#fishy.analysis

On the other hand, for some Gems the second chance was an opprotunity they gladly took to change what they didn’t like. Cinnabar had always wanted to become close to the other Gems, and now they relish in the ability to partake and touch the flowers without worry. Cairngorm’s dream came true, and they can live their lives with Aechmea like they always wanted. Yet, their willingness to change has little to do with their transformation to Lunarians - they both started on the path to change beforehand.

I’m not sure if I can explain and articulate this point correctly, but like half of this FNDM I’m Yang-emotional and just have a lot of thoughts so okay;

There’s this moment in Volume 3 Yang jumps into the fray after Adam, because she sees Blake is hurt, and she has not other options. And she just goes for it, because that’s how much Blake matters to her, it’s indescribable just how much. And it’s heartbreaking to see her make that leap towards Adam, because we know what’s coming next, (we know her intentions are good, it’s not stupidity or recklessness that drives her) but it’s her friend (future gf) in danger and that’s all that matters.

There’s this moment in Yang’s Volume 5 short, that happens pre-series, and she’s training Ruby. And a Grimm walks in, and Ruby’s defenseless, so Yang does what she absolutely must because it’s hardwired into her brain - she jumps in to protect Ruby. Because her sister (and she’s already sacrificed so much for her sister trying to be both a sibling and a parent) is in danger, so she has to jump in, she must, it’s such an obvious choice for her to make it doesn’t even register to her as a choice.

There’s this moment in Volume 6 in which Yang yeets Bumblebee into Adam when Blake’s in danger, and it doesn’t matter to her that she has to face the demon of her dreams again, it doesn’t matter that she feels Blake doesn’t understand her yet (Blake left, she only came back by mistake), all that matters is being there and helping Blake face her abuser. All that matters is not vengeance, it’s not killing Adam, it’s not about getting payback - it’s Blake. It’s making her - and them - safe.

There’s this moment in Volume 8, chapter 2, in which a terrifying Grimm we’ve never seen before breaks all of our perceptions of everything Grimm can or could be. And it manages to nab Oscar and break his Aura immediately, and terrify our heroes to inaction. And then Yang goes for it and tries to get Oscar back, because that’s what matters - screw the scary Grimm, screw her fear, her friend is in danger and she won’t stand back doing nothing, even at those terrible odds. It doesn’t matter that Oscar shares his body with Ozpin (who lied to her, who proved her mother right), Oscar is in danger and he needs help.

Then there’s this moment in Volume 8, chapter 9, in which a terrifying evil being, who isn’t even human (who crashed her world, who shattered her family) has Emerald in her clutches. And Emerald hurt Yang, Emerald made her life miserable, Emerald - can she even be trusted in that moment? Yet - yet it doesn’t matter that her odds are against her, Emerald’s there and she’s scared and she’s in mortal danger so what does Yang do? What does she do, if not run up to Salem and fight her?

I know Yang says she has no higher calling, I know Yang feels directionless. I know what makes Yang the way that she is today was tragedy and growing too fast. I know that she suffered for it then, I know she suffers for it now. But who needs a higher calling - who needs one truly - when you do have one so noble, so good, so true;

So here’s where my mind’s at now: though I consider Yang to be the heart of the team, I’ve always been under the impression Weiss has been slowly adapting a similar role as well. Not by replacing Yang, but rather, as she establishes RWBY as her family not by blood, she tethers themselves to her. It happens individually, we see her learning to accept Ruby in Beacon, accept Blake despite her prejudice, and (though more subtly) accept Yang’s friendship. And with each of them it’s not just what they can give her, there’s always a payback, Weiss wants every tether to be two-ways. When Weiss was accepted by RWBY, Weiss made good on her promise to support them back. Weiss told Ruby she’s going to be the best teammate ever, told Blake she’s going to change the SDC from the inside. Weiss even takes the role of a semi-support fighter in the team.

In a way, Weiss’s family arc completes Yang. Thus far, I feel like a lot of Weiss’s story has been about accepting the support of team RWBY behind her, from Volume 1 when struggling against the confines of her identity as Schnee, all the way to Volume 7 where she actively confronts Jacques and the rest of the Schnee family. In contrast, a lot of Yang’s family arc was to give so much to her family without knowing on how to rely on them in return. And I think it says a lot, that one of the most notable times Yang confesses the need to rely on someone else, is in the presence of Weiss.

When Weiss saw Jacques again in Volume 7, she had RWBY to stand with her, to face her fears. And the trust and support team RWBY gave her - she brought it to her family by blood. It was Weiss that put Jacques behind bars, it was Weiss that decided to try and heal her broken home, to give her brother a chance despite his harmful words, to give her mother a chance despite her neglectful nature, to accept a call from her sister when she was lost and had to find an ally. Weiss took the broken pieces and stitched them together, threw out the prickly bits and put them in the trash, and it’s poetic, isn’t it, that Weiss who was always shackled by her surname will lift those shackles and reinvent the Schnee name - not in the name of a company or a legacy, but in the name of something smaller and more honest - a true family.

And I go back to the last episode, where Blake (her family) wants to run off that cliff after Yang, and I wonder again - why Weiss? Why is it Weiss that needs to stop Blake, why is it Weiss that had to see Yang break down, what’s the meaning, where does it go?

Ruby needs Weiss too, I think to myself. Ruby was always comforted by her sister, and in the manor even by Blake, and Ruby (her family) is so lost, so alone, so afraid of failure, does she freeze, what does she do next Yang isn’t here but her plan already failed it’s my fault how does she take the next step? And I think now it will be Weiss’s turn to talk with Ruby.

Weiss, I think, will give them the final push. Weiss will push them to find a way, not to lose herself in rage like Blake wants to, not to freeze in the face of uncertainty like Ruby almost wants to. Weiss will tell them to go after their teammate, but they’ll have to be smart about, they’ll have to do it together as a team. As a family.

I absolutely love Ironwood’s character, precisely because I despise everything about him.

I’ve mentioned this a day or two ago, but when I first saw Ironwood, well - I was already a skeptic, because military man is military man and that’s enough reason to question everything about him. He’s tall, imposing, somewhat good-looking (although that original army haircut, ugh...), certainly strong.

And then he fucking speaks, and he’s the nicest person around. He’s soft-spoken, he’s trying to get a word in while the rest of Ozpin’s gang talks all over him, Glynda cuts him off to reprimand him. Honestly you want to feel bad about him, he’s only trying to do the right thing and everyone treats him like a child. His history with Glynda makes you think of a fleeing romance, lovers separated by duty. He’s shy, he’s awkward to be around, he can’t give speeches for shit.

And there’s something so charming about that in a person, you know? He’s not perfect, he’s not trying to be a god among man, he acknowledges his problems communicating with others. You feel sorry for him because maybe you were just like him too.

But here’s the scary part; he’s always been the most dangerous of Ozpin’s gang. He was ready to call for an invasion on Mount Glenn, he brought an army to peace talks, he saw his force as safety. He brought the most terrible ideas to the table, and never seems aware of their danger.

And there’s a duality to this, because his character isn’t military macho man, walking charisma and suggesting you serve justice in violence. He’s not impervious to judgement of his character, he doesn’t only show his strong front. He’s not nationalist radio 24/7, he’s not ancient general offering his wisdom.

His character is the military man, stripped down to its very core - the authoritarian view of “I know exactly what needs to be done and I know better than you”, the sweet poison in offering you to make a better person out of yourselves in enlistment, the insidiousness of taking those who were abused and molding them into soldiers, the very idea that with enough force, with enough violence, I can solve everything, I can bring peace!

It’s a new kind of danger, because he doesn’t want you to join him on his pedestal. He lowers it down and offers you a step with some kind words.

And it blew my mind when I first saw that! Like, how easy would it have been to make him a walking caricature of general, with the exact same plot beats? Everyone would’ve known he’s full of shit, we’re past the point of falling for that kind of character. But you can’t look at Ironwood’s character at first and realize he’s dangerous because he looks bad like you’d expect, he’s dangerous because his actions and words make him dangerous.

And here’s the actual scary part; it’s real. If one mask doesn’t work, we change it for another. If people can see the veneer for what it is, we can fix it. Dangerous people will always find a way to be appealing, and that’s true for the army just as well. Danger is always in actions, not appearances.

