what gibbering madness may look like

Tifa x Aerith ❤️ You can see the full collection here!

On one side of this coin we have Ironwood, a man driven by paranoia that NEEDS everything to go exactly as he wants it or it's not good enough, and he won't have it any other way. In other words he's a control freak, and these tendencies only get worse as the series goes on

He brought an army to Vale as a show of force to try intimidating the Fang and other criminals into submission. He stabbed Oz in the back so that he could be head of Amity's security, thinking that it's for the best he be in charge

By having two of the five seats in Atlas' council he has disproportionate power and it would take the entire rest of the council to vote against him to say no to his policies. In Volume 4 he outright says that if Oz just did whatever he said the Fall if Beacon wouldn't have happened which is factually false since it was the robots HE wanted to show off getting hacked that turned the tide of the Fall into a truly unwinnable situation

He started a Dust embrargo due to fearing that Salem would take the resources for her own purposes, something that she isn't even hurt by. He then closed the borders trying to keep her faction out of Atlas which doesn't even work with with how easily they all slip in

In Volume 7 he turned Mantle into a police surveillance state so that he could keep an eye out for Salem's agents and any potential dissent against Atlas. On top of this he completely isolates Fria so that he could guarantee that her maiden powers would transfer to Winter. In other words controlling the next maiden and guaranteeing that she'll be his loyal soldier

He refuses to tell anybody anything about Amity or Salem outside of his inner circle and immediate allies until the big planned announcement, fearing that telling anybody else would leak this secret of Amity before it's done. When Robyn rightfully takes back the resources meant for Mantle that he's illegally repurposing, he decides to have RWBYJNR and the Ace-Ops arrest her rather than bend even a little bit on telling her what's happening. Jacques and the Atlas council rightfully point out that he's burned away any trust he had due to his policies and need for absolute secrecy. Ironwood needs complete control over the information on Amity's existence even when his secrecy hurts him

Ironwood's treatment of Penny ties incredibly heavily into this theme, refusing to allow her choices that she'd rather make. Either "for her own good" or the good of others. More for on this in her part

When he realizes that someone told Robyn about Amity, he considers it a betrayal of loyalty. Loyalty to him and his decisions, rather than a violation of trust or people trying to navigate a messy situation that they didn't agree with his approach. When RWBY stands against his decision to leave Mantle to die, rather than try to talk things out he puts out an arrest warrant on them JNR and Qrow because how DARE they not mindlessly go along with his plan. When Oscar tries to talk him out of the plan, he decides he's had enough of people disagreeing with him and literally shoots him off of Atlas

A lot of people consider Ironwood shooting Sleet to be character assassination so Volume 8 and CRWBY are bad because of this. Clearly, these people are stupid. He just tried to kill Oscar in cold blood hours ago for the crime of trying to change his mind, he was being entirely non-hostile or confrontational. Shooting Sleet also sends a clear message to everybody in that room, reminder that Winter and the Ace-Ops are there as well. The message being to not do or say ANYTHING that goes against his decisions, he is DONE hearing any contrary opinions. He is in control of Atlas now, and if you dare do anything against that then this is what will happen to you

FRWBY mostly retained this stuff in V2-4, but tries to sanitize Ironwood of this flaw in the Atlas arc. Despite this it still ends up retaining this theme in a strange way

Ironwood in FRWBY is considering becoming the Architect of Atlas, which would make him its dictator. Something he eventually follows through on. If anything embodies being in control of something, being dictator of a nation would do it. But it's so blatant compared to canon it's kinda laughable. In episode 2 of the Atlas arc FRWBY Ironwood's spelling out that he's going to become a dictator, it's so much less subtle and has so much less dread and tension on if the heroes can convince him away from his darker impulses

He doesn't turn Mantle into a police surveillance state until after he decides to go through on becoming dictator 2/3rds through Volume 7

He gets furious at Robyn for stealing from a Schnee supply ship, but doesn't try to get her arrested unless she's caught doing something like that again. According to him his position of having two seats on the Atlas council makes his orders and authority absolute unless the entire council votes against him. This is an incredibly strange thing in regards to this theme

On one hand he retains his canon disproportionate power and control over the Atlas council. On the other, he seriously doesn't try to arrest Robyn for this? He didn't know that she and the Happy Huntresses were looting from the ship he just sent RWBY there to investigate. But after learning she did that and abused her authority, he just yells at her and gets mad?

