I got RWBY and the Atlas arc on the brain again and I just want to throw some more praise at CRWBY for how they used Jacques in this arc.
They prime us to hate his guts before we even meet him. Everything Weiss has told us about her home life, and everything Blake has said about the SDC indicates to the audience that Jacques is an abusive, controlling, racist shitheel. We know he's awful before we ever see him.
So in these scenes they set him against Ironwood, a character who we're familiar with and came across as dodgy but ultimately on the side of the angels in his past appearances. Ironwood is one of the only two people in all of V4 who is actually supportive of Weiss, and he stands up to the antagonist of her arc every time they interact.
And then we get to V7, and slowly, gradually, it becomes apparent that most of Jacques' interactions with Ironwood are a giant case of "Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made a Great Point." He's frequently right for the wrong reasons (I.E. calling out Jimmy for closing the borders, not because unity in the wake of the Fall of Beacon is important, but because it's hurting his profit margins), but he's consistently one of the characters who calls Ironwood out the most for his fascistic shit.
But because we know he's Jacques and he's awful (and he is awful, this is not a Jacques Schnee Defence Post), the writers are able to bury that a little until all the pieces fall into place in Volume 7.
I could probably write a full-on essay about how good Ironwood's descent into tyranny is, and the role that the villains play in it, because this show is so fucking good when the writers get to cook. Maybe I will at some point.
Weiss: I’ll never get to hear him call me, Snow Angel again…
Oscar: Big bro…
Yang: My blond bro… he’s gone…
Blake: My threesome fantasies… They’re all over now… all over…
Ruby: (Sniff)
Ruby: I know… I know we are all saddened by the loss of our dear… dear friend, Jaune Arc. But, we should rejoice in the life he lived, and the actions he took within this life. His self sacrifice saved all of us. Saved the word! We should celebrate in his nobleness that he would do all these things to save us, and the world!
Ruby: We lost our golden haired angel, but heaven gained a new one! An angel that shines above all others! And, from up on high he is smiling at us, smiling at a job well done. He is smiling down upon us. He is smiling… s-smiling…
Ruby, then felt tears falling down uncontrollably down her face as her friends rushed over to console their grief stricken friend.
It was a sad day for them, one that they would all remember. But, they knew there was a new angel up above, smiling down on them.
And, that was all the comfort their grieving hearts needed.
~~~
Meanwhile in hell.
~~~
The Gates of Hell blew open as an irate blond steps through.
Jaune: Haaaa…
Jaune:
WHERE THE FUCK IS, JACQUES SCHNEE?!!!
///
I thought I already did something like this before.
I don’t think it really hits everyone that Winter would have died in Winter v Ironwood if Penny didn’t sacrifice herself. Of course Penny didn’t know what was happening on Winter’s side but her sacrifice was the ONLY thing that gave Winter a leg up on Ironwood.
Ironwood trained Winter. He knew exactly how to defeat her once they started fighting because he TAUGHT HER HOW TO FIGHT. They weren’t equally matched. It was an unfair fight!
And Weiss is more than happy to follow through. Happy birthday, Jaune!
That said, let’s be honest here, Klein was always Weiss’ true father figure. And then came Jaune. Jacques may have been Weiss’ father, but he certainly wasn’t her daddy. Weiss and Jaune have really come so far. Amazing that their relationship is really budding now, let alone that this is actually plausible dialogue.
This meme was inspired by and adapted from a post on reddit by u/MalloYallow and the subsequent comments by u/Akumu_Oukoku and u/WeakLandscape2595 which may be found here. Cheers to them for being such fun people!
I quite enjoyed putting together panel 3 for this one, especially redrawing Jaune’s arms after cutting Ren and Yang out of the image he came from. It really shows the progress I’m making in improving my editing, since it was so much quicker and easier than that time I redrew Jaune's arms for the Therapist Ozpin meme I made like 9 months ago.
I was lookin' at this painting of a younger Jacques Schnee, mainly the pencil mustache, and thought, "Why does he look so familiar? I swear I've seen someone that looked kinda like him."
And then I realized he kind of looks like the capitalist guys Mr. House from Fallout: New Vegas and Andrew Ryan from Bioshock.
Which then reminded me of that one Tumblr post that showed how almost all capitalist villains bear a similar appearance to Walt Disney.
Which then made me remember what Walt Disney's very first full-length animated movie was: