#parental ozpin

[willofhounds]

Here Ozma paused looking at him. Slowly Oscar nodded to show that he understood.

"Unfortunately when you were sent back, Oscar you had already started merging with Ozpin," explained Ozma, "The first things that merge are aura and magic. It's the simplest things to merge and they make the rest of the merge easier. Your aura was more than half way merged with ours. So when you were sent to the past your aura was torn as Ozpin here is still alive. A child with only half a soul."

Half a soul? Was that even possible? He thought back to Mantel and Penny. It was possible that he could only have half a soul. But why was he here?

Ozma gave him a look, "I know what you're thinking. Your friend was not a living being exactly. In our world a human cannot live with only half a soul. Thus why we are here."

Another shiver ran through him. The darkness that had been creeping in was far too close for comfort. Was that death? A part of him was tempted to just a step back. He was tired. Far more tired than he should be at his age. The war against Salem and Grim had taken its toll on him.

Ozma the look changed into a knowing one and he said, "You can if you want to. I won't blame you for wanting to find a peace that you don't have in this life."

[pilot-boi]

Dad back at it again watching the show

Oscar: Hello?

Dad: Who is this kid?

Ozpin: Hello! I am Professor Oz-

Dad:

Dad: Sounds like a recording, I’m not impressed yet

[diaryofamadsunwukongfan]

So volume 2 pretended Ironwood was bad for literally no reason too, good to know.

[image816]

Okay so here are my thoughts on this screenshot. Of course these are based on the silhouettes behind Neo and are based completely off of choice of positioning and stances. The ones I feel pretty confident on are Ozpin on the left, followed by penny, roman right behind Neo, and Pyrrha on the right side. Less confident about Adam but the hair feels pretty right and he is pretty evil. Clover and Ironwood are like, okay guesses. Clover feels more concrete compared to the ironwood like figure, only because he’s standing like ironwood, lmao ironwood would, but he doesn’t look broad enough? 

Basically what this would mean in my head is that Neo is going to girl boss everyone by acting like their dead friends smiley face. 

Also the two unmarked figures could be her parents from her backstory? At first I thought the male figure might have been Jacques, but then that leaves the woman on the left and honestly I’m stumped. I think it would be so cool to get Neo backstory in this volume, honestly Neo is going to slay girl is in her element.

What does everyone think? Are we familiar with the silhouetted figures or are they someone new? Is there anyone you think I missed? I just feel like this screenshot is going to be so important to what Neo is going to be doing this volume:)

[anthurak]

The Ravens’ Odin

So one thing I’m particularly happy with that happened during this latest round of ‘theory-crafting about Norse Mythology allusions in RWBY’ is finally realizing a plausible solution to one of bigger conundrums surrounding Ruby being an allusion to Odin.

That being: If Ruby is meant to be an allusion to Odin, then why were Qrow and Raven, who are allusions to Odin’s ravens Huginn and Muninn, effectively ‘created’ (ie; given their powers) by Ozpin? After all, that’s one of the biggest reasons people have considered Oz and allusion to Odin over the years.

But here’s the interesting bit, using RWBY’s trend of twisting or flipping the script on it’s allusions and references: As I discussed in this recent post; I think Ozma/Oz as a whole is actually an allusion to Baldr, with the destruction of old humanity by the gods being Remnant’s equivalent to Ragnarok, and that Ruby and Oz represent a role reversal of Odin and Baldr.

With all that in mind, I think the whole story of Remnant starts feeling like the Norse myth-cycle effectively playing out in reverse. With Ragnarok being the BEGINNING of Remnant’s story instead of the end, and Baldr (Oz) being among the ELDEST of the Aesir while Odin (Ruby) is among the youngest.

So if the lore of RWBY represents a bunch of the beats of Norse mythology playing out backwards, I’d say it only makes sense that in this version of events, it is not Odin who creates/molds Huginn and Muninn, but rather Huginn and Muninn who mold/create ODIN.

And wouldn’t you know it; Qrow is a longtime mentor and father-figure to Ruby.

And as for Raven... well, let’s just say I may have a theory or two on how she ‘created’ Ruby XD

[bowl-of-shortness]

Oh my gosh, they all have gorgeous eyes! -🐈‍⬛

I will take this as an opportunity to give y’all some eye facts about the predecessors :)

- Qorbyn gets her eye color not just from Ozpin but also from Merle!

