#canoncrit salem

[kitkatopinions]

Do you think Salem would have been more scarier if she reincarnated like Oz instead of being immortal? Yeah, having an enemy that can't be killed is a real hope-breaker, but knowing that the master of the Grimm could one day possess you or those you care about and there's nothing you can do is frightening.

Honestly, I think 'timeless undying unkillable evil magic person' is very scary as an idea. The 'might posses' reincarnating magic witch is a very scary idea too and now I have this mental picture of Salem hosting in a young girl about Oscar's age and still sitting on a throne and commanding her inner circle and throwing around her magic with her eyes turning black and her little host forced into a corner of her mind and unable to take over, which complicates everything for the heroes who all have to grapple with having to chose between not fighting Salem or hurting a little girl... That's an AU I could be into.

The problem, I think, isn't that the idea of Salem isn't good or scary enough, it's that it's ill used. 'Undead' is a great horror concept, as witnessed by centuries of vampire content. It's interesting because we don't actually know what thousands of years of unending life would do to people, which is also creepy because the idea of ageless horrors waiting in the hidden places of the world is something most people at least understand. But it's doubly so because even though we don't know what thousands of years of living would do to someone, humans do have a concept of personal feelings like boredom, of uselessness, of feeling like we're wasting away, of wanting life to stop, of feeling trapped, and even of what years of isolation does to people. Imagining these very real human experiences on a huge scale is - theoretically - horrifying because some of us can really relate to those ideas. A character that's been around so long that they do terrible things and play around with people's lives just to try and get a little interest and a little change in their life... That's scary in theory. A character that will let their enemies go full force against them just to see if they have the guts to try and strike them down... That's scary in theory. A villain that has all the time in the world to break their enemies down minute by minute, hour by hour, year by year, and will do it all with a completely unaffected expression... That's good in theory. That's great in theory.

But if you don't actually make that villain matter, if you don't actually make that villain use that scary, disturbing, empty quality, if you don't make that villain actually effective... It's gonna feel faked and stupid and ineffective.

#rwde #anti rwby #rwby critical #rwby criticism #canoncrit salem #rwby hate #rwby bashing