#qrow is ruby's father

[aerisleis-fics]

“NO!” Ruby screamed, and Cinder turned, apparently surprised to see her. She exploded into rose petals and snatched up harbinger, clutching the hilt. “I won’t let you. I won’t let you take anyone else away from me!”

For a second the world went white, and Cinder snarled with rage and pain. Ruby evaded the burst of flames and darted towards her, pushing petal burst to its limit as she struggled to make sure that Cinder couldn’t out maneuver her again.

#my writing #rwby #rwby fanfic #alternate volume 7 #qrow is ruby's father #rbme #ruby rose #mind the fics tags

[iamafanofcartoons]

All I wanted is a Happy Xiao Long Rose Family AU in RWBY.

Instead, all I see are fanfics trying to tear the family apart.

Why can't there be a happy fanfic of the family?

Artist is AlessiaDettaAlex

www.deviantart.com/alessiadettaalex/art/STRQ-family-834342666

#qrow branwen #rwby #ruby rose #yang xiao long #rwby ruby #rwby fanart #rwby ruby rose #rwby yang #raven branwen #rwby summer lovin #rwby summer rose #rwby summer #AlessiaDettaAlex #xiao long rose family #taiyang is ruby's father #ruby and yang are sisters #rwby au

[lovingdabeessss]

BUMBUMBUHBUHBABABA MORE ME ME S

i actually think qrows really great I love him I’m so mean to him maybe I’ll be nicer to him in the future

The raccoon is jinxy but you all knew that already theres only so many anti yang raccoons in Rwby

#rwby #yang xiao long #ruby rose #weiss schnee #rwby qrow #uncle qrow #qrow branwen #raven branwen #jaune arc #renora #team strq #rwby vacuo #yangs arm #winter schnee #evil father man #greenlight volume 10

[invested-in-your-future]

of course you added straight white men. I rest my case

is this sarcasm? For the person's sake, I hope this is a joke-ask.

If not then...you do realize the show writers favorite course of action is giving screentime to Jaune Arc of all people, right?

I could add a whole volume of nothing but Qrow staring at the floor and it would still take up less than Jaune's subplots about more and more dead women.

#rwde #rwby #I don't get what the ask is even mad about? The few Qrow or Taiyang scenes? #while majority of what I posted so far is basically just Ruby Yang or Nora #imagine daring to give their father and their uncle a whole scene - the horror! #this is hilarious #honestly feels like copypaste ask lmao

[short-wooloo]

There are STILL "Qrow is Ruby's real father" believers? Jesus I thought they died out years ago

#wooloo-writes #wooloo writes #rwby #ruby rose #qrow branwen #qrow is not ruby's father #qrow is ruby's uncle #qrow is not ruby's dad #qrow is not ruby's father damnit #i hate that “theory” so much #its bad #go away

[incorrect-strq-quotes]

My money is still legit on the Raven is Ruby's dad theory xD

#qrow is ruby’s dad #even in my Rosebird fics qrow is still the biological father to ruby #except no strings attached #tai being both the girls father was the funnier option in that fic

[strqyr]

does anyone remember if yang has ever referred to qrow as "uncle qrow"? i know she refers to him as "uncle" couple times ("our uncle", "my uncle [and sister]") but off the top of my head i can't recall her ever calling him like. Uncle Qrow.

#rwby #yang xiao long #qrow branwen #does it mean anything? probably not #but i was thinking about how ruby sees qrow as her uncle mentor and role model #while yang sees qrow as her uncle and father-figure #so i'm like. is that why yang doesn't (that i can remember) call him Uncle Qrow? #because of the father-figure thing? #that for ruby qrow is solidly just uncle but for yang that's not the case? #idk. just thinking out loud. #in other news word 'uncle' has lost all meaning to me #looks weird now

[onewomancitadel]

Something else I was musing on re: consistent symbolic language in R/WBY, referring to Jung and alchemy et al., is that Qrow in particular is (ostensibly) associated with chthonic imagery (the crow, bad luck) but he is most prominently a nurturing and protective figure. Like, his introduction in the story (in V2, when Yang tells Blake about him rescuing her and Ruby) is literally as a protective figure filling in where Tai is unable to; in V4 he's protecting the kids without them knowing; relatedly he's the father figure Ruby rebels against in V6. He is basically repeated over and over to be a Daddy In All But Name (pleazzzz don't come at me with crazy fantheories since I'm just describing his role in the story and the way family dynamics are nuanced).