- Qrow’s eyes are slightly lighter than Qormac’s because of Merle’s genes, his eye shape also looks more like Merle’s :D

- Alloy’s eyes are a more silvery color because of his overuse of his silver eyes, also hence the scars around his eyes.

- I always imagined that Silver eyes come in different shades, but have a few distinct features that help so you can tell if they’re silver and not just grey, for instance, the two little marks both of them have on the right side of their irises (this is actually canon to rwby!) and the fact that their eyes appearance metallic when light hits them.

- Summer and Ruby get their darker shade of silver from Valentina

- Red eyes are a dominant gene in the Branwen family, Hence Jackdaw, Qormac, Qrow and Raven, and Olivia all having red eyes.

- Silver and Golden eyes are recessive genes. Because of this, both of Ozpin’s parents don’t have golden eyes, while he and his grandfather do.

- Alloy sight gets progressively worse the more he overuses his silver eyes. At the time of the Young Leaders AU he’s mildly nearsighted and light sensitive. By the time of the Remnant Heirs AU his nearsightedness and light sensitivity are worse, thus requiring him to wear sunglasses in buildings with fluorescent lights or outside on sunny days, unless he wants to be left with a headache.

- Branwen eyes glow when they’re mad/emotional and also glow in the dark :)

- Ozpin’s eyes also glow in the dark but that’s because of magic stuff

- yes Qorbyn is bitter that her eyes don’t glow in the dark.

[mean-and-rwde]

gdi it's a little past 1am and i'm thinking about how badly blake's character suffered after the white fang arc / plot was abruptly retconned :(

[rocknroll7575]

Bilingual

*Jaune and Emerald talking while drinking coffee*

Weiss: What are they doing?

Ren: Apparently, Emerald's mother grew up in the same region of Vale as Jaune's father, and taught Emerald how to speak in old Eastern Valerian

Weiss: Really? I didn't know Jaune spoke old Eastern Valerian

Ren: Neither did we until Emerald cussed in it and Jaune was shocked to hear it, since then they both sometimes converse in the language

Weiss: *looking back at them with intrigue*

Jaune: Et c'est à ce moment-là que j'ai appris à ne jamais me cacher dans la chambre de mes parents pendant les jeux de cache-cache.

Emerald: *giggles* Je ne peux pas imaginer à quel point ça a dû être horrible de les voir faire ça

Jaune: Oui

Emerald: En parlant de faire quelque chose dans ce sens… J'ai ma propre chambre, tu sais?

Jaune: *Shocked* Es-tu…?

Emerald: *nods* Je suis... alors qu'en dis-tu? Veux-tu revenir avec moi et nous pourrons passer du temps seuls?

Jaune: Je pense... j'adorerais, Emerald

Emerald: Bon choix, Jaune

*both set down their cups and quickly rush upstairs*

Weiss: Where are they going?

Oscar: *blushing because Ozpin translated for him* I-I don't think we should bother them for a while...

[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.

[dumbawesomev69]

Why the Arc's are the breeders of remnants

Jaune was sitting in Ozpin office with team rwby parents along with pyrrha mother all staring at him while on the other side we're team rwby and Pyrrha all with pregnant stomachs.

Ozpin: now Mr arc you know what I called you here.

Jaune: uh to make sure I take responsibility?

Ghira: *try lunging* IM GOING TO KILL YOU!!! *Kail and qrow hold him back* let me go! Let me go!

Kail: No honey I won't let our grand kittens be fatherless!

Ozpin clear his throat as he looks at jaune. "Mr arc please tell me it's just team rwby and miss nikos."

Jaune: well.... I can't lie because...

*door opened*

Glynda (pregnant): sir miss Neon, team ndgo, Reese, may, arslan, Velvet, coco are parents have arrived to talk also I may need paternal leave

Everyone: *slowly to face jaune*

Jaune: well their you go that's everyone.

Glynda: oh I forgot I received a message from Raven, ironwood, Roman and the white fang something about Mr arc take responsibility

Jaune: alright maybe their more.

Willow scrolls rings and she answers. "Yes oh winter I'm just talking to- your what! And Whitley too.

