#rwby1

...I think a lot of people forget that since RWBY is such a character-driven show, the worldbuilding is usually also done in service of a character's development. In this case, the Faunus Rights storyline is mostly about Blake, personally, and how she interacts with the world.

Like, I do think it's noteworthy that Ruby and Yang are not initially super invested in the arguments and discussion of social justice that Blake starts with Weiss in response to bigotry. They don't approve or agree with Weiss, but their disagreement is a lot gentler than I would hope for coming from a good-hearted person. (Or just someone with good politics.) The reason RWY care about Faunus rights later, especially Yang, is because of Blake.

On Weiss's part, her own bigotry is not actually just internalized prejudice, as is common, but something she does consciously because it's easier for her to blame the White Fang/Faunus in general for her father's abuse than to think hard on how Jacques treats her. It's about Weiss herself and her family more than it's actually about widespread prejudice.

And like, no, that's not great for a social justice storyline, but it does mean the subplot serves the characters. To say nothing about how much of Blake's identity is tied up in her heritage, trying to find the right way to fight for change and create a better world.

I am curious of how much of Sun's perspective on the White Fang is a product of him growing up in Vacuo, specifically — i.e. a place that has little room for Faunus discrimination, where communities are insular but united, and doesn't really have centralized authorities or laws.

The latter is especially important, I think, because while Vacuo would not have discriminatory laws or redlining due to barely having bureaucracy to begin with, it also meant no structured education.

Until Sun moved to Mistral - which could have only been a few months ago! And he could've stayed mostly at Haven, which as a college campus and a school run by Leonardo Lionheart was probably relatively safe from discrimination - Sun had no education on Faunus discrimination. (He had no real education, I suspect, since we learn in Before the Dawn he's almost illiterate.)

Sun wouldn't have any frame of reference for why the White Fang's violent resistance came about, let alone why it was necessary and (at least for a time) justified. To him, there's no question that they are people using Faunus Rights as an excuse to do harm.

I mean...I guess if it was only supposed to be students from Vacuo that were arriving in Vale that day, and Penny said she was there for the tournament, then to assume "Penny just arrived in Vale" -> "Penny goes to Shade" -> "Penny knows this fellow Shade student" is logical. That's a sensible proof.

But if it wasn't just students from Vacuo, then they could've easily been from different Huntsman Academies while arriving in Vale for the Vytal Tournament at around the same time coincidentally.

And my thing is, why were they so sure Sun, who stowed away on a boat and got chased by the cops, was a Huntsman Academy student? He was, I know, but Yang cottoned on to that fact instantly, where I'd usually expect some uncertainty. Was it just because he was in good shape, parkouring everywhere, and that implies active Aura which in turn implies Huntsman?

Do you just know if someone is dressed distinctively enough that they must be a Huntsman to have custom clothes? Obviously we the audience could tell Sun was important because, like, V1 shadow extras, but in-universe Sun's outfit is comparatively pretty simple. It's an open shirt, shorts, and sneakers! If he didn't have his arm bracers, the bandages or his necklace he'd fully look like an extra (for the appearance of extras in the later volumes).

Weiss's enthusiasm about the Vytal Festival doesn't strike me as strictly being about nerdiness over cultural exchange and even planning - rather, I wonder if she didn't have some really good memories of the last Vytal Festival? Or rather, the last one that was held in Atlas?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we know from RWBY spin-off material like After the Fall and the Grimm Campaign that the 39th Vytal Festival was hosted by Vacuo and the 38th was in Mistral? So, the 37th one would've been held in Atlas back when Weiss was about 11.

For one thing, Winter is six years older than Weiss, give or take. It's very possible and even likely IMHO that she competed in the 37th Vytal Tournament, made the finals, and maybe even won it. And as such, Weiss had a great time at the last Vytal Festival she remembers attending.

For another...Willow and Jacques' big fight that made them split was on Weiss's 10th birthday. The 37th Vytal Festival was when Weiss was 11. If Willow and Weiss went together, either to general parades and parties or to the Tournament specifically in order to watch Winter, that might've been the last moment of mother-daughter fun. One last hurrah for good parenting before Willow really sank into the bottle. One last time Weiss really got to have an exciting, special experience with her mom and feel like she had a normal, happy family.

Why wasn't Professor Peach supervising her own class's field trip? (Again, asking for a Watsonian reason why, the Doylist explanation is clearly that RT did not have the budget or time to design and model a whole new teacher for one short scene.) Do you think maybe she's not actually a Huntsman, but a regular civilian employed as a gen-ed subject Professor?

Like, the first class we see him failing at is a combat one, but then we get a prolonged scene with him screwing up in history with Oobleck. And the thing is, that's a totally mundane subject — Jaune shouldn't be at a disadvantage there! Assuming he had a normal and stable school life (rather than, idk, terrible homeschooling) before attending Beacon, I actually think he'd probably be in better shape academically than a lot of his peers.

(Ren and Nora might have gone to combat school, but they also might've just lived on their own with no stability or formal education until Beacon. And Blake has lived in isolated terrorist camps for the last five years, so even if her childhood education was excellent and she's a bookworm by nature, she had to have missed some common-core stuff.)

But Jaune is failing a history class...right up until Cardin threatens him, it seems like. Because then Jaune gets blackmailed into doing all of Cardin's homework, and seemingly succeeds? Granted, direct blackmail is a greater incentive to do your homework than just bad grades. (I wonder if the fraud and taking up a spot at one of the very competitive Huntsman Academies — of which there are four in the entire world — is not just an expulsion kind of crime but the jail-time type. Because that's one hell of a sword of Damocles to have swinging over your head.) I'm also betting Jaune's own grades took a hit, since he probably didn't do every assignment twice over, once for himself and once for Cardin, and turn out something great both times. He wasn't actually doing good work twice, only once, but that's still more than he was managing sans blackmail.

Anyways. My point: if Jaune doing all of Cardin's homework was resulting in bad grades for Cardin, then Cardin would've threatened Jaune further, or just exposed him outright. Jaune doing Cardin's work was getting at least a C-average, meaning Jaune could've dragged himself up that much, at least academically, by himself! He didn't need help, he needed motivation.

BUT. I think I know why Jaune was failing even the academic subjects he should've been able to pass. It was because he was so deeply disconnected from the reality of being a Huntsman.

I mean, we knew that he didn't know what it took as soon as he admitted he cheated his way into Beacon. That he used fake transcripts and never actually went to combat school or learned to fight. But to cut more to the point, I don't think Jaune had ever really thought about the reality of being a Huntsman — that as Team RWBY say in Volume 2, it is a job. One that takes knowledge and practice and technical skills as well as combat training!

Because...well, look at what Jaune says when he explains himself to Pyrrha, citing his family as the reason for his choice.

"They were all warriors, they were all heroes! I wanted to be one too."

Jaune says his father and grandfather were warriors and heroes, but not Huntsmen. He's thinking of the fantasy of the job when he applies to Beacon, not the reality of the job. He doesn't know the work or have the skills, sure, but it's not just down to effort and grit and training. Jaune also doesn't seem to understand the practicalities of what a Huntsman's job really looks like.