Which basically goes against his corvid posturing because he thinkssss he's bad luck, but it's his intentions and motivations and care that matter. There is dual imagery to every character across the story, but if you want to simplistically say that Qrow = crow = death (when he literally averts Mentor Death Flags in V4) then it's shortsighted and simplistic. It has to be read on the terms of what the story is thematically/tonally interested in where it is being playful with this kind of thing.

It's why you can't take basic symbolism and leap to really wild conclusions. Not that I've read such things about Cinder before and I've had a chip on my shoulder since or anything.

#if yang can have two mothers there's room for more symbolic parental roles in the story lulz #and uncle/father... there's calculated distance on qrow's part with that which is a whole other thing #he Stepped Up but it wasn't always a totally sufficient position (e.g. necessary disillusionment with Ozma) #and I think that's interesting #the fact he kept trying is one of my favourite traits about him #when everybody else a) 'died' b) defected c) was broken-hearted #no offense intended to team STRQ. but it's very good #or also that like. he has to stop babying Ruby and get a life out of being a dad and Ozma servant hahahaha

[benevolentslut]

crying over weiss throwing her arms around yang in the camp

#no you don't get it that's her SISTER #team rwby was SO much more of a family to weiss than her actual family #like she grew up in a mansion where. her father was abusive. her brother always took his side and helped him to stay out of trouble himself #her mother shut down and was entirely absent from her life due to her father's behaviour. #and her sister was hardly ever home bc of her military career and she counted each of her visits as a blessing #she idolized the shit out of winter but she was still never there. weiss grew up almost entirely alone. klein was her only present family. #and then she joined team rwby and she suddenly had 3 sisters she got to spend everyday with and she loved them all so much #and she even fucking says as much when she confronts jacques and says '[these aren't] friends. [they're] family.' #god everyone in team rwby has family trauma #yang grew up with no active parent for a long time since tai shutdown after summer's death and qrow was an alcoholic #(like yeah both of them loved her but neither was a good parent) #(if she can at 5 years old disappear into the woods for several hours with a toddler in a wagon behind her without any supervision #while said woods are filled with monsters then im sorry the parents aren't parenting) #and after the loss of her mother ruby was raised by yang who was literally only two years older than her #blake got the best deal but she got fucking groomed into hating and abandoning her parents by That Fucker #and we know how much his actions fucked her up for nearly her whole life #team rwby is a family and i would die on this hill i am crying as i write this #(the best deal parent-wise her parents are amazing. not saying she got a better deal overall)

[stardivinefinale-moved]

i know it’s not that big anymore but i’m still mad that the “qrow is ruby’s real father” theory existed in the first place, like i can live with senseless theories with essentially no basis but this one actively undermines their relationship. which one is more beautiful, an uncle who continuously supports his niece, who mentors and inspires her and is always on the lookout for her, even though they aren’t blood related at all and he has no obligation to do so, or “he was actually her father this entire time 🤪”

#like. this theory was born to write angsty fan fics about it and nothing else #NOT TO MENTION THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NO REASON WHY QROW WOULD HIS BEING RUBYS FATHER #YEAH MAN I'LL PRETEND LIKE I'M NOT RELATED TO YOU AT ALL BUT I WILL STILL BE THERE THROUGHOUT YOUR WHOLE LIFE AND SUPPORT YOU #rwby #jessie.pdf

[goldenamaranthe-blog]

#Father's Day prompt #yang xiao long #blake belladonna #ruby rose #weiss schnee #ghira belladonna #taiyang xiao long #jacques schnee #qrow branwen

[rachetmath]

Jaune More MC Ruby?

Ruby: That’s why I’m the MC and you're the side character.

Jaune: So because you have silver eyes you’re special?

Ruby: Yep.

Jaune: Even though I cheated Beacon.

Ruby: Yep.

Jaune: I was bullied.

Ruby: Yep.