Everyone's eyes widen as jaune gulp as Weiss looks at jaune. "you fuck and impregnate my brother!"

Jaune: I though it was you!

*door slams opened*

Bleiss (pregnant): Guess who's back Bitches!

Jacques: Oh shit not her!

Willow: bleiss! You return! *Hugs her* and your pregnant as well.

Jaune was sweating. "Alright so I think that's everyone."

*Door slams opened again*

Pietro: I just want to talk to him

Penny (pregnant): why do you have a shotgun?

Pietro: I just want to talk to him.

Penny: Dad this is ridiculous.

Pietro: I just want to talk to him.

Penny: put that gun away.

Pietro: I just want to talk to him.

Penny: it's not his fault.

Pietro: I just want to talk to shoot him.

Pietro makes it close to jaune and points his gun. "ALRIGHT SAY YOUR PRAYERS!!"

Jaune: ALRIGHT LOOK I SAID ILL TAKE RESPONSIBILITY!!! WHY DO EVERYONE WANT TO KILL ME!!

*Portal opened*

Jessica, vixen and wonder woman walk through each pregnant. "Hey jaune remember that time in the closet well and the training room."

Jaune: alright so I'm pretty thier more to come so let's wait.

*another portal opened*

Salem (pregnant): Hello arc it seems our time together have reunited my old life as a mother which both cinder and Emerald are exited to be a mothers as well.

Jaune: uh so that what dad meant that we Arc's are the breeders of remnants.

Everyone who's pregnant: you think!

[blue-cheeseinmyoffwhites]

Hello, saw your posts about RWBY Characters' Allusions. A question, does team rwby have another character allusion?

A lot of characters have more than one allusion, and team RWBY is no different. These allusions often have a character fill a complementary role of a significant figure in another fairy tale.

Let's start with Ruby Rose. She is of course Little Red, but there are also other characters she embodies. The Wolf in the story is known for his big & shiny eyes, a very notable feature of Ruby (that was pointed out by Ozpin in the first episode, just like the fairy tale). She is also her own huntsman, equip with an "axe" weapon of her own.

Weiss Schnee is Snow White, but also takes other roles of the story based on her summons. Her Boartusk represents the huntsman, who killed a boar to spare the princess. Her Knight represents the noble prince who saves her. Her Queen Lancer represents the Evil Queen who plagues her. Weiss seems to take after the Evil Queen the most, with her friends often referring to her as "Ice Queen".

After reading those first two, you can probably now understand why Blake is based on both Beauty & the Beast. She has Belle's beauty, part of her name, her love for books, her relationship to "Adam" and her tendency to run away. But like the Beast, she has animal traits that she hides, is haunted by a rose, prefers living in isolation, and eventually falls in love with a human girl. She is often seen in Forever Fall, a forest with wilting red flowers, representing the wilting rose that curses the Beast.

Yang is Goldilocks with her destructive nature & yellow hair, but can also be seen as Baby Bear, the child of the Papa (Taiyang, blue eyes) & Mama (Raven, red eyes), resulting in Yang being a mix of both (purple eyes). Each parent compares Yang to the other, and she learns to embrace the good and bad traits of both in order to become "just right".

The tale of Rose Red & Snow White, two young girls based on Little Red & Snow White, can be the inspiration for the partnership between Ruby & Weiss. The two were sisters, which is represented by the ever-growing bond between Ruby & Weiss. Weiss's fairy tale, Snow White, could also be the reason for Ruby's theme, Red Like Roses, which is how the Evil Queen described how red she wants her lips in the original tale (in some stories she compares it to blood in the snow, both line up perfectly with the Red Trailer & Players & Pieces).

Weiss also represents the story of the Snow Queen. She is called Ice Queen. She has a male companion (Kai/Whitley) who is cold, distant, & rude. She sets off to find the Snow Queen (Winter) in V5, during her trip she meets a talking corvid (Raven) & a robber maiden (Vernal). Weiss also gets pierced by evil glass like Gerda.

Gerda’s most cherished memories is being young playing in the rose gardens with her friend. They shared many happy memories here. This rose garden takes the embodiment of Ruby Rose, who befriends Weiss & takes her on adventures. Weiss reminisces about Ruby in V4 after the attack on Beacon, missing the days when they had fun together. A frozen rose garden is seen in Weiss Character Short, representing her longing for Ruby (innocence, fun, freedom).

