Rwby Critical - Tumblr Posts
It is way past my bedtime, but I'm currently drawing Adam and my brain took me on a trip, where we both ponder about the tragedy of loss, not of anything that you can see on the surface immediately when you look at him, but the loss of identity.
Because what is a man when he was taken away from his childhood? Away from personhood?
What is a man when as a child, he was no more than a replaceable cog in the machine?
What is a man, when his face no longer belongs to him, but is disfigured and marked with a name that will follow him even in death? Not physically of course, but the missing eye and the missing years will never come back even if the letters were to be removed somehow.
What is a man, when all he had left was rage?
What happens when the rage is gone?
There's a shell left behind. Something hollow, with the shape of a man.
Enough to live for anything. Anyone. Just for a moment. Just to find a purpose to its existence when the personhood inside is long gone.
A hollow man is just the shell that used to be someone whole.
I don’t care about RWBY anymore because bumblebee shippers broke me, but if anyone has any OCs based on incredibly obscure and/or bizarre fairy tales/literature please share them with me
Was Ironwood right? Part 2 -
It's difficult to say if Ironwood's plan was the right plan during v8 like it was during v3. v8's theme was about how plans could get ruined due to no fault of anyone's, or perhaps the fault of everyone, and you can't do anything about it.
As it is said; "Man devises, but Heaven decides." Everyone was going to fail in v7 and v8. If RT had not intended it, then the fan outcry ensured it. After Ironwood proved himself more sympathetic than the main characters due to some freak of writing.
Perhaps it is better when discussing whether Ironwood was right in v8, to ask if Ironwood was the villain? Or was he the Hero of the story, in a 'Superman dying to stop Doomsday' kind of way and not 'a Villain is the Hero of his story' kind of way?
Heroism in fiction is selfless action, but must that action be morally right? Our heroes have historically committed acts which we wouldn't consider morally right. Yet fantasy is meant to be unrealistic, and our heroes in our stories should be held to a higher standard.
But ultimately, our Heroes should not be condemned for actions that are immoral. The legends of our historical Heroes are just as fantastic as our comic heroes, and they taught lessons that are as valuable as they are timeless.
So was Ironwood the Hero of v7 and v8? Well since this is a Pro-Ironwood blog ... But to be fair, let's address the two main incidents of Ironwood's 'villainy'.
Ironwood arresting RWBY seems to be a moment that was caused by RWBY. Not in a negative sense, but more in that RWBY were the ones who took the initiative to break the stalemate. There was no right course of action in that situation, and Ruby should have offered to go and evacuate Mantle's citizens to Atlas if Ironwood delayed the launch by an hour. Like any action hero worth his salt would do.
Ironwood would then have said; 'you have ONE Hour, not a second more. Ruby would then reply with a one-liner and shot off to save the world.
But what about Ironwood shooting down the SDC ships heading to save Mantle refugees, and threatening to nuke Mantle if RWBY did not hand Penny over?
First; Ironwood kept his word when RWBY 'kept' theirs, and RWBY followed up the backstabbing streak with a 2-0 score against Ironwood.
Second; Even if Ironwood nuked Mantle, would he be a villain if he did it to save another island city's worth of civilians? Boudica killed three cities worth of innocent Romans for the Iceni Tribe of Britons, and she is still considered a bally heroine today. Ironwood would also have destroyed Mantle for pretty good reasons, as he would have destroyed the key to opening the Vault and would have thus prevented Salem from taking the Staff.
In any case, we won't really know if Ironwood was playing a particularly brutal bluff. I'd say he was bluffing but I like Ironwood so that's a nut and a half. The more important question is whether such a bluff made Ironwood a villain.
I say, no. If Heroism is defined by Selfless, Ironwood in v8 more than fits the bill. Ironwood unironically puts himself on the line to keep Atlas, and in the process Remnant, safe. He is willing to literally tear himself apart to stop Salem. Ironwood is selfless if nothing else.
But if Ironwood is the hero, what does that make RWBY?
RWBY Review - Start to Finish -
RWBY VOL 1; CHAPTER 3 -
So ... We meet Nora.
Mother, Mary of God, grant me strength.
The only thing balancing out the horror that is Nora is Pyrrha Nikos. SHE is now my favorite character instead of Jaune.