Jaune: My partner is dead. And because I let my guard down, Ozpin died, and Oscar had no choice but to come on this journey. You know,  because of me.

Ruby: Yep.

Jaune: And because Cinder, who works under Salem killed my partner, I have beef with the main villain and her whole crew.

Ruby: Yeah.

Jaune: Salem, who I have way more in common with than most people, the deemed goddess I’m defying her, just like she did with the brothers over a loved one's death. Are you following me so far?

Ruby: … Yeah…

Jaune: Hazel, who mind you, lost his sister. He lost his sister because of the world Ozpin had created, like I did, with Pyrrha.

Qrow: She had a choice.

Jaune: A few days' choice which turned into minutes when Beacon was attacked. Then discovering how bad the situation is, you know with Salem being immortal, I almost hurt if not killed Oscar, making me at the spur of the moment,  just as bad as Hazel. And mind you I was willing to fight you on that.

Ruby: Uh… yeah…

Jaune: Tyrian, has the opposite to my semblance. Wasn’t he more interested in me than you? And you were his target.

Ruby: Mmhmm.

Jaune: Let’s talk about Cinder again. Cinder had two stray kids who followed her. I have Ren and Nora. Neither have parents. Also, we both want power but for different reasons. We even have different views on destiny.

Ruby: Oh damn.

Jaune: Atlas. Oscar did Ironwood not act like how I did in Argus but worse?

Oscar: Yeah he did. Jaune even saw Salem in person before you did.

Yang: So did we. You saw her face to face.

Oscar: I’m Ozpin. What is that supposed to mean?

Ruby: Oscar, not helping.

Jaune: Neo. We both lost our partners. The difference is that I have friends while she has none. The cat, him, and I almost have the same ability except he manipulates your soul or takes it. He might as well have been a devil version of me.

Weiss: O. Dear lord.

Jaune: Watts. … … … You know what no. He-he was no. Like he could have done better, he’s an example of being smart yet making the dumbest choices. 

Weiss: True.

In the Twilight

Watts: What?! My decision was understandable.

Ironwood: No. No, they were not.

Penny: Like you could have logically put your two weeks in and left for another kingdom. Or country. Like Vale. Mistral. Anywhere. You could have helped where you could've been needed. Which would have made you better than my father.

Watts: I wasted my life.

Back to Remnant 

Ruby: Um….

Jaune: You know what I have to ask this question. What is the moral of the story and how does your character fit into this?

Ruby: Well my-

Jaune: Let me retort. I lied. I was bullied. I had no idea about anything in the hunting world. I needed a teacher. I lost someone important to me. I have beef with the main villains. I train to get stronger to be of use to others.

Ruby: So?

Jaune: Okay. No one believed in me. But I still went to chase my goal. I lost the best thing in my life. I still moved forward. I had to kill someone. Still moved forward. I’m an old man trapped in a boy's body. Still moving forward. Fighting the odds that are stacked against me. I have seven who no one knows about. Yet your family is more interesting.

Ruby: Your point?

Jaune: The moral of the story is that no matter your circumstance you can always be better. Never allow destiny or grief to influence your entire life. No matter what odds that stand before you,  you can ultimately change your fate. And no matter the darkness a simple soul can light up the night and unite everyone against a greater evil. Even when the whole world is against you, you are never alone to endure it. If we stand united and look past our differences only then the wor;d would be a better place.

Ruby: Well my mom died at Salem’s hands.

Jaune: And?

Ruby: It's still relevant.

Jaune: You're right. But how many times has your mother been mentioned and you bothered to get information about her?

Yang: I-

Jaune: Bitch shut the fuck up. You were looking for the deadbeat mom more than the mom who stepped up.

Ruby: Well um… um…. Damn. Oh, but I-

Jaune: You weren’t the sword. I may not have known Penny as long as you, but the fact, that I could've saved her proved her death hit harder than Pyrrha's. I’m close to walking in Raven’s path.

Ruby: Shit.

Jaune: And back to your mother. She was a silver-eyed warrior. But Salem is still here. Do silver eyes work on her?

Ruby: Um.

Jaune: Because Salem is still both the brothers' creation. The old humanity. She can't be phased by the black liquid even though everything they touch decays. 

Ruby: She's immortal.