Blake & Yang have so many allusions when it comes to their relationship. Start with Beauty and Beast. Blake already shows traits of both Belle & the Beast, but Yang does as well. Her affiliation with yellow, adventure, bright energy, & beauty is reminiscent of Belle. The Red Trailer even directly ties her with Blake, calling her the beauty to her beast. Yet Yang also displays signs of the Beast, most notably her behavior when she is angry. She sparks fire red eyes similar to the monstrous Grimm they fight, and is the most aggressive fighter of the group. She receives an injury on her arm identical to the Beast. Most importantly, she is abandoned by Beauty in V3. This theme of having similar & different traits within one another ties into another dynamic that will be explained later.

There are two roses that bring them together. They meet through Ruby, the good rose Yang gives to Blake. Adam is the bad rose that Blake tries to keep away from Yang, but he breaks them. Adam starts off as the Beast (Adam) to Blake’s Beauty. Once she leaves him (like the fairy tale) he then embodies the Rose that haunts her. Once he meets Blake’s new partner, he then becomes Gaston & adopts his jealousy. Once Blake & Yang defeat him, they free themselves from the curse and come back to the Good Rose.

Blake & Yang also represent the Yin & Yang dynamic. We have the darkness (Blake) and the light (Yang), with a little bit of each other in each (matching eyes). Many cultures depict Yin as a tiger (Blake's cat ears) and Yang as a dragon (Xiao Long). The themes of darkness and light has been associated with Blake & Yang since their trailers. Blake engulfs in darkness when she leaves, while Yang brings light when she enters (kind of like their semblances). Scenes with Blake & Yang play with lighting a lot (2x06, 6x01, 9x06), and fights involving them often have them circling around each other or moving across each other, just like the Yin Yang Symbol.

Team RWBY as a whole also has references. One commonly known reference is the Wizard of Oz crew, with Ruby acting as Dorothy (who had Ruby/Silver slippers). Weiss is the Tin Man who gains heart while the real one loses it (Ironwood), Blake is the Lion who gains courage while the real one loses it (Lionheart), and Yang is the Scarecrow who learns to fight smarter while the real one acts irrationally (Qrow). These four adventurers set off to Beacon (Land of Oz), meet the Wizard (Ozpin), and get their wishes (graduating). They are told to stay on the Yellow Road, but fail.

The team's respective Remnants also allude to their fairy tales. Ruby sheds roses, representing her red color scheme, her youthful innocence, and the flowers Little Red picks for her grandmother. Weiss sheds snow, representing her white color scheme, her cold attitude, and Snowhite's soft skin that gave her the name. Blake sheds shadows, representing her black color scheme, her dark personality and background, and the Beast condemned to the shadows. Yang sheds fire, representing her yellow color scheme, her bright but scorching personality, and the porridge Goldilocks claimed was "too hot".

Ruby represents multiple figures from others characters’ allusions. Penny is based on Pinocchio, who wishes on a Shooting Star to be a real human. Ruby, who is often characterized as a small flickering light (literally & figuratively) she represents the star that Penny wishes for & makes her feel human (literally & figuratively).

2x07 Dance Dance Infiltration is a retelling of the Cinderella story. The maiden is told she needs to return by midnight, puts on a disguise, & goes off. Ruby tracks her, Cinderella enters the stage, the two dance, and she leaves without a trace. Ruby in this case represents the Prince that wants to find the mysterious maiden he danced with the night before. His only clue was her missing glass slipper. Cinder fights with glass, a point Ruby reports to her professors as information to track her down.

There's a lot more micro references to other fairy tales but these are the most notable for Team RWBY. These references influence how a character is portrayed, how they interact with others, and the actions they take.

[pilot-boi]

What was your dad’s reaction to salem?

“The big bad ookie one? My first thought was ‘An actual end big bad guy, cool’ My second thought was ‘She’s talking to Ozpin in the first person, which makes me think that he’s either NOT actually dead, or he IS dead and she has him for some reason.’ All very cool”

There ya go :]

[rwby-encrusted-blog]

Tarnished spardian and rusted knight wpuld parent ruby through her issues

Pyrrha: Ruby, What's wrong?