Can I talk about this chapter for a hot minute because holy frick-

Yor wants to learn to cook because she feels inadequate as a wife who Doesn’t know how to cook, and she says to herself it’s important for her to know how to cook so she could keep up her wifely facade and no one would suspect her, a 27-year-old single woman, of being a spy (and incidentally learn she’s actually an assassin). And like, yes that’s all there is to this chapter, she wants to improve her cooking skills, she goes to her friend(?) and studies, and eventually she succeeds and her family enjoys her meal. That’s all. Except this isn’t the first time we learned Yor is a bad cook, but it is the first time we see her attempt to improve on it. And part of it is the societal expectation on wives and women to know how to cook because that’s their Role, but we know Loid doesn’t really care about that (Anya does comment on it, in the blunt way children might say and hurt without meaning it).

What this is, is a feeling of inadequacy. Yor’s best qualities are her strength and her care for Loid and Anya, the almost instant devotion to them and the fierce protectiveness that runs through her whenever they’re in danger (e.g. teeth), and as long as she had those she can tell herself she does her job (as a wife, as a mother) well. That’s how she learned to take care of Yuri, after all - that’s the love she knows to show. That wasn’t enough though, not in the last chapters when Loid felt so sick of her cooking he was incapacitated in the toilet all the day (a lie Anya made up, but Yor doesn’t know it), not when despite her best efforts Anya slipped away twice (to save Loid, but Yor doesn’t know it). To her those are failures that prove Yor Briar is not a good Wife. Her strength did not fail her, but it did not prevent the catastrophes she (thinks she) could’ve prevented. And if her strength is not enough, what else is there to Yor?

She turns to face her fault, her inability to cook. Yor goes to Camilla so she could teach her how to cook, which is a brave choice because Camilla seems to hate her guts. Yuri drops by to taste-test, and we learn Yor cooked for Yuri after they lost their parents. After many failed attempts Camilla asks if the siblings can remember any of their mother’s favorite meals, and through recollection and trial and experiment Yor succeeds - she manages to make the stew they ate as children. It’s delicious. Triumphant, Yor returns to the Forger household and makes it again, and to her delight Loid and Anya immensely enjoy it.

She cries tears of joy, elated, because Yor Forger is a good wife; not wife as in Wife who must know how to cook; wife because she loves them. In this act, Yor proves to herself she still cares for her loved ones even if not by using her strength. It’s why the stew she makes is the one Yuri knows too, the one her mother made. It is victory for Yor who is not just the perfect assassin, for Yor who found value outside her work in this loving pretend-family. When she puts her heart into it, Yor overcomes her shortcomings and find love again.

Winter is perceptive of her surroundings and alert to other people’s behaviors, maintaining constant vigilance in case of danger. Part of it is ingrained in her because of her time in the army, but she also learned this in home so she could protect herself from Jacques. This protection extends mostly to other’s well-being rather than herself - she is the elder sister, so she believes it’s her duty to shield her siblings from Jacques, and Winter enlisted in the army for ideological reasons. The moment Ironwood began posing a threat Winter was already watching him, already prepared to act if it was necessary. It was a foregone conclusion Winter would jump to save Marrow. So when did Winter decide Ironwood was a threat? I don’t think there’s a singular moment you could point to to answer that.

In her adolescence Winter probably idolized Ironwood as the key to escape her father and the pressure of the Schnee name. Imagine young Winter stuck in a ball her father forced her to attend like Weiss in V4, seeing how uncomfortable Ironwood is as well - he doesn’t want to participate, he wants to do real service, not like these elites (read: Jacques) - imagine how enticing Ironwood is to Winter in that moment. And it’s only natural for her to want to enlist the army, Atlas is already so militaristic. Yes, in the process she essentially gave up one controlling father to a different controlling father figure, but Ironwood isn’t controlling because he is abusive, that’s just how the army works. It won’t seem odd to Winter or most Atlesians for Ironwood to be controlling, that’s his job. Winter is aware of the power he poses and the implicit threat of every command, she is not blind to his danger, but she perceives it as natural, as what it should be. What is a military commander if he is not threatening, powerful and dangerous? A bad one.

