Qrow Vs Clover Vs Tyrian and the problem with assume things.
Is a bit of a curious dichotomy of emotions I've generated with this fight: On the one hand, it's a moment I dislike and think could have been executed better, but on the other, it's one of my favorite fights in the entire series, and I consider it a very unfairly underrated scene, as well as one of the most misunderstood. I've seen a lot of opinions about this moment and after some thought, I'd like to share my take on it.
Starting from the beginning, it's necessary to clarify one thing: Qrow did NOT team up with Tyrian; people assumed he did.
But if you carefully review the entire sequence, at no point does Qrow support or help Tyrian as Tyrian does with Qrow, in any case Qrow simply limited himself to not attacking him. Why? By Clover. Qrow attempted to attack Tyrian the moment he appeared and after being suggested to fight Clover again, but Clover intervened and insisted on fighting Qrow. So that in order to not have to deal with both of them at once, it makes more sense to think that Qrow tried to subdue Clover first before fighting Tyrian.
So the fight wouldn't be "Tyrian & Qrow Vs Clover" but rather "Qrow Vs Tyrian Vs Clover" or even "Qrow Vs Tyrian and Clover."
I know many are also criticizing Clover's writing in this part, and honestly, I don't blame them, but there are also several details to keep in mind:
Since WoR and V3, they told us that Atlas is characterized by a high level of militarization, which not only translates into great armament and effectiveness, but also into an extremely rigid discipline to follow orders in any scenario, even if it means suppressing any personal emotion or thought in order to maintain control, which is what they intended to show us in this arc.
Just as how the Fear can affect a person, it can corrupt them to the point of acting to leave aside their loved ones, principles, or good judgment, specifically it is in order to cling to the few remaining vestiges of control, direction, or security. Specially in the midst of such a delicate situation.
Clover's mistake here was underestimating the type of threat Tyrian poses (which is confirmed in the Director's commentaries): he is a wanted serial killer but that doesn't strictly mean he can defend himself against highly trained hunters, since just in the previous chapter the three of them were able to defeat him relatively quickly. Because obviously, Clover doesn't know all what we as viewers know and based on that, he saw Qrow as the biggest threat and with everything mentioned above, it made his blindly focus on fighting him first, possibly thinking that he could get Tyrian arrested again.
Clover was overconfident but remember, his semblance is good luck, literally twisting fate in his favor, and he is Ironwood's right-hand man, which adds even more weight to his blind faith in him: For him and the Ace Ops, Ironwood is the undisputed law and they were trained to follow his orders until the end.
And yet it's worth remembering that he wasn't the one who started the fight: he tried to arrest Qrow peacefully, but Robyn was the first to initiate physical conflict. We know how extreme she can be in defending her cause, and given her position, she only saw how James betrayed her newly acquired trust at the time. Besides, just because she wasn't a target at that specific moment, doesn't mean she or her girls wouldn't become one later.
And it's all of those elements that lead to this moment: Clover does NOT want to fight Qrow, and that's evident in his behavior: Unlike his companions, he never shows anger or criticizes Qrow's actions. On the contrary, he initially acts with cold neutrality while informing Qrow of his arrest, and when they begin to fight, he appears uncomfortable and sad, even resorting to manipulation to prevent them from fighting. But Qrow obviously won't let himself be imprisoned, especially if his nieces need help while everything is falling apart, despide he don't want to fight against him neither, but the circumstances twist to the point that they believe they have no other choice, and that's where Tyrian comes into the equation: Since his conversation with Mercury in the V6, we saw that he possessed a greater degree of emotional intelligence than he pretend, and here we are shown how lethal he can be, not only physically but also psychologically. He saw how Clover's target was blindly Qrow above him and Qrow's frustration with his blind loyalty took advantage of that to further fuel the fire,
Giving Clover the wrong impression for eliminate any possibility of they can reconciling, taking them both to the limit of his strengths to the point of only focusing on each other. So, at the moment when they both forget him, he can kill two birds with one stone: kill Clover and frame Qrow for it.
In a move that perfectly exemplifies Salem's modus operandi: Divide and Conquer.
Everything in the story led to this moment: Fear, loyalties, lies, ideologies... Each side at this point takes shape in the 3 fighters:
Ironwood is driven to the limits of his paranoia and that turns him into the middle player between Salem and Ozpin, prompting Clover's intervention.
Qrow blindly followed Ozpin until the harsh truth was revealed to him and that destroyed him and and his family and now, although he continues fighting to defeat Salem, he tries to free Clover from that same extreme loyalty that only hinders a war that was already convoluted from before. This is the really point of the entire interaction, to share Qrow's frustration in front a character who has the extreme loyalty he once felt.
And Tyrian, just like Salem, is the intermediary who makes things go awry. It's literally Good Luck vs Bad Luck, but the scales don't tip in favor of either of them because Tyrian was there to wrest control of the situation from them without either of them realizing it.
And the conclusion subtly foreshadowed the outcome of this arc: Ironwood's faction will end up destroyed, with his leader falling after a futile attempt to wage a three-way war, corrupted by fear and pressure. Salem's faction, despite the complications, will emerge victorious once again, and Ozpin's faction, though ultimately unscathed, will be left with deep emotional scars after facing great losses, whether Penny or the kingdom of Atlas itself.
For me, the real problem with the sequence is that everything happens too quickly for the viewer to fully grasp all his components at the moment. The writers simply assumed that the audience would eventually catch on and understand the reasons for the characters' extreme actions. Which led to a beautifully choreographed fight that which, like the previous Tyrian sequences, shows us the dizzying and impressive potential of a fight between veteran hunters, and a moment that was meant to be frustrating but also heartbreaking, being misinterpreted, hated and ridiculed to this day.
And for the record: I don't like how it ended, even though I like the fight itself, the meaning and the feat it represents for Tyrian, I still find it unnecessary that they decided to kill off a character we literally just met, just to create more conflict to Qrow. Clover, outside of shipping, was a character with potential, but they wasted it by getting rid of him so abruptly just to try to give Qrow a development that could have been implemented in many other better ways and without going to the extreme.
Even though I also liked the narrative irony they brought in the V9 epilogue with Qrow, even after all that happen, being the only one capable of seeing something good in a totally desperate situation, motivated by the memory of those he lost. It how we got to that point still leaves a bad taste in my mouth :/