Ruby: What isn't! Atlas fell, Salem has two relics-

Pyrrha: No. What's wrong with you. Personally.

Ruby: I don't have to tell you anything.

Pyrrha: You don't. I didn't. So I didn't , not until it was too late. You need help, and I hope you know you can rely on me-

Ruby: How? How can I rely on you? You died! Penny's Dead, EVERYONE is following my lead! EVERYONE is counting on me to not fuck up! AN you know what

Ruby: OZPIN HAS BEEN AT THIS FOR LONGER THAN ANY OF US CAN IMAGINE!

Ruby: *Crying* Hell, my MOM met Salem! She's Gone! My MOM failed, the one everyone compares me to, and she had YEARS of experience over me! How the Hell can I do this!

Pyrrha: *Holding Ruby close* Hey, Hey ... Have you talked to your team about this?

Ruby: How could I? I'm their leader. I - I -

Ruby: I can't.

Jaune: Ruby, yes, you are their leader, but more importantly, you're a part of their team. Their Family. And, we're your family too. You have to be able to count on us. Because if the world's counting on you, then the world's counting on us as well.

Ruby: *Sniffle* Thanks guys ...

Jaune: Hey, thank us when you talk to your team.

[bestworstcase]

option 1: tai’s guarding the crown of choice.

pros:

a legitimately important task that recontextualizes his ongoing decision to remain on patch as a personal sacrifice he makes for the greater good.

ozpin would pick the guy named for the god of light to be the gatekeeper of choice, huh.

if any parent in this story is meant to die, it’s him, and narratively this is the most intuitive way to do it.

cons:

realistically, what can tai do to prevent salem / cinder / summer from accessing the vault if they find it? if he’s the gatekeeper, staying on patch alone after everyone else evacuates achieves nothing except, ah, signaling to the enemy that the real vault is under signal academy. bad plan.

it means oz is breaking his promise to be honest and forthcoming, undermining his character growth for the sake of ‘surprising’ the audience with the most obvious answer.

means qrow has either been kept in the dark (see prev point) or he’s also deliberately hiding this information from his nieces after they asked him outright if he knew where tai is; this is so far afield for his character as to border on character assassination, and likewise undermines his positive growth since v7.

honestly makes both yang and ruby seem kind of stupid. they know the crown is hidden somewhere near beacon, that ozpin did something to protect it differently from the others, and that their father hasn’t left patch. ruby was sharp enough to guess that long memory might be a relic hidden in plain sight; yang is just as smart, and she knows tai had “some things” to look after on patch. are we expected to believe that “hey, is dad guarding the relic?” somehow hasn’t occurred to either of them?

tai harbors a whole lot of resentment toward ozpin, and based on qrow kicking him out of ruby’s bedroom to drip-feed her hints on where to go next, he seems to have been on the outer perimeter of the inner circle. why would oz entrust him with the relic’s safety?

glynda—ozpin’s scrupulously loyal second-in-command whose emblem is a crown and whose semblance puts her on par with a maiden—is a far more narratively plausible vault-guardian than tai, and the “sun dragon” makes a damn good red herring.

if he’s guarding the vault, he dies. sorry. but the point of putting the father of 2/4 protagonists in between the two main villains and the thing they want most (choice) is so they can kill him to get it, increasing tension and raising the emotional stakes of negotiating peace. to be clear, rwby is willing to Go There, but i think it’s an unsatisfactory way to close out the rose xiao long family arc.

option 2: survivors trapped under mountain glenn, and tai is taking point.

pros:

a genuinely important, worthwhile thing for him to be doing—even more so than guarding the crown. likely sets up a resolution for him in the vein of “you can be a good huntsman or a good father, and tai picked being a huntsman,” which is an elegant way to balance his contradictions.

gives him meaningful stuff to do in v10; for example, one stealthy huntsman with a bullhead could slip in and out of mountain glenn to get a few dozen people out at a time, and/or run supplies and messages between the kingdoms.

we get to see zwei back in action around mountain glenn :)

introduces a natural segue from playing defense in vacuo to mounting a counteroffensive against beacon as tai’s work clarifies the situation in vale.

easily the most 'heroic' direction for him without contorting the story to arbitrarily lionize tai: he’s a scout preparing the stage for the heroes to take the fight to salem, making him the good counterpart to watts.

