, he is not punished for it outside of a talking to by Oz. His plans of getting Haven’s relic involves kidnapping the Spring Maiden from Raven’s camp, and forcing her to help them. He also berates his niece for daring to question Ozpin, and sees no issue with Oz drafting a fourteen-year old into a war.

Overall, Qrow’s questionable actions have yet to be called out. He is constantly defended, and the one time he isn’t defended is a time in which Jaune calls him out for giving Pyrrha that ultimatum. And even then, Ruby (Y’know, the girl who was rooting for her uncle when he started that fight with Winter) doesn’t even jump to his defense.

It’s very telling that the only character to call Qrow out on his actions is the creator’s pet, and not……… literally anyone else.

Not to mention that he’s just Ozpin’s yes-man. Because how dare Yang question him. How dare Raven not trust Ozpin. How dare anyone believe that the guy who is possessing a fourteen-year-old kid be questioned in any way.

At this rate, Ozpin could literally kill a baby, and Qrow would just say “Well, it’s probably because that baby was an agent of Salem. So Oz did us all a favor by killing it preemptively.”

To which Ozpin would reply “Yes. That. It had absolutely nothing to do with that baby spilling my coffee.”

Overall, the biggest theme with Team STRQ seems to be a pretty common one:

A lack of sympathy.

These characters are hard to sympathize for. Even Summer. Summer was a huntress, and despite knowing that she had two young daughters, she decided to go on a dangerous mission anyways. These characters end up lacking anything that would make them sympathetic, and the one that would be the most sympathetic is dead.

And if Summer isn’t dead, then why doesn’t she try to go back to her kids?- Unless she’s captured or has amnesia, Summer is in no position to not be trying her damnedest to try to return home if she’s still alive.

Tai fails at being a sympathetic dad due to Yang explicitly saying that she was alone in keeping things together. Raven fails at being sympathetic due to her idiotic and contradictory tactics. And Qrow fails at being sympathetic because of how his semblance got explained, and his own actions.

[carishio-blog]

Favorite Overall Character

So yesterday, I reblogged a post by @vexpercy​ that included an entire list of favorite things about RWBY. I said I wanted to do it as a chance to talk about one of my favorite pieces of animation and to let my followers (current and new ones to come!) get to know me a little better about the show. So, the first thing on the list was “Favorite Character Overall”, and this was a tough one to limit it down to. There are so many characters that I absolutely love when it comes to RWBY, and picking one was a difficult task. However, when I looked at every option and factor, there was really only one character that came to mind:

Qrow Branwen!

To make things fair, I thought it would be fair to look into the entire process of figuring out my favorite, making a small little list that would help people see why I love him so much. So, with that being said here is the list:

-Voice Acting

-Writing

-Design

-Interaction with other characters

-Importance to the Story

-Personal Beliefs (Head canons, art, fan fics etc.)

1. Voice Acting

Now for those that know RWBY, Qrow’s voice actor is Vic Mignogna. His most notable role was voicing the Fullmetal Alchemist Edward Elric in both the 2003 adaptation and the 2009 version, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Vic already came into the show with a very impressive resume, so throwing in him playing Qrow is nothing small. According to RWBY Wiki, Rooster Teeth approached him at an Australia convention where they showed him the overall style of the show, which he was really impressed with! He received a follow up email a few weeks later and BAM! You’ve got yourself the VA for Qrow.

As opposed to the adorable, squeaky voiced Ruby or the more professional, whimsical voice of Professor Ozpin, Qrow adds a certain flare in his speech with his deep, drunken drawl (think most voices for any Wolverine i.e. Hugh Jackman or Cal Dodd in the 1992 animated incarnation of the X-Men.)

While it is debatable about how good the impression is, I personally love it. The tone Qrow speaks with is one filled with a level of confidence and cockiness. He carries himself in a way where he knows that he’s better than you and is not afraid to show it. I would delve further into this, but that shall wait until we get to Interactions with Other Characters. But all in all Vic delivers another amazing performance in my book that leaves me wanting more every time I see him on screen.

2. Writing

Writing for characters in RWBY is always a touchy subject. Most of them are very well written, while others sometimes leave a bit to be desired.That being said, I still 100% appreciate the work Miles and Kerry put into the scripts and have not been disappointed in them at any point really. So with that, how do they handle writing Qrow? Referring once again to the RWBY Wiki, both of them have been on record as saying that he is their favorite character to write.

And boy does it show.

A lot of the interactions we get with him are either hilarious or draw you into the story and lore even more. Along with the great voice acting to go along with it, we really get an interesting character to discuss and listen to.

From the first four volumes, we’ve learned very little about his backstory or even relationship with people from his former team. All we get are little bits of dialogue telling us that him and his sister Raven are part of a very deadly clan, little bits of silent interaction and development with Ruby and Yang’s father Tai in the Volume 3 finale and an image of a photo of his old team that can really be depressing to look at once you look closer at it.

It’s very easy for a character to show all of their cards when they’re first introduced, however the CRWBY have done an excellent job at giving us bits and pieces at not only his backstory, but Team STRQ as a whole. They’ve definitely caught my interest and will be keeping me hooked for however long the show runs (which is hopefully a long time <3)

3. Design

RWBY has always been a show about colors. Colors are everywhere you look in the show, from names of character to the names of teams. Each outfit someone wears along with their aura and name basically suit the overall personality of the character. So what do we get from Qrow?

If it wasn’t obvious enough, Qrow is based of a crow, most notably one of Odin’s birds from Norse mythology, Huginn (I’m not 100% sure about this one. If anyone does know, feel free to let me now!). The colors of his outfit and hair show give us that feel of a relation to the bird he’s named after. Along with that,  the messiness of his clothes and how tattered his cape is give us the vibe that this is man who has seen his fair share of skirmishes and most likely a few bar fights along the way. The crooked cross around his neck also gives us some great symbolism that help show Qrow is not exactly the greatest of people either. However it could be a clever nod toward Norse culture once more, as that usually shows that someone is currently in mourning of someone they lost who was close to them (maybe Summer???).