Jaune: Yeah but again when Maria told you her story didn't she try using her silver eyes on humans and it didn't work? 

Ruby: Cinder.

Jaune: Grimm arm.

Ruby: The hound. 

Blake: Silver-eyed person too but only stunned them.

Ruby: Blake.

Blake: What a minute he had animalistic ears. Should I be concerned for my people?

Jaune: Yeah… we’re not getting into that. The point is if you go see Salem and your silver eyes don't work then your mom died for nothing.

Ruby: Oo. Um…

Jaune: And let's get back to the other villains. Besides Emerald, Mercury, and Tyrian, some of them have valid reasons to join Salem. 

Ren: Jaune!

Jaune: Ren, your village got destroyed.

Ren: Nevermind.

Me: Hold up. Let me start. With Cinder, a huntsman saw what she was going through and didn't bother to help her. She was alone. The world abandoned her.  

Jaune: So Hazel was right. In fact, Raven had a point.

Oscar(Ozpin): Mr. Arc I-

Jaune: Motherfucker Hazel had every right to be angry. Dude shadow missions involve us going with experienced hunters. Yet his sister died and Ruby could’ve died. Shadowing them. Following their lead. Does that not show how bad the hunting system is? Not just that we got hunters who died in the line of duty. Not to mention how some were sexually harassing the girls.  And some of them are just plain crazy or assholes. Not to mention Blake, Qrow, and Raven. You let them in. And to make matters worse you chose Pyrrha, a first-year student, to be your maiden.

Oscar(Ozpin): She was my best option. 

Jaune: So Glynda wasn't on the table? A high-ranked fourth-year student wasn't on the table? Man, at least you could have chosen Ruby considering she has silver eyes and is a young upcoming prodigy. That would have made her more important. Like Ozpin Ruby off the bat was better than Pyrrha.

Qrow: Hey, I would have stopped that.

Jaune: O, so… it was okay with Pyrrha… but not your niece. I see. Hypocrite.

Qrow: Damn. Set myself up for that.

Jaune: Watts, despite his stupidity, had a point. James would abuse any source of technology just to have some level of control over something. Why did you think he wanted your sister instead of Penny? Why do you think he wanted Amity up as quickly as possible? Why do you think he hacked into Penny? Everything was always about control.

Weiss: Well our lives weren't easy.

Jaune: That I won't deny. Yet we are all still bad people.

Yang: Jaune my mother -

Jaune: Raven and Summer left you. Summer no one cared enough to talk about. Raven doesn't matter at all. Willow waited until her children were teenagers or young adults to start dealing with an abusive father. And Kali… yeah she should have slapped some sense into her daughter. 

Weiss: Well your mom doesn't love you.

Jaune: Don't care. Back to Jacque though how does he and James know each other? Why do they have beef with one another? Unless… o. Oh no. Don't tell me. Did James set Jacque up with Willow? And in return, he helps James rise to power. Or did James love Willow but because of his career he couldn't marry her? Could Winter be-

Weiss: Please stop. I do not need those theories in my head.

Jaune: Fine. The point I'm trying to make is… … well how about you explain.

Me: It's crazy how Jaune fits the main character role better than Ruby.

#rwby #jaune arc #ruby rose #yang xiao long #weiss schnee #lie ren #nora valkyrie #blake belladonna #penny polendina #cinder fall #hazel rainart #rwby salem #tyrian callows #emerald sustrai #mercury black #rwby watts #pyrrha nikos #raven branwen #qrow branwen #rwby neopolitan #rwby curious cat

[iamafanofcartoons]

Anjyil “Gold” Pages 1-8 How RWBY portrays a positive Half-Sibling and Positive Stepmother dynamic.

https://www.deviantart.com/anjyil/gallery?q=gold

https://www.deviantart.com/anjyil/art/Gold-page-1-538448298

https://www.deviantart.com/anjyil/art/Gold-page-3-538448702

https://www.deviantart.com/anjyil/art/Gold-page-4-538448849

https://www.deviantart.com/anjyil/art/Gold-page-5-538448993

https://www.deviantart.com/anjyil/art/Gold-page-6-538449087

https://www.deviantart.com/anjyil/art/Gold-page-7-538449393

https://www.deviantart.com/anjyil/art/Gold-page-8-538449531

#rwby #rwby fanart #rwby fan art #rwby comic #rwby comics #rwby fancomic #rwby fancomics #yang xiao long #rwby yang #rwby ruby #ruby rose #rwby ruby rose #Summer Rose #rwby summer rose #anjyil #ruby and yang are siblings #xiao long rose siblings #qrow is not ruby's father #xiao long rose