cons:

makes no sense to keep it a secret. the emotional beats of B4 can still happen if the girls know this is what tai’s doing: instead of “do you… wonder why he’s not here? i know qrow said he’s on assignment, but what’s more important than here?” yang says “do you… wish he were here? with us? i know qrow said he’s looking for survivors, but how many of them can there really be by now? we need all the help we can get,” and ruby says “maybe we don’t have the full picture” as in maybe dad knows something we don’t and that’s why he hasn’t given up yet. the emotion is the same, and the big "they’re hiding in mountain glenn" reveal is hinted without spoiling.

leaves hanging the narrative thread of what tai has been doing since the fall of beacon, because the “some things” he was dealing with in v4 obviously wasn’t this.

option 3: tai is dead.

pros:

explains the apparent secrecy; qrow knows tai was away “on assignment” (i.e., had taken a huntsman contract that brought him out of the kingdom) at the time salem attacked vale, so he is missing but not yet presumed dead.

might reopen the mystery box of summer’s last mission through the real-deal “left on a mission and never came back” echo.

cons:

raven would know.

it’s a cheap, narratively unsatisfying twist that fails to deliver on the bread crumbs set up in v2-3 (tai starts going on missions again) and v4 (“some things”), and also undermines any serious emotional resolution with regard to yang and ruby’s complex relationships with tai.

option 4: summer’s working with salem, and tai is trying to convince her to come back.

pros:

“some things” being his presumed-dead wife who left him to join the enemy and with whom tai is now having an affair or otherwise hoping to coax back to the heroic side through the power of love whilst also keeping his mouth shut about her being a) still alive and b) a traitor is OBJECTIVELY the funniest answer.

brings forward and interrogates the way tai’s romantic grief informs the choices he makes as a parent: from hiding raven and then refusing to talk about her with yang, to shutting down when he lost summer and letting his five-year-old pick up the pieces, to discovering and then keeping summer’s secrets for the sake of some faint hope that she might finally come back to him.

cogent with the Dead (Absent) Mother / Neglectful Father / Evil Stepmother fairytale paradigm rwby deconstructs with raven, tai, and summer; the father chooses the stepmother over his children.

raises the emotional stakes of the war for summer through direct confrontation with the life she left behind, creating narrative opportunities to develop her character (is she still in love with tai? how does she feel about being his first priority, over their children? does she resent that he has her on this pedestal even now?) and apply pressure to her relationships with salem and cinder (do they know? is summer keeping her communication with him a secret, too? or is he an “asset” she’s using for salem’s benefit?).

consequently, raises the momentum of the narrative toward negotiation with salem; tai still has the coalition’s trust, however strained his personal relationships may be. summer is the obvious ambassador for salem’s side of the war, but she’s also the traitor who needs someone to vouch for her good intentions.

the secrecy needs no explanation: just as summer’s last mission was a summer secret, tai’s "assignment" is a taiyang secret and the girls know everything that oz and qrow do, because all of them have been left in the dark. raven might know, and she has the means to find if she doesn’t, but tai’s whereabouts are entangled with what raven knows about summer, so she can’t explain where tai is or why until she reveals her deep dark secrets about what happened between her and summer that night.

foreshadowing is solid: tai starts to go on "missions" again in v2, after the inner circle becomes aware that salem has infiltrated beacon and just before the breach downtown. when ruby visits summer’s grave in v3, she says "[dad] told me he’s going to be on some mission soon! i think he misses adventuring with you." he’s got to "look after some things" (but he isn’t talking about yang, because he stays home after she leaves). and then with B4 we have ruby echoing what the blacksmith taught her about summer in relation to tai, "maybe we don’t have the full picture?"

juicy

cons:

???

dependent on the unconfirmed theory that summer is working for salem as herself, not some unrecognizable enslaved monster, but i am as confident in that as i was about salem going to vale next and we all know how that turned out :)

taking their mom was not enough salem had to go for the full set APPARENTLY

option 5: secret fifth thing

pros:

???

cons:

???

[howlingday]

Jaune: If a teacher is your mom, they have to tell you, right?

Ruby: ...What?!

Jaune: There- There's gotta be a rule about that, right?