To top it off, Qrow brings one of the coolest weapons to the table in my opinion. His weapon is a combination of a scythe, a sword and a shotgun. While everyone else has two weapons in one, he’s so cool his mom lets him have THREE! Each one is a joy to see in battle, and the idea of him being the master scythe wielder in Remnant was a statement passed around by Ozpin and Ruby. While we haven’t seen him use it a lot, when he has it has produced devastating results to his opponents. The sword was awesome to see him use in his fight vs Tyrian and Winter, and the shotgun is a nifty little weapon for him to use up close against opponents to chip away at their aura. All in all, his weapon is a great part of his design and just adds to one of my favorite character designs in general. Hopefully we’ll see him use that scythe more in the upcoming future.

Finally, he also gets my favorite semblance in the entire show: misfortune. It’s a semblance that cannot be turned on and off, and it affects those around him. Highlighted in the fight with Tyrian and the song “Bad Luck Charm” that gives me feels every time I listen to it, you get the perfect semblance for the perfect guy (even if it does make me wanna hug him and tell him everything will be alright).

4. Interactions with Other Characters

For someone who carries themselves around the way Qrow does, you’re expecting to get some really entertaining moments with other characters. But before we get to that, I want to establish one of my favorite partnerships and duos in the entire show: him and his niece Ruby

While the bond between him and Yang is very strong (as shown when he offers to help her find her mother and his sister Raven), the bond between him and Ruby is where things really shine. It has been mentioned and implied that Qrow is Ruby’s mentor, the Obi Wan to her Luke Skywalker if you will. He was the one that taught her how to use Crescent Rose and helped her design it, and the bond between the two is heart warming. In all of Volume 4 when she is out with RNJR trying to get to Mistral, he is the one watching over her and making sure she’s safe. Ruby jumps in to help him fight Tyrian (even tough she should’ve stayed back), and watching her try her best to get him medical help after he gets poisoned is something heart wrenching to see. The care for each other is amazing, as he truly does represent the cool uncle trope perfectly.

Besides Ruby, we get some amazing interactions with Winter, Glynda, Ironwood, Oz, Tyrian and even Jaune! From those, we get some really great fight scenes that let him show off his best skills and assets, funny moments and lines such as “He’s always drunk”, and some much needed release of anger that ends up getting directed at him. All in all, the entertainment we get from him interacting with others along with some of the more serious ones with Ozpin, Raven and RNJR keep me personally locked in and focused on what he has to say.

5. Importance to the Story

Qrow is by no means a main character in RWBY, however it is fair to say that he is an important side one. He was the one responsible for training Ruby and helping her become the young woman she is growing up to be, someone in Ozpin’s inner circle that has a great understanding of the world around him and the person that will most likely be helping Oscar become the next “Ozpin” (I don’t even know what to call that. Grand Wizard? The next Wiz? Gandalf the Great?). He gives us a lot of world building in the form of his story about the two gods and the fan favorite World of Remnant shorts. Qrow will be around for quite some time in my opinion, so maybe his role will grow even further as the plot progresses. But for now, he is a pretty important character that has brought some great dynamics and information to viewers and fans of RWBY.

6. Personal Beliefs

Last but not least, we have the section where we talk about fan stuff! Qrow was probably the first character that I really started developing head canons for, and along with RPing it became very easy to find me looking for all sorts of art, fan fictions and more pertaining to him. Along with that, we also have everyone’s favorite topic: ships! I found myself having to really think about who would work well with him in a romantic setting, and only two people really keep in mind (DISCLAIMER: This is my opinion. You can have a different one than me without attacking me about mine. I would actually love to hear your’s, but please remember to be respectful)

(Art by @ellelehman​)

(Art by @reikiwie-art​)

My two favorite Qrow ships are Flown North/Hummingbird (Qrow X Summer) and Snowbird/Qrowin (Qrow X Winter). While I much prefer Snowbird, I really love Hummingbird as well, as not only has @ellelehman​ basically given me a small addiction to it (that she feeds by making more awesome art!), the relationship that I can imagine with them is also just oh so adorable. While Qrow has basically made it clear that he is not a family man, I would love to see a relationship involving him in the show at some point. Ships aside, some of my favorite Team STRQ head canons revolve around him as well. The best example I can give you is the picture that I mentioned earlier. 

(For some reason I cannot post the picture without it not letting me post the entire post, so here’s a link to Google images to show you exactly what I’m talking about.)

If ypu look at it very closely, you will notice a coffee mug stain around summer and tear drops near Tai and Raven. Seeing that really breaks my heart, as I cannot even imagine the pain and guilt he must feel, especially when it comes to his semblance. I get really emotional when thinking about it in general and imaging certain scenarios happening in my head, like if Ruby got seriously hurt and he wasn’t there to help, or if he was saving Winter’s life mid fight and getting flashbacks of Summer, pushing himself to his absolute limit to save her so history does not repeat itself. It’s just a blast for me to think of and drabble these ideas down, as it really connects me more to the character and make me enjoy watching him even more.

Anyways, that’s all for today! I hope you all learned a bit more about me and Qrow as a whole, as it was fun to really talk about my favorite character from one of my favorite pieces of animation. I know it was long, so hopefully I can try and shorten it for tomorrow (no promises though ;3). Anyways, tomorrow I’ll be going over my favorite female Beacon student, which most of you might already know. But with that, I thank you all for reading and I hope you all have a great day! (Thanks to @vexpercy​ once more for the awesome list again!)