#rwby ruby analysis

[angstpancake]

The Girl with the Silver Eyes

Despite the circumstances of the world she was born into- a dark world on the verge of war, where smaller, more honest souls were unwelcome- Ruby Rose didn't allow her light to be tainted by selfishness or malice. 

She was born into a world that was overrun by monsters, whose master took her mother away from her and robbed her of a bond that every child deserves, that every child needs. She grew up in a cold home, one where her father clocked out of parenthood to wallow in grief, leaving her older sister to step up and take care of her. Eventually that home got a lot brighter and warmer as old wounds healed, but the scar it left behind meant that her father would never look at his daughter the same way again... because Ruby Rose was just like her mom. 

And as everyone told her as such, she wanted to live up to that. She wanted to be the one everyone could count on, she wanted to be the inspiration, to be the hero she read about in books. She wanted to help people- enjoyed the romanticism of it. She thought, as she became fascinated with weapons and wanting to learn to fight grimm, "This is who I am." 

She gets older, and starts to see the problems of the world. It's broken, shattered like the moon that rises every night. But she can fix it. 

"Unfortunately the real world isn't the same as a fairytale."

"Well, that's why we're here. To make it better."

She tries her best. She tries so hard to prove herself. Stops a robbery, catches the eye of a professor from a prestigious academy. The same one her mom went to. Gets moved two years ahead because she has a lot of potential and- apparently- silver eyes, whatever that means. Gets made a team leader because... why? Learns briefly that she doesn't need to prove herself. 

"I'm not trying to show off, I want you to know that I can do this."

"You're. Fine." 

And then gets hit again that there are still expectations of her. 

"That's just it - you've done nothing to earn your position! Back in the forest, you acted like a child, and you've only continued to do so!"

And she's right. 

At Beacon, Ruby receives her first bit of... advice. "If you are not always performing at your absolute best, then what reason do you give others to follow you?" If she's not perfect, then people won't listen. People won't care. So she gets better. Tries her best to be perfect.

She never is. 

She's never asked about why she wants to be a huntress, because apparently, she already knows. Who wants her reason, anyways? She's the leader. She doesn't talk, she listens, she adapts.

---

Her dream is collapsing around her. Her classmates are dying. Beacon is falling. She had time to stop it, but she didn't make it. Her semblance is literally to go fast and she can't even save her own friend. Penny Polendina is dead. But there’s no time. Pyrrha Nikos needs her. Ruby runs up the tower, but gets there just in time to see Cinder Fall strike an arrow in Pyrrha’s heart. 

Not good enough. Again. Not perfect. Not enough. Never enough. Never. 

From her grief, Ruby activates a power she never knew she had. She’s special just like her mom was, according to Qrow. 

“If I’m so special, then I can help… right?” 

Her team left her. Her sister is… a shell of her former self. She wants nothing to do with Ruby. And that's okay. She needs time. She’s just getting used to… things.

"You can do whatever you want. I'm going to lie here."

Weiss is gone. Blake left. She doesn’t know why. Ruby used to be part of a team. Part of something bigger. But now it's just her again. 

Well… not entirely. JNR is still there for her. They were hurt by the Fall too. They want answers. They want to change the team name to RNJR (JNRR?). Ruby feels sick to her stomach. She’s filling in the spot of a teammate that she failed to save. She knows JNR doesn’t blame her but, it’s her fault Pyrrha Nikos is gone. 

Eventually, her team comes back. It’s not the same. They’re back together, but they feel more distant than ever. It feels like they understand her even less than they did before. 

It’s okay, though. She has to put her team first and herself second. 

She finds out it's all been a lie. She finds out their goal has been impossible. Every person that's ever been a guide to her has given up, shattered whatever this is. She has to pick up the pieces. She has no idea how to put them back together. 

She almost gives up. But she doesn’t. She fishes the lamp out of the well, beats the Apathy, and keeps moving forward. 

Keep moving forward. Keep moving forward. Keep moving forward. 

She finds out what having silver eyes means. It means carrying the light of the world, and using it against the grimm... as a weapon. It means being that light at the end of the tunnel. It means being a spark of hope. 

She needs to channel hope and joy to use it. She never talks about how hard that is. 

To be happy without trying.

By some miracle they make it to Atlas. By some miracle Penny Polendina is alive. And despite the shitty situation of politics and Ironwood not entirely being all trusting, everything is okay for a while. 