[lovingdabeessss]

One of my favorite things about Rwby

Is this dynamic

Ruby Weiss and Blake all have world altering importance

And yangs just like a very determined older sister

Yang just wants her family all safe and happy and would happily die to ensure this

Yangs just like “this is my found family” and it’s like the most important people in the world

Not that this is at all new she’s just like surrounded by them her uncle is one of the best huntsmen alive despite being falling over drunk all the time considering he does all of ozpins missions personally and always by himself Ravens so good of a criminal she was on salems radar plus she’s MAGIC and can turn into a damn bird AND so yangs gif that in her I guess + the whole maiden thing summers super important somehow connected to salem as well ironwood who was the general for a WHILE was so close to qrow he might be her or rubys god father ozpin liked strq so much he gave two members magic so he might be a godfather too cause he seems to be really close to the family too

She’s like a magnet

And Yangs still just kinda there and she doesn’t consider any of these people like high and mighty or anything for being so important

She talks to ironwood super casually for the highest ranking military commander ever when he visits her after she becomes a criminal in v3 Qrows just her uncle when she speaks to Raven she’s totally ok with the idea of beating up her entire clan of criminals to get what she wants and then doesn’t respect a THING she says even after the reveal that MAGIC IS REAL and then when they Talk again after Raven joins salem, the bad guy and reveals she’s the MAIDEN which is super powerful yang insults her over and over with only one of her arms like she’s in no danger and then when she confronted ozpin/ Oscar about what Raven told her she gives him no special treatment for being a magical wizard that her entire family (minus Raven) trusts to make any decisions

Yang makes no exceptions no one is special yang would look the gods in the eyes and go “fuck off” and see nothing wrong with that

#rwby #blake belladonna #rwby bumbleby #yang xiao long #bumbleby #yang x blake #ruby rose #weiss schnee #raven branwen #james ironwood #qrow branwen #summer rose #I love Yang so much

[bestworstcase]

"There is no victory in strength."

"And Yang was strength."

I wonder if this is some "subtle" foreshadowing for something later?

oh i have some THOUGHTS about this

first: see this post regarding salem's V1 monologue. the key point to keep in mind for this discussion is that she begins by naming several qualities of mankind—strength, wisdom, resourcefulness, passion, and ingenuity—so her concluding statement implies its own inverse: 

"mankind was strong, wise, and resourceful, but he was born into an unforgiving world […] in time, man's passion, resourcefulness, and ingenuity led them to the tools that would help even the odds […] but take heed: there will be no victory in strength," i.e. "victory lies in these other four qualities." 

so what does this have to do with yang?

in V2: yang gets slapped by the paladin prototype, and when blake calls out to her in a panic, ruby stops her: "don't worry! with each hit she gets stronger, and she uses that energy to fight back. that's what makes her special."

in V3: after her disqualification from the tournament, qrow passes on raven's message to yang ("she saved you once, but you shouldn't expect that kindness again") after she tells him she saw her mom ("i- i was in a lot of trouble, took a pretty hard hit"), then follows up with "you're a tough egg, kiddo; shouldn't let this tournament thing get you down."

in V4: tai tells yang that she, like raven, "act[s] like the easiest way to tackle an obstacle is through it: that strength is all that matters in a fight," which he implies is the fatal flaw of raven's that "tore our team apart and […] did a real number on our family," even though "raven was great in so many ways: her strength, her ambition, her dedication." 

in V5: blake describes yang to sun as "[the embodiment of] strength."

also in V5: yang confronts raven in the vault under haven academy and, when raven calls herself strong, snaps back: "oh, shut up! you don't know the first thing about strength! you turn your back on people, you run away when things get hard, you put others in harms way instead of yourself! you might be powerful, but you're not strong."