This is impressive because I generally do not like female main characters, and Pyrrha is obviously the main character of the show now because the title character still hasn't done anything to really impress three episodes in.
Chapter 3; The First Step -
An interesting title since the episode only had enough time for the plot to progress exactly one step.
It is the morning after the 'slumber party' in Beacon Academy's great hall. Now, the aspiring Huntsmen are going through their morning routines in Beacon's locker rooms. Preparing for whatever the Academy is going to throw at them next.
We start with Nora and Ren. But that's a jazz tune I ain't playing until I have to, so let's talk about Ruby.
Ruby and her sister, Yang, have a brief discussion about socializing. Here, we see a little more about Ruby's fixation with her weapon and how her weapon makes it less awkward for Ruby to deal with life in general. Yang tries to convince Ruby that breaking out of her shell would do Ruby a world of good, but Jaune interrupts that conversation, and I suddenly hate him.
Jaune then starts blowing his trombone in an attempt to bone Weiss. Interrupting a perfectly civil conversation between Weiss and a new girl, Pyrrha Nikos. Despite Jaune's hot air initially, Weiss manages to deflate him a little and Pyrrha sweeps him off his feet.
From Beacon's lockers, the Huntsmen find themselves standing on a cliff overlooking the Emerald Forest. After a blatant case of Negligence on the part of Ozpin, the Huntsmen are launched off the cliff, thus taking their 'first step' on their journey to become Huntsmen.
Building on from Chapter 2 -
After the attempt of Chapter 2 to progress the Huntsman storyline, Chapter 3 takes an immediate sharp left off the beaten path to introduce Ren and Nora. Or Nora and Ren, to be precise, because we get far too much of Nora in this Chapter.
Out of a 7-minute episode and a 30-second opening, Nora takes up a minute and a half of the remaining 6 minutes of the Chapter with pointless rambling about sloths, and an attempt by the writers to start a ship between Nora and Ren.
The ship isn't the problem, the inefficiency is the problem. Just keep the part about Sloths and the noises they allegedly make. 19 seconds would have been enough to get across that Nora is thirsty for Ren.
The Chapter attempts to address Ruby Rose's character development. Seemingly, this time, to focus on Ruby's love of weapons. Expressed by the girl in the first half of Chapter 2. Whether the writers would stick to this particular trait would be a bridge to cross when we come to it. This is because Jaune interrupts the conversation between Ruby and Yang so the writers could set up something as equally irrelevant as Nora's ramblings earlier.
Funnily enough, Pyrrha being irrelevant to the story is what makes her such a likable character in this Chapter. There is no attempt by the writers to do too much with Pyrrha at this stage, so Pyrrha is just a polite girl who is endearingly attractive because of it.
Her weapon is also a spear. How elegantly simple!
Jaune is an ass in this chapter though, which is a 180 turn when compared to his character in Chapter 2. I get it, Jaune likes Weiss, but why is he so dismissive of Pyrrha during his conversation with her and Weiss? Jaune wasn't interested in Ruby, but he was perfectly pleasant with Ruby when he first met her.
All in all, Chapter 3 is the first step onto the narrative of Ruby Rose. However, Ruby is not the focus, and we as the audience are taking the first step with the wrong foot forward, it seems.
What I liked -
Pyrrha Nikos. A little simple, but you get more out of a simple dish, I believe.
What I did not like -
Ruby Rose is not the main focus of her own show.
I don't know what noise a Sloth makes, but I'm sure it would come up with its own noise to tell Nora to leave it in peace. Say it with me everyone, "Nora, no talking!"
I do not approve of Jaune being mean to Pyrrha.
No. We don't have to work with the shills who provide SJW content, whether its Disney or RoosterTeeth.
Ideologues can only be ignored, not bargained with.
When an RWBY fan does it, it's inferring from context.
When an RWDE, Ironwood lover does it, it's ignoring Head canon.
Le Gasp, an Autistic dude told me to grow up.
I feel the change. The mutation, building within me.
Something seeks to break out. Emboldened. Mysterious what can it be?
The thing is ready to burst free from the chrysalis, its first words upon transformed lips, a cry of defiance to an uncaring world.
It stands on the threshold, raises its mournful head to an uncaring sky, and says -!
When an RWBY fan does it, it's inferring from context.