This is the situation up until the end of V7, but then something changes - Winter’s trust in Ironwood is broken. So long as Winter believed Ironwood’s actions are for the greater good, she saw his actions and behavior as necessary and justified. She already had doubts in him, like his decision to isolate Atlas and exploit Mantle further, but there is no place for doubts in Ironwood as her commander - that’s not how the military works. Something drastic needed to occur for Winter to be able to break free from Ironwood, and that something was Weiss renouncing Ironwood in the V7 finale

To Winter, Ironwood is simultaneously two things: he’s the commander of the Atlesian army and her superior, the leader who makes the tough choices she can’t make. He’s also her savior, her ticket to escape Jacques Schnee and her way to prove her worth by servitude in the military, a pseudo-parental figure to replace Jacques. The former and the latter Ironwood cannot be separated in Winter’s mind, and it’s through her relationship with Ironwood that her view of Atlas and morality become intertwined with her view of her family and companionship. When Weiss still is aligned with Ironwood, Winter’s mind is at ease because the military and her family are in harmony. She falls into disarray when Weiss leaves her, her heart and mind in conflict with each other. Weiss did not convince her to betray Ironwood, her betrayal did not make her call Weiss, yet Winter betrays Ironwood and reconciles with her sister at the same time because to Winter they are the same thing, two aspects of her life ever connected because of Ironwood’s dual role in her life.

I want to talk a bit about Ironwood and Adam, and how their villainy differs. How the latter’s cruelty is so personal, and how the former’s cruelty is impersonal.

There’s a lot of good reasons to compare Ironwood and Winter’s relationship to Adam and Blake’s. For example, how Ironwood going after Winter after he lost mirrors Adam going after Blake after his loss. Winter’s arc in V7-8 also parallels what I imagine Blake’s arc was pre-series, with the difference being Blake’s story starts where Winter’s story ended - on a train, cutting off two train cars; on an ambush, fighting for what’s right. But in the narrative of RWBY, Adam is Blake’s villain, and Ironwood is everyone’s villain.

I think about power, control, cruelty, loyalty and devotion. When I think of Ironwood, all of these concepts are impersonal and grand - it’s Ironwood versus the world, the people who are ungrateful, the city’s the enemy. It’s the thought that Salem’s inhumanity admirable, it’s the admiration of sacrifice, it’s the master plan only he can enact. The enemy’s always everyone and no one - it’s Oscar, it’s RWBY, it’s Winter, it’s Qrow, it’s Robyn - or it’s only Salem, the deity above. It’s sentencing Mantle to death with no inflection. It’s wanting to put the weight of the world on his shoulders, to be Atlas of myth and the kingdom.

I am might I am power

I think about power, control, cruelty, loyalty and devotion. When I think of Adam, all of these concepts are personal and intimate - it’s the world despising him, it’s the damage done to him. It’s Blake who hurt him, it’s Yang in his way, it’s the Belladonna’s who are cowards, it’s Sienna not doing enough. It’s Adam versus the world, split into individuals who hurt him. It’s abusing and hurting Blake, more than anything else. It’s the facade of fighting for a higher cause to fuel his power trip. The pretense is at justice, the cruelty is what he’s after.

Watch them fall as I am glorified

When Ironwood dies, there’s no fanfare, no trumpets to hail our victory, no grand speeches and monologues. He is alone, he is human. He dies as everything he strived not to be, human and alone. The titan failed to hold up Atlas, because he was never a titan to begin with - he was a man. The world was never held with the power of one man, the world was kept by individuals working in tandem. A man will be crushed by the world unceremoniously, as is its way.

Crushed by the weight of the world

When Adam dies, the world stands still for a moment. He dies in struggle, a martyr if his cause wasn’t cruelty. He gets the monologue and the fight to the death. He has the audience of the world to watch him. Not because the world, comprised of everyone is there; because the world, Blake’s, is there. He hurt the world at large, but his aim was always personal at Blake. It’s fitting such a personal villain’s death would seem so large, when it’s one’s world at stake.

It's just a story of a boy who lost his way 

Like, take V4 for instance. It’s essentially a recovery arc, a Volume dedicated to grief and dealing with the aftermath of tragedies. And I don’t think that’s the obvious direction for the show to go on after V1-3, heck just look what most fanfics post V3 suggested. It’s not necessarily a unique choice, but there’s a bold statement in following a Volume so centered about tragedy and death and just, mellowing it. In essence, V4 tells you quite straightforwardly - no, this show isn’t about death as a plot device. It can happen, but it’s not the point.

Followed by V5, with its opening track titled “Triumph”, I think that’s where the hope really shines through. Because you could argue V4 was just a temporary rest, so they could build all that hope in V4 only to smash it to pieces in V5 a la V3 all over again. Except for all its dark moments, V5 ends with the White Fang halfway recovered and no significant personal losses, and miss Raven-you-could’ve-made-me-a-boring-villain-so-easily-Branwen... strangely human. You could argue similarly for Cinder not dying.