Ozpin: "If a teacher is your dad"?

Pyrrha: Are you thinking of a cop? Like, if they're a cop, they have to tell you?

Jaune: What? No! I'm asking about teachers!

Ozpin: I... First of all, there's the, quite frankly, epistemological question in the air in which the teacher may not be aware you are their parent. She may not know she's your mother.

Blake: Whoa...

Ozpin: Also, we probably shouldn't entertain the idea. She's not likely your mom. The odds seem low.

Yang: I think your mom will visit you in a vision, like my mom did.

Ozpin: That- That might be true, but that's also an irresponsible thing to tell to an adopted child.

Jaune: Oh, so I just have to knock myself out!

RWBYNPR: NO!

Ozpin: Everyone, go back to your dorms!

[anthurak]

Taiyang Xiao Long: The Latest in a Long Line of Fuckups

So there’s been quite a bit of discussion by this point from a number of people, myself included, about the idea that Taiyang Xiao Long isn’t actually the ‘Good Dad’ that much of the RWBY fandom has long seen him as. That he is in fact just as much of a dysfunctional fuck-up parent as Qrow, Summer, and yes, even Raven. There are a few different factors to this that others have gone into more detail on, but for me it really comes down to one core point in particular:

If you have checked out of parenting to the point where the two girls under your care can both state overtly and matter-of-factly that the older of the two raised the younger, then it frankly doesn’t matter WHAT your reasons were for checking out or how hard you may have been grieving. You have unequivocally, massively, FUCKED UP as a parent. The fact that the show has made it clear that Ruby considers Yang, her SISTER, to be her primary parent-figure does not speak well to ANY of Team STRQ’s parenting, Tai included.

However, with that said, I thought it would be worth talking about what all this discussion could actually mean in practice, ie; how might all this end up being actually explored in the story of RWBY itself?

After all, it’s not like Tai’s failings as a father have really been directly focused on or confronted or even overtly spelled out in the show thus far. The most direct we’ve gotten was during Yang’s talk with Weiss in the episode Alone Together, and even that wasn’t so much directed at Tai himself so much as describing how Yang was forced to take up so much slack in the family after Summer’s apparent death. Right now, discussion of Tai’s failings as a father is still very much ‘reading between the lines’.

And I believe that is all deliberate on the part of the writers. Thus far, the references to Tai’s failings as a parent haven’t meant to be overt and obvious to the audience. But rather they are meant to be hints and foreshadowing hiding in the margins and not immediately obvious to the viewer.

At least until it’s time to MAKE them obvious.

You see, I believe that Taiyang as a character is going to turn out to be all too similar to the likes of Qrow, Ozpin and Ironwood.

Men who are introduced appearing to represent noble and good-natured archetypes, but who wind up being revealed to have DEEP and extensive personal failings and flaws that wind up hurting themselves and all those around them. The warning signs of which turn out to have been floating around the margins, between the lines and just outside the audience’s field of view since practically their first appearances.

Consider for a moment just how characters like Ozpin, Qrow, Ironwood and Tai were/have been overtly presented in their early appearances. In other words, how the story at first wants us to view them:

The Wise Teacher

The Quirky Mentor

The Heroic Soldier

The Good Dad

And now let’s remember just how the first three wound up failing our heroines. And all of the hints we got that FORESHADOWED that failing:

All of the ‘Shady Oz’ behavior that people were noticing as early as Volume 2, and which only compiled and built over the subsequent volumes until being finally dragged into the light at the start of Volume 6.

Qrow’s rampant alcoholism, which he was outright introduced with in Volume 3 and later noted by Glynda to ALWAYS to be drunk. And shown later in Volume 5 when Ruby doesn’t bat an eye at Qrow showing up at their house near-passed out drunk.

And of course, ALL of the red flags that Ironwood was on the fast-track to fascism right from his first appearance when he showed up for the preparations of a festival celebrating peace and unity with a fleet of giant warships.

Now we have Tai, a character who turns out to have all kinds of indicators pointing to him actually being a complete dysfunctional fuck-up as a father once you start looking closely. From Yang’s multiple recountings of how Tai shut down and left HER to care for Ruby, to his shall we say QUESTIONABLE mentoring advice to Yang, to Ruby outright stating that it was YANG who raised her…

Really if you just start taking a closer look at Tai’s actions and behavior across the show, you can start finding plenty of hints and red-flags to his dysfunctional parenting hiding under a thin veneer of ‘expected’ character-archetype behavior, just like what happened with Ozpin, Qrow and Ironwood.

For example, just look at Tai’s ‘mentoring’ of Yang in Volume 4. At first glance, this scene is framed like a typical ‘hero gets tough-love advice and help from their wise and experienced parent’ situation, which is the takeaway most of us probably got on first viewing. Yet the moment you take a closer look and start unpacking what Tai is actually saying in this scene, it becomes clear, particularly in hindsight, that Tai is FULL OF SHIT. To the point of seemingly not even understanding how Yang’s semblance even works.

Or how about his claim that Raven ‘did a number of this family’, which if you actually take a minute to analyze, ESPECIALLY now in hindsight, makes no goddamn sense. How exactly can Raven have ‘done a number’ on the family when she’s been GONE from said family for the past 18 years? Particularly now that it seems like if any member is guilty of ‘doing a number’ on the STRQ, it’s actually SUMMER for going off on her super-secret suicide/martyr mission. We can’t even say that Tai can blame Raven for what happened to Summer because as Ruby’s Tree Vision made clear, Tai doesn’t even know Raven was involved. What this statement REALLY feels like is a shitload of projection and Tai blaming Raven for all of HIS fuckups as a parent.

HOWEVER, because none of this is directly framed by the show as being explicitly ‘bad’ and doesn’t present Tai with traditional/obvious ‘bad dad’ traits (see Jacques, and more on him in just a bit…) and generally couches his behavior with a veneer of ‘feeling baseline care and affection’, it’s easy to overlook on a first viewing.

Really, it feels all too much like how Volume 4 also presented Ironwood on the surface as the noble, heroic ‘only sane man’ among the authority in Atlas, all while slipping in NUMEROUS red-flags of him being on the fast track to fascism.

Speaking of Jimmy the Child Shooter, it’s been noted by a few people at this point that in hindsight, it’s pretty clear that Jacques Schnee effectively served as a red-herring villain to distract the audience from the growing red-flags surrounding Ironwood, both in Volume 4 and again in Volume 7.

Well, what if Jacques was also being used to distract the audience from TAI’s own parenting red flags in Volume 4? After all, it’s easy to be more forgiving of Tai’s sketchy parenting choices when the show keeps cutting back to Jacques’ brand of ‘parenting’.

Really, I think in hindsight Volume 4 is giving us three different looks at fatherhood: We’ve got the caring, nurturing father in Ghira, the abusive villainous father in Jacques, and the dysfunctional fuckup in Tai. A real ‘the Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ situation.

And finally, the simple fact that Yang raised Ruby. The biggest indicator of Tai’s, as well as the rest of Team STRQ’s, MASSIVE fuckups as parents which goes all the way back to Volume 1 when Gold framed Yang as a motherly figure to Ruby, outright comparing her to Summer.

It all points to Tai being set up for the same kind of big, subversive narrative rug-pull as Ozpin, Qrow and Ironwood. Men who are introduced as these strong, capable, ‘good-guy’ archetypes, only for it to be later revealed to both the heroines and the audience that these adults that they trusted are actually massive fuck-ups who have been making a mess of everything.

The only difference with Tai is that the story simply hasn’t decided to shine the light of narrative focus ON all of his numerous problems and fuckups and force our heroines to confront them like it already has with Ozpin and Qrow in Volume 6, and Ironwood in Volumes 7 and 8.

At least, not YET.

And wouldn’t you know it, the last RWBY Beyond episode set up what could be the PERFECT opportunity for that with Yang’s line about Tai being on ‘special assignment’.

Sure, people have been saying stuff like ‘Oh he’s gotta be doing something super important like guarding the Relic of Choice’, but this is RWBY we’re talking about. The show that ALREADY made a big point about how the ‘Daddy had a good reason for abandoning you’ trope is utter bullshit.

So frankly, I’d say there is NO WAY IN HELL that Tai has an actual ‘good reason’ for not having come to Vacuo to see his daughters.

And that this is instead the setup for Ruby and Yang to finally have to DEAL with all of their parents’ dysfunctional bullshit.