When an RWDE, Ironwood lover does it, it's ignoring Head canon.
Its on your tumblr page, sir.
When an RWBY fan does it, it's inferring from context.
When an RWDE, Ironwood lover does it, it's ignoring Head canon.
Are RWBY the baddies?
If heroism is where a character acts to defend higher ideals villainy, perhaps, is when a character acts without thought for anything beyond the acting. Where a character antagonizes other for its own sake, and is careless to the effect their actions have on others.
If such is the case then RWBY's actions in v7 and v8 are the acts of villains.
Beyond the betrayal of Ironwood's trust, the sabotage of Ironwood's plans, and the loss of the staff of creation to Salem, what makes RWBY the villains here is that their actions did not benefit the people they claimed they were helping. Which led to the death of the better part of 2 Kingdoms, and the deaths of those stuck in Vacuo until the Huntsmen there show up to rescue the survivors.
RWBY forced a fight with Ironwood on the wrong issues, and caused the deaths of innocents. Characters have been decried as evil for less.
The only thing I'd say is wrong is RWBY being called spoiled brats. The problem there is that RT is trying to write around an ideology or a criticism of some theme such as authority over the youth, and in the process failed to see when the narrative would horribly clash with the themes they are trying to put across.
Give this video a watch if you can! Great video made by Judgemental Critter, really does a deep dive into how Team RWBY fail as heroes and come off villainous.
Entitled, spoiled, antagonistic "heroes."
We literally see the bomb go off, we see Harriet doing her damndest to drop said bomb, we see the ace ops discuss if it’s a bluff and agree it fuming wasn’t,
If you think it’s a bluff you’d need to disregard literally everything the show tells us or shows us,
If you think its not a bluff you'd need to disregard that Ironwood did not order the detonation of the bomb the moment he got Penny in his hands.
You'd also have to disregard the fact that Harriet was about to not detonate the nuke thanks to Vine's advice, and Qrow and Robyn were responsible for escalating the tensions into a brawl that set off the bomb.
In any case, you should not be going off on me, or RWDE in general, for something that is entirely RT's fault.
The writers managed to cement Adam Taurus's villainy back in V5 when they SHOWED him detonating the Haven Academy bombs, but was only stopped by Ilia disarming those bombs.
RT dropped the ball (or bomb) on Ironwood because they had Trump Derangement Syndrome and were so eager to write a story about Political Power gone crazy they forgot to do for Ironwood what they did to Adam.
As it is, RT was so eager to have RWBY 'stop' Ironwood they forgot to actually write Ironwood as a definitive villain.
At this point, based on the writing, Ironwood can be interpreted as either a Hero or a Villain. I, and most of RWDE, choose Hero. Now you have to choose if you are willing to agree to disagree on this point.
That's a fair point, but you could also see it as Ironwood's semblance driving him to be as hardhearted as possible to SELL the Bluff.
Was he about to shoot Marrow? Maybe. But comparing Ironwood's off-handed shooting of the Politician, and the delay of Ironwood shooting Marrow, I wonder if Ironwood was going to kill Marrow. Or was Ironwood going to make a big show about it, then order Marrow to be arrested instead.
We won't know because Winter intervened before anything could happen. But if Ironwood had shot first and missed Marrow, before Winter arrested Marrow though, who knows?
Even if Ironwood did kill Marrow, he did it to save Atlas from Salem.
Jaune onscreen killed Penny to stop Cinder taking the Maiden Power.
We literally see the bomb go off, we see Harriet doing her damndest to drop said bomb, we see the ace ops discuss if it’s a bluff and agree it fuming wasn’t,
If you think it’s a bluff you’d need to disregard literally everything the show tells us or shows us,
If you think its not a bluff you'd need to disregard that Ironwood did not order the detonation of the bomb the moment he got Penny in his hands.
You'd also have to disregard the fact that Harriet was about to not detonate the nuke thanks to Vine's advice, and Qrow and Robyn were responsible for escalating the tensions into a brawl that set off the bomb.
In any case, you should not be going off on me, or RWDE in general, for something that is entirely RT's fault.
The writers managed to cement Adam Taurus's villainy back in V5 when they SHOWED him detonating the Haven Academy bombs, but was only stopped by Ilia disarming those bombs.
RT dropped the ball (or bomb) on Ironwood because they had Trump Derangement Syndrome and were so eager to write a story about Political Power gone crazy they forgot to do for Ironwood what they did to Adam.
As it is, RT was so eager to have RWBY 'stop' Ironwood they forgot to actually write Ironwood as a definitive villain.
At this point, based on the writing, Ironwood can be interpreted as either a Hero or a Villain. I, and most of RWDE, choose Hero. Now you have to choose if you are willing to agree to disagree on this point.
Is Ruby Rose (RWBY) a Mary Sue?
Definition of Mary Sue;
In an earlier post, I described the 'Mary Sue' as a narrative trope instead of a character archetype. A 'Mary Sue' occurs when a character's story overshadows the stories of the other characters.
Example;
Harry Potter in the last four books is a Mary Sue mostly because everything after book four is somehow tied to Harry, no matter how obscure or far removed. As a result, the story shrinks around Harry and the world of Magic becomes less interesting the more it focuses on Harry and his conflict with Voldemort.
Is Ruby is Mary Sue?
Based on my definition, no. She is just a badly written character. While all Mary Sues are badly written, not all badly written characters are Mary Sues.
Ozpin is more of the Mary Sue in RWBY. This is because most of RWBY's plot centers around Ozpin's mistakes and his relationships. Especially with Salem.
Therefore, Ruby Rose is not a Mary Sue.
Not today, Penny.
How Jaune should’ve responded.
Your points are fair. However, in this instance at least, I am experimenting with a different definition of Mary Sue. So I will respectfully agree with your interpretation of your very valid points to a certain extent only. I hope that you won't take offense for I mean none.
I believe that the ultimate nature of stories and narratives would inevitably favor the Main Characters, or the Protagonists. The classic mythologies are a good example of this, where the gods would intervene to assist the Hero in their quest.
An example of this would be Achilles. By the common definition of Mary Sue, Achilles would be a Mary Sue. Invincible, gets help from the gods through the story, and he is ultimately proven right over his rival, Agamemnon through the plot working in Achilles's favor.
There is an overlap between a naturally developing Main Character and Mary Sue which is better differentiated when one looks at the issue of Mary Sue as a narrative trope rather than a character trope.
Going back to the Achilles example. Achilles does not come across as a Mary Sue because Achilles is a part of a larger world that the Illiad builds throughout the narrative. Achilles does not overshadow the stories of the other characters through the Illiad's narrative, which allows the audience to understand Achilles not just as a part of the world, but also as APART from the world. Since he is partly divine due to his birth.
Looking at RWBY, I believe that Ruby Rose is a victim of Ozpin's issues that extends centuries before the start of RWBY proper. Ruby is not allowed to have her own story because she has to solve Ozpin's problems. Which is why Ruby's story gets twisted up not to make her 'always right', but to carry Ozpin's poorly written story onward.
Ruby is the main character, but this is not her story. Which I believe is the fundamental issue of RWBY and can only be addressed when a different definition of 'Mary Sue' is used to identify the true culprit of the poor writing. So to speak.
Is Ruby Rose (RWBY) a Mary Sue?
Definition of Mary Sue;
In an earlier post, I described the 'Mary Sue' as a narrative trope instead of a character archetype. A 'Mary Sue' occurs when a character's story overshadows the stories of the other characters.
Example;
Harry Potter in the last four books is a Mary Sue mostly because everything after book four is somehow tied to Harry, no matter how obscure or far removed. As a result, the story shrinks around Harry and the world of Magic becomes less interesting the more it focuses on Harry and his conflict with Voldemort.
Is Ruby is Mary Sue?
Based on my definition, no. She is just a badly written character. While all Mary Sues are badly written, not all badly written characters are Mary Sues.
Ozpin is more of the Mary Sue in RWBY. This is because most of RWBY's plot centers around Ozpin's mistakes and his relationships. Especially with Salem.
Therefore, Ruby Rose is not a Mary Sue.
It has to be whatever Penny was using as her weapon while she was a robot. Ironwood adopted it to be able to destroy Penny if she didn't surrender, I guess.
Nitpick November Day....????
I can’t remember its been so long but I actually thought of one last one and just in time too but why does James’s gun gun shoot green?