Ruby's semblance evolves. She can now go so fast, that she breaks apart. She can pick people up when she breaks.

Salem shows up, and Ruby’s mask cracks. Only for a moment. Ironwood snaps. Salem is coming and they need help. 

Despite her trying, nobody comes. Her plan fails. It doesn't work. 

Ruby finds out what happened to her mom. No time to think about that. There's no time to think about what might've happened to Ruby if Tyrian had managed to capture her back in Anima. No time. Penny needs her. Penny wants her to kill her. Ruby can’t think about that either. Because if she thinks about any of that, she knows she’ll break. 

Nothing is working anymore. She isn’t working.

Ambrosius warns them not to fall. 

Ruby falls. 

She finds out what happens to Penny, and Atlas. She faints in front of them. The facade is gone. She’s tired. She’s alone, and despite her team having said that they’re there for her in the past, all they ask is if she’s okay. She’s clearly not, so she doesn’t respond. Do they expect a different answer from her? Do they expect her to bounce back on her own? She supposes her mask has been so good that they do. 

Weiss is seeking comfort from her. She tries. It comes out shallow and cold, and doesn’t seem to be helping. So Ruby stops. Weiss notices. Great job, Ruby. Now you’ve failed your partner. 

How many more people are going to be hurt around her?

Maybe Cinder was right. Maybe it’d be better if she was never born.

[anthurak]

Okay, but just the contrast in writing/performance between Jaune and Ruby in their different breakdowns.

Miles is giving Jaune this very up-front, very overt, very traditionally dramatic ‘man losing his mind out of isolation and guilt’ performance. He shouts, he screams, he makes big, attention-getting monologues and outbursts where he lays out all his pains and torments for the audience to hear. Again, all in what we’d call a very ‘traditionally’ dramatic fashion.

Meanwhile, Lindsay is giving Ruby this very restrained, grounded, visceral, far more raw and ugly performance. Ruby is generally quiet and restrained until something sets her off. She doesn’t shout or scream but instead lashes out with things she’s been holding in all this time seemingly at random. She’s not ‘explaining’ what or how her problems are, she’s just VENTING. Because that’s all she CAN do right now.

And it all works brilliantly with both the characters AND what the scene needs to accomplish.

I think from a character perspective, Jaune is making these big, overt dramatic breakdowns in a subconscious attempt to GET attention, as an unconscious cry for help. Specifically, because Jaune is deep down DESPERATE for absolution. He’s become so consumed by guilt over what he did to Penny that it’s now taken over everything he does, and deep down he’s desperate for someone or something to absolve him of that guilt.

But whereas Jaune is dealing with something recent, relatively speaking, what we’re seeing with Ruby is simply the result of coping mechanism she’s been using to compartmentalize, manage and repress her trauma likely her entire life, which has LONG since been pushed past it’s limits, FINALLY breaking down. What we’re seeing start to come out is likely a LIFETIME of repressed pain and trauma. Which ironically she CAN’T let out nearly as obviously as Jaune is doing because she’s still trying to keep it in. Because she doesn’t know HOW to be open with her pain.

And putting Jaune opposite Ruby in this episode only serves to exacerbate Ruby’s problems. Because Jaune’s far more overt and obvious breakdowns just end up drawing the attention of Weiss, Blake, Yang and even the audience AWAY from Ruby’s already subtle and restrained breakdown.

Until it’s too late and Ruby simply checks out entirely.

[wixhing0nastar]

I wanna talk about Blake’s body language around Yang these last two episodes, cuz I think it’s fascinating how open it’s been compared to normal. Like...

This is two episodes in a row where Blake’s body language is uncharacteristically open towards her, three if we count this.

(Which absolutely we should)

But especially those first two poses are very vulnerable body language-wise, which is something we rarely see from Blake. In fact, her signature move body language-wise is this...

Which is very pointedly closing herself off from her surroundings and others, and despite the progress they’d made, she was still doing this around/because of Yang in V7/8.

And Blake has had every reason to be cautious, given what she’s gone through. Which is why this shift is so special.

Not only has Blake’s body language opened up significantly, but she’s pointedly placing her hands behind her back as she does so (and in the case above, also very much getting into Yang’s personal space).

Which is important to note, because in doing so, she makes it much more difficult to defend herself should Yang lash out at her physically (not that she ever would) and more difficult to self-soothe in case of a verbal/emotional conflict.