in V6: blake reassures yang by telling her "adam's strong, but his real power comes from control."

also in V6: adam taunts yang: "moment of truth, yang! do you think you're faster than you were at beacon? …heh. me neither," and after catching his weapon she retorts, "i may not be faster, but i'm smarter." (<- put a pin in this one, it's important.)

in V8: yang falls, blake fails to catch her, and it's the hit she can't come back from—it doesn't make her stronger, it just plunges her into the void to her apparent death.

in V9: when they catch up with yang, she's performing strength ("i said i wasn't done with you yet!") but in reality she's exhausted, barely able to stand. later, blake describes her like this: "you're an extraordinary person. you're always the first to lighten a situation; you act bravely when you're afraid; you do what you say."

ok. 

there are a few threads to unwind here.

first let's unpin what adam says to yang during their final duel: "do you think you're faster than you were at beacon?" not "stronger." not "tougher." faster.

ruby tells blake that strength is what makes yang special. qrow tells yang she's too tough to let one "slip-up" bring her down. her father thinks she relies too much on her strength. before their reunion, blake sees yang as the living personification of strength.

but just as a younger blake was wrong about adam being "justice" or "passion," she's wrong about yang being "strength," and adam is actually—ironically enough—the first character besides yang herself to notice that strength is not what yang is about. he taunts her for not being fast enough. 

speed. agility. not just in the sense that yang is a very nimble combatant, but she's emotionally agile—look at how she handles herself and her feelings during fraught confrontations with blake in V2 or raven in V5. she's a self-described thrill-seeker, but she also worries about being too rootless. her biggest setbacks all come from rushing—and her big wins all come from outmaneuvering her opponents, whether physically or emotionally. she's strong, but strength is not what she is.

keeping that in mind, the second thread to follow is the difference between strength and power. yang tells raven "you might be powerful, but you're not strong." blake tells yang that adam is "strong, but his real power comes from control," from getting into people's heads and making them feel small. when ruby and tai and blake talk about yang's strength (and when blake talks about adam being strong), they mean raw physical strength—but that's not what yang means when she talks about strength. in yang's terms, raw physical strength is just power. her semblance makes her powerful; it doesn't make her strong. 

yang defines strength as the choice to put others ahead of oneself, even and especially when it's hard. 

in the ever after, blake says that yang uplifts others (always the first to lighten a situation), that she's brave, that she has integrity. between V5 and V9, after reconciling with yang and going through the harrowing experience of of fighting adam with her, blake sees the vulnerability behind the brave mask yang puts on for her loved ones. her perception of yang at beacon was colored both by her adam trauma and by the way ruby saw yang as invulnerable, unshakable. since then she's come to see yang as she truly is: caring, brave, and honest. she sees and loves the kind of strength that yang values.

third thread: the really crucial piece is what kind of strength is salem referring to? 

and the answer is that she's talking about power, explicitly in contrast to what she sees as humanity's true strengths: wisdom, resourcefulness, passion, ingenuity, and hope. in V1, salem credits hope as the reason mankind was not wiped out (again) by the grimm and names "passion, resourcefulness, and ingenuity" as the qualities that allowed them to find a way to survive against the odds. then, "nature's wrath in hand, man lit their way through the darkness, and in the shadow's absence came strength, civilization, and most importantly, life."

in this story salem tells about the beginning of the world, strength is one of the fruits of mankind's triumph, something that could only develop after the darkness had been beaten and pushed back. when she gives her warning—"there will be no victory in strength"—she names "your guardians" and "your monuments" explicitly. 

to be precise, she is talking about the maidens ("a guardian is a symbol of comfort"), amity coliseum("it was decided that the tournament would need a stage equal in greatness to that of its competitors. amity coliseum was the culmination of four kingdom's efforts: a technological marvel and a shining symbol of harmony, capable of making the journey to all the kingdoms of remnant"—but note that menagerie is excluded from the vytal festival), and atlas ("the people of mantle needed a sign of a brighter future, and that sign was atlas; a city in the clouds is as bright as it gets").

those things represent ozpin's definition of strength: technological marvels, shining symbols of harmony and comfort, a girl who is "strong, caring, and intelligent" enough to make the people feel safe. and of course outside of these soliloquies, the word salem uses is power—and she warns cinder, twice, in no uncertain terms that power will not make her strong: "it is because of the maiden's power. […] your newfound strength brings with it a crippling weakness" and "you will have the power i promised you, but remember that it comes with a cost."

now back to yang: she and salem share this mindset, this clear delineation between true strength and mere power. salem tries to impress it upon cinder; yang's power blinds her family to her true strength, which blake learns to see clearly as they become partners, and she is placed in juxtaposition with adam, raven, and cinder—all of whom are powerful but not strong. 

and, like salem, the way yang is perceived (that her power is what makes her special, and she thinks physical strength is all that matters in a fight) does not align with how yang sees herself or what she values: yang takes pride in being able to face her fears, speak the truth, put others before herself, and outwit her foes; she likes that blake has never been intimidated by her, and she admires blake's dedication and willingness to forgive. 

salem values wisdom, i.e. experiential knowledge—yang tells her past self that her losses and failures "more than anything are what have shaped me into who i am, showed me how i need to grow." salem values passion—yang is passionate in everything she does and likewise admires the passion she sees in blake. "you know what matters to you." salem values resourcefulness and ingenuity—yang revels in outsmarting people who underestimate her, as they often do, and flat out tells adam that she may not be faster than him, but she is smarter, then throws his weapon to bait him into running right into blake's punch.

yang values courage—salem fomented rebellion against the fucking gods and vowed to keep fighting even after they crushed her like an ant, and rewards cinder for defying her, and disdains lionheart for being a coward. yang values honesty—salem explodes when people lie to her and loathes ozma for his deceit. yang values compassion—salem built her whole rebellion on the premise that no one else should have to suffer as she did. yang values cleverness—salem cultivates spies and meticulously prepares to stack the deck in her favor before making a move.

"the ability to derive strength from hope is undoubtedly mankind's greatest asset," says salem. "even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change."

"look, blind optimism isn't great, but no optimism means we've already lost; we need hope. we need to take risks," says yang. 

aside from blake, all of team rwby repeat salem in some way: weiss is the girl who frees herself from her tower, ruby the idealist who sees how broken the world is and takes it upon herself to fix it, inspiring the world to strive with her. (blake repeats ozma: the warrior who fights for justice, but her journey is the inverse of his: her ideals are corrupted by adam's spite in the beginning and she leaves him behind in pursuit of true justice.) but yang is salem's heart. 

(<- the reversal in how blake sees yang before/after they reunite at haven and defeat adam together is a fractal-ozlem thing, by the way: the inflection point occurs in 6.5 when yang opens up about her flashbacks and blake sees her hands shaking. the maiden's tears restore her prince's sight—yang allows blake to see how scared she is, and blake recognizes how badly yang needs blake to be there for her, to stay.)

WHICH IS HYSTERICAL BECAUSE,

"all this endless death, because something bad happened to you once upon a time? no one gets a fairytale ending! everything i've lost, every person i've lost, is because of you!"

yang is being deliberately provocative here. her intention is to redirect salem's boiling fury from oscar to herself, to protect oscar. she is trying to piss salem off, and while she succeeds in distracting salem from oscar, she completely fails to make salem angry—instead, salem calms down.

why?

the anger and scorn yang throws in salem's face here are completely genuine, but as i said before, yang's emotional agility—her control over her emotions—is unparalleled. she does not "lose her temper" (and on the rare occasion she snaps without meaning to, she reins it in lightning fast). she lets it out. so in this scene, yang makes a calculated choice to yell at salem. to get angry.

now, we've seen her do this once before—and by "this" i mean specifically the choice to get mad enough to verbally explode at somebody—and that was during her last confrontation with raven. 

"oh, shut up! you don't know the first thing about strength! you turn your back on people, you run away when things get hard, you put others in harm's way instead of yourself! you might be powerful, but you're not strong."

i think yang is not quite as in control of her feelings in this scene with raven, because the wounds are very personal and very raw, but nevertheless she is making a deliberate choice to let her anger come out because—again—she's trying to make raven mad. if raven decides she's leaving with the lamp, yang can't actually stop her. she knows that. she also knows raven isn't going to listen to an appeal to join them, so her only real option is to upset raven enough to make her abandon the lamp (and yang) (…again). 

so that's what she does! yang asks questions and needles raven on her answers until raven starts to react emotionally ("i survived because i'm strong enough to do what others won't!"), and yang pounces on that. shut up, you don't know the first thing about strength. she goes right for the throat, attacks the thing at the center of all raven's rationalizations. and raven fucking shatters.

this is what yang tries to do to salem. "why do you keep coming back?" -> "why do YOU!?"—raven says "i'm strong," yang goes "shut up, that's bullshit, no you're not." salem says "why do you keep coming back," yang hears salem playing the victim and goes "shut up, that's bullshit, your suffering isn't special" because she guesses—based on what she's been told about salem, and what she just heard salem say to ozma—that salem has built her sense of self around victimhood in the same way that raven built hers around "being strong."

only. it doesn't work this time.

because salem is just like yang.

just like yang, salem prizes courage and conviction and abhors liars. she makes the same distinction between genuine strength and mere power, and values power not at all. 

she also, just like yang, keeps her anger firmly in check. when salem yells and slams her hands down or flips a table to intimidate someone, or threatens cinder with the hound, or tortured oscar, that is a choice she is making to let her anger out. the one time salem actually loses her temper, she sends everyone else out of the room, waits for the door to close, makes what appears to be a herculean effort to hold it in (<- the air boils), and then explodes all the windows.

this tactic of yang's depends on her opponent not having her level of emotional control. but that isn't the only reason she completely fails to get a rise out of salem; look at salem's reaction:

<- "why do you keep coming back?"—this is genuine fury. teeth bared, crushing oscar's head with her nails digging in behind his ears.

<- "because something bad happened to you once upon a time?"—she's nonplussed. it's not even that salem's too in control of her anger for yang to provoke her, salem is legitimately thrown for a loop by this line of attack. yang misses the mark by such a wide margin that it knocks salem out of her anger altogether. she was seething about ozma sacrificing children for the god to whom he debases himself in blind obedience, why is this child yelling about fairytales. what.

it's telling, i think, that salem does not, in any way, dispute the premise that her own suffering does not justify the suffering she causes or that she is personally responsible for yang's losses. neither of those ideas challenge or threaten salem's self-identity, and in fact the only response she does make is to ask who she took from yang. (<- implicitly conceding that she is responsible for ruining yang's life, or at least that she might be.) 

she and yang are Very Alike.

(this is also why yang has such pronounced paralleling with cinder. by the way. two halves of salem's psyche. fire as hope, fire as wrath.)

anyway

the point of yang vis-a-vis "there will be no victory in strength" is to clarify and articulate the distinction salem makes between power (which neither character values) and strength (which they do, and define as the sum of many virtues). both of them are positioned in counterpoint to ozpin, who trusted only in power and symbols of power (the maidens, amity, atlas), and ruby, who mistakes power for strength and is on a journey that puts both her power (silver eyes) and her strength (hope) to the test.

[sarahshoots1st]

I think my favorite thing about the V9 epilogue is seeing the way everyone who made it to Vacuo has been changed by the hardships they experienced.

Nora is expressing negative emotions for seemingly the first time in her life. By contrast, the normally-reserved Ren seems more expressive than we've ever seen him. Qrow, the eternal pessimist, is learning to see the bright side of things. Winter, whose fatal flaw has always been the absolute conviction that her course is right, is grappling with feelings of self-doubt and guilt. Willow is out and about helping people instead of hiding away, and Whitely seems determined not to hide from the consequences of his father's misdeeds.

Much of RWBY's character growth has been focused on the main cast of characters. Weiss has learned to forge her own identity, Blake has come out of her shell, Yang is more level-headed and comfortable letting herself sit with sadness and grief, and Ruby just underwent a major arc confronting her own repressed trauma. They've all grown beyond the simple archetypes we were first introduced to into deeper and more complex characters over the course of the series. It's nice to see that the supporting cast are undergoing similar opportunities for development.

#rwby #rwby v9 epilogue #save rwby #greenlight volume 10 #lie ren #nora valkyrie #winter schnee #qrow branwen #rwby spoilers