Now its no secret I’ve always hated this dumb thing, but….why does Due Process’s two guns combined make it fire….green? It looks like when he takes them out they shoot normally and normally the silver due process shoots green and the black one shoots purple (likely as it is filled with gravity dust bullets.
(I know these look bad but I am tired and don’t feel like trying to get a better screenshot okay?)
But what is the gungun doing that turns the shots green? Why Green? I don’t understand and it annoys me and I know (well HOPE I should say) CRWBY has some sort of reason for it but I don’t think the show explains this and it annoys exactly me so uhh I am complaining about it here.
Now maybe James changes his black due process’s bullets to a different kind of dust or regular but that still doesn’t explain why green. Even the flames left behind are green.
(I hate this volume and this scene and all it stands for but I am making a point)
Why green? What does it mean? Fire dust is red which would make sense for him to use but green dust is according to the wiki right now plant dust. So dust clearly isn’t affecting the color of the shots, so what is? Why not use fire dust for more destruction? Nothing about this stupid gun makes any sense I hate it so much.
The thing isn't just that we think Ironwood could be written better or the story could be done in a different way.
The thing is that some of us like Ironwood unironically, and we are not allowed to do so.
In my case, I consider Ironwood a Hero compared to RWBY as the villains. This is not just a headcanon, but logical inference from the plot and plot context. Read my posts and you would see. However, RWBY fans don't like that and jump on that wagon like bears in heat.
Mine is an extreme case, but other Ironwood fans are also attacked because they like Ironwood.
Ultimately, we are not allowed to interpret Ironwood the way we want to and these attacks against unironic Ironwood fans is getting a little over the top.
That's what we have issue with.
What hurts the most about Ironwood in the end is that Miles and Kerry did this to the character they created.
I hate to bring him into this, but Monty stated that Ironwood was mostly Miles and Kerry's creation.
So Miles and Kerry took the character they created and did that to him.
Out of the entire cast that could have been an author's pet, you'd think it'd be the character created by the two writers who was there from the start.
Honestly….I didn’t know this before but knowing it now….it makes the whole damn hurt even more. Just….how could you do something so fucking awful to a character you created and seemingly liked at one point? I mean I can’t imagine how you could write that kind of story for any character really but….one that you created? It makes even less sense.
Like these guys made this character, and with the kind of people they are….why didn’t they do more projecting onto him? Why didn’t they want and push for a better ending for him? I just cannot comprehend what their thought process is on anything anymore.
Every time I think I’m as sad as I could physically get about James something like this pops up to make me sadder. What possibly could a fictional character you created do to make you hate them so much to do what they did to him?
Why Jacques?
Your question, funnily enough, is the answer. Why Jacques? Why Jacques, indeed.
V7 and V8 puts a lot of focus on Jacques's impact in Atlas and on his family. But what is it about Jacques that makes him such a force to be reckoned with?
How did Jacques marry into the Schnee family? He doesn't have any powers or fighting skill. Neither is Jacques from a lineage of any note himself.
Subsequently, how did Jacques manage to dominate Willow, Winter, and Weiss to the extent RWBY states he did? What kind of man was Willow's father, who would force his more powerful daughter to submit to Jacques?
Ultimately, in Jacques's final moments, he proves himself to be just a normal guy involved in matters way over his head. When Jacques says;
"You lose! We both lose."
Jacques didn't gloat over Ironwood's betrayal. Jacques didn't throw a fit. Jacques accepted that he lost. That does not strike me as something Jacques, as he is established so far in the show, would do.
Then there is Jacques's final words;
"You're... You're going to open mine too, right?"
That hit me harder than Yang's death. Jacques really is out of his depth, and that is the last thing he is aware of before James blows Jacques to ash. It wasn't a demand. It was Jacques's last hope. Jacques knew he was going to die, but he was hoping he wouldn't.
In the end, Jacques was a Man who got caught up in events greater than himself. RWBY makes it seem like Jacques deserved it, I don't see why. Therefore, why Jacques? What did Jacques do to end up as he did. Exploring that question was interesting to me.
What RWBY really needs
An Asian Character.
When Team RWBY tries to destroy Atlas:
When Cinder keeps repeating the same mistakes:
When Penny tells Jaune to kill her:
When RT tries to push Bumbleby with some cutesy, funny moment between the most hated lesbian couple.
Anymore reasons why RWBY needs an Asian Character?