#react.txt

We spent entire VOLUMES with Penny for her to get development and affirmation that she’s real and has a heart and soul despite anything that would suggest otherwise and it was thrown away for a shock value death that most likely will serve the purpose of traumatizing a character who’s already had so much screentime and development, ESPECIALLY with regard to loss.

Her death COMPLETELY negates the message they were hinting at only episodes earlier, wherein the team wouldn’t sacrifice her because they valued her as an individual and refused to treat her as disposable like Ironwood or Atlas has, and isn’t that the message of the entire fucking volume? That it’s worth taking a risk because every life is valuable and every life has meaning?

And I don’t care if her death was something she chose to inflict upon herself or not. It doesn't change the VERY deliberate writing decision they made to kill her like this.

Am I biased because I love Penny as a character? I’m sure I am, considering that her return was one of the reasons I caught up with the show again, but it’s not even just about that. I’m failing to see how this death is going to be meaningful in literally any capacity knowing how the writing is.

It just felt cruel, and no amount of Penny waxing poetic about taking her own life into her own hands is going to change the fact that it’s cruel, ESPECIALLY considering how they also went out of their way to write a song from Penny’s perspective for the end credits about her "heroic sacrifice.” It’s cruel, dissatisfying, and it’s moments like this that I despise the most because it feels like shock value takes priority over the show’s heart.

The last time that happened in the show, Pyrrha died. You can’t expect Weiss to just ignore the fact that her sister is essentially being sentenced to death by Ironwood.

Winter is one of the closest people in Weiss’s life. It’s completely realistic for her to be distraught and act removed from the situation after hearing that Winter is going to be put in an incredibly dangerous and potentially fatal situation.

Not to say that it’s out of character, but when you consider the context of it all, it’s heartbreaking. The song says that Ruby literally made Penny feel alive and instead of being upset about her own death and all the hopes and dreams she could have had, she just says that it was worth living if it meant she got to meet Ruby.

And it’s even MORE upsetting because one of the recurring themes is about making wishes, and the idea that even if Penny’s initial wish was to be a real girl, it morphed into wishing to be around people who would view her that way despite her circumstances, and I-

So...are we gonna talk about Elm Ederne in this episode or is my thirsty ass gonna stay dehydrated-

Bonus: My file names.