Any and all dynamics Ironwood had for his controlling tendencies of Penny in the Atlas arc are removed entirely

1. Souls in Remnant do not inherently have a gender (Gendered Souls feels a bit close to Bioessentialism, tbh).

I wonder if Penny looks like someone Pietro knew in his(?) youth.

One possibility is that Penny's looks are drawn from old memories or even fantasies Pietro had of someone Pietro had once seen and who Pietro'd subconsciously thought of as a "goal", or perhaps how he once pictured what his daughter might look like if he had gotten together with someone he knew in youth (why such a person isn't in Pietro and Penny's lives in the present is irrelevant to this topic).

Another possibility is that Aura carries a lot less of the person than one assumes. That Aura is the power of the soul, but not the soul itself, so a piece of someone's Aura might not have anything that would make the source identifiable. In other words, Penny's soul(once booted up, for which Pietro provided the energy) is hers and nothing about it says anything bout Pietro's own.

One more possibility is that there is someone on Remnant who at one point looked exactly like Penny does in V1. that it was Penny who saw (a picture of) someone and decided "I want to look like that" and then took it extremely literally. (Wouldn't surprise me if Penny took a question as "what would you want to look like" too literally and chose an appearance to mimic exactly, not realising she had room for modifications until she was already used to thinking of the copy as "her" and changing it too drastically started feeling wrong.

There's also how Remnant doesn't seem to have skin-tone based intra-human racism (xenophobia and anti-faunus racism), so that particular difference between Pietro's appearance and Penny's might not have any connotations(to the characters, exegetically there are questions) that wanting to dye one's hair a different colour doesn't (beyond it taking much more effort to do).

“Fuck you.”

On one side of this coin we have Ironwood, a man driven by paranoia that NEEDS everything to go exactly as he wants it or it's not good enough, and he won't have it any other way. In other words he's a control freak, and these tendencies only get worse as the series goes on

He brought an army to Vale as a show of force to try intimidating the Fang and other criminals into submission. He stabbed Oz in the back so that he could be head of Amity's security, thinking that it's for the best he be in charge

By having two of the five seats in Atlas' council he has disproportionate power and it would take the entire rest of the council to vote against him to say no to his policies. In Volume 4 he outright says that if Oz just did whatever he said the Fall if Beacon wouldn't have happened which is factually false since it was the robots HE wanted to show off getting hacked that turned the tide of the Fall into a truly unwinnable situation

He started a Dust embrargo due to fearing that Salem would take the resources for her own purposes, something that she isn't even hurt by. He then closed the borders trying to keep her faction out of Atlas which doesn't even work with with how easily they all slip in

In Volume 7 he turned Mantle into a police surveillance state so that he could keep an eye out for Salem's agents and any potential dissent against Atlas. On top of this he completely isolates Fria so that he could guarantee that her maiden powers would transfer to Winter. In other words controlling the next maiden and guaranteeing that she'll be his loyal soldier

He refuses to tell anybody anything about Amity or Salem outside of his inner circle and immediate allies until the big planned announcement, fearing that telling anybody else would leak this secret of Amity before it's done. When Robyn rightfully takes back the resources meant for Mantle that he's illegally repurposing, he decides to have RWBYJNR and the Ace-Ops arrest her rather than bend even a little bit on telling her what's happening. Jacques and the Atlas council rightfully point out that he's burned away any trust he had due to his policies and need for absolute secrecy. Ironwood needs complete control over the information on Amity's existence even when his secrecy hurts him

Ironwood's treatment of Penny ties incredibly heavily into this theme, refusing to allow her choices that she'd rather make. Either "for her own good" or the good of others. More for on this in her part

When he realizes that someone told Robyn about Amity, he considers it a betrayal of loyalty. Loyalty to him and his decisions, rather than a violation of trust or people trying to navigate a messy situation that they didn't agree with his approach. When RWBY stands against his decision to leave Mantle to die, rather than try to talk things out he puts out an arrest warrant on them JNR and Qrow because how DARE they not mindlessly go along with his plan. When Oscar tries to talk him out of the plan, he decides he's had enough of people disagreeing with him and literally shoots him off of Atlas

A lot of people consider Ironwood shooting Sleet to be character assassination so Volume 8 and CRWBY are bad because of this. Clearly, these people are stupid. He just tried to kill Oscar in cold blood hours ago for the crime of trying to change his mind, he was being entirely non-hostile or confrontational. Shooting Sleet also sends a clear message to everybody in that room, reminder that Winter and the Ace-Ops are there as well. The message being to not do or say ANYTHING that goes against his decisions, he is DONE hearing any contrary opinions. He is in control of Atlas now, and if you dare do anything against that then this is what will happen to you

FRWBY mostly retained this stuff in V2-4, but tries to sanitize Ironwood of this flaw in the Atlas arc. Despite this it still ends up retaining this theme in a strange way

Ironwood in FRWBY is considering becoming the Architect of Atlas, which would make him its dictator. Something he eventually follows through on. If anything embodies being in control of something, being dictator of a nation would do it. But it's so blatant compared to canon it's kinda laughable. In episode 2 of the Atlas arc FRWBY Ironwood's spelling out that he's going to become a dictator, it's so much less subtle and has so much less dread and tension on if the heroes can convince him away from his darker impulses

He doesn't turn Mantle into a police surveillance state until after he decides to go through on becoming dictator 2/3rds through Volume 7

He gets furious at Robyn for stealing from a Schnee supply ship, but doesn't try to get her arrested unless she's caught doing something like that again. According to him his position of having two seats on the Atlas council makes his orders and authority absolute unless the entire council votes against him. This is an incredibly strange thing in regards to this theme

On one hand he retains his canon disproportionate power and control over the Atlas council. On the other, he seriously doesn't try to arrest Robyn for this? He didn't know that she and the Happy Huntresses were looting from the ship he just sent RWBY there to investigate. But after learning she did that and abused her authority, he just yells at her and gets mad?

Any and all dynamics Ironwood had for his controlling tendencies of Penny in the Atlas arc are removed entirely

This always gets me too. I very much remember Red Vs. Blue for being comical about the military at best and really highlighting its evil at worst. I guess that the dudebro humor at the time obscured it but... the Reds and Blues ACTIVELY go against military protocol.

They frequently break into areas clearly only for authorized personal only. We're not just talking about airships here, people. We're talking hacking into classified documents like learning what the Red and Blue bases were really for. They generally do their own thing and what they feel is right. Bellyaching all the way but still doing it.

I know some RWBY fans haven't seen RVB. The early Seasons haven't fully aged terribly well but betraying Ironwood had precedence. Miles even wrote for the Chorus Trilogy where war profiteering was put on blast and dismantling the us vs. them mentality drilled into soldiers.

2021:

2018:

2016:

2012:

2010:

I haven’t pissed people off lately by reminding them that ALL types of physical punishment of kids has been proven beyond ANY reasonable doubt to have only negative long term outcomes.

So let me scream it from the hilltops:

Stop hitting kids. End of sentence.

2022:

2023:

2024:

2025:

For example, being exposed to corporal punishment as a kid makes it more likely for a person to commit domestic violence against a partner. In places where corporal punishment is normal, people are more likely to think that rape and intimate partner violence are normal. Kids who are spanked are more likely to be violent with and to bully other kids.

Spanking is literally teaching a kid that violence is okay and normal and it affects the whole society.