But now she’s done giving all those concerns a second thought... cuz Yang isn’t scary. And Blake’s tired of Adam’s ghost trying to tell her that she is.

(Thanks to @phazonfire and @chittychittyyangyang for helping me find all the Blake pics I needed).

[maxiemumdamage]

Ok but Summer’s design is basically just Volume 1 Ruby and I mean that as a good thing.

Like, the puffy skirt, the belt/corset, the mid length cape, the frilled trim on the boots, the crossed belt holding the emblem.

Ruby was 100% just trying to emulate Summer even in her earliest days, even before she became the protagonist in our eyes and the story. Of course, we know that come Volume 4 and Volume 7, she changed — and many people pointed out that Ruby’s design then shifted to instead include mementos from the many other people she lost.

(I can’t find it, but there was a post with Ruby’s volume 4 design that circled all the components of Pyrrha and Penny’s old designs that it paralleled - the wrap of her cloak and emblem paralleling Pyrrha’s sash, the high socks like Penny’s, etc.)

The point being, Ruby essentially started presenting herself as an amalgamation of all the people she lost. (There’s a reason Penny’s design elements disappeared in Volume 7 when Ruby learned she was alive. So maybe that’ll see a reappearance, now. Pain.) She’s seeing those people as perfect paragons she has to emulate, to honor their sacrifice.

I think Ruby won’t ascend with Summer’s weapon, or at least I hope she won’t. Because I think she needs to decide who she is for herself, without carrying the guilt and legacy of the mother she lost.

[asm5129]

I know this is NOT a popular take in the RWBY FNDM but y’all…I love Jaune Arc. He’s such a refreshing, interesting male character.

He’s Ruby’s best friend, and the two of them parallel each other in such FASCINATING ways. I’m planning a full video essay on this but as some examples:

1) They both have hero complexes, obviously.

2) Ruby is a prodigy who earns her place at beacon two years early, while Jaune cheated his way in and needs to work constantly outside of his school training to be anywhere near capable of huntsmen level combat

3) Jaune’s pain is loud and disruptive, Ruby’s pain is quiet and suppressed (examining their respective expressions of pain through the lens of gender expectations is REALLY interesting)

4) Ruby inherits silver eyes, an invaluable tool in fighting Grimm. Jaune inherited a regular sword, heavily outclassed by most of his peers.

5) Ruby made her weapon but modeled it after her mentor, Jaune had a hand-me-down

6) Ruby leads by developing plans and taking action, Jaune leads by supporting his team and bolstering their strengths with his own.

I’m sure there’s more too but those parallels are why their conflicts in vol 9 work so well for me, they are partners in narrative from literally the second episode.

I also just adore the commentary on masculinity with Jaune. From day one he was deconstructing traditional ideas of masculinity and patriarchal concepts of heroism.

The way he has to learn to reject so many of the things that blockbusters with men at the center have been pushing for decades is fantastic. He tried to pursue revenge like John Wick or Iron Man and it went HORRIBLY.

He can fight when necessary but it’s not where his true strength lies and that’s SO COOL for a male character.

I dunno y’all I just think he doesn’t deserve the hate. He doesn’t butt in on other stories nearly as much as people claim—in terms of Ruby, he actually serves her story quite a bit—and he is a character worth following in and of himself.

[lunaefall]

The Red Flags of Ruby's Suicidality Throughout The Volume

It should be obvious, but this short essay will cover heavy subjects of suicide, so if you're uncomfortable with this subject matter please don't read this.

The first red flag was in episode 4, where Ruby contemplated erasing her current self due to her failures, after talking to her 'past self'.

This gets reinforced by the lyrics of Trapdoor, which is about how worthless and unneeded Ruby feels.

One common mindset among suicidal people is this: what if I'm useless? What if my friends don't need me anymore? What if they don't care about me? What if I'll keep ruining everything? Would the world be better without me?

Suicidal people are usually full of self-loathing and blame.

Even in the episode 7 fight Ruby felt useless after seeing C-PTSD red flags (they're not Neo hallucinations because she didn't see the Schnee manor grounds struggle with hacked Penny). In her eyes, the others are fighting well without her, so she's useless.

Another set of red flags is snapping at your loved ones, pushing them away and driving yourself into isolation. We see ALL these in episodes 7 and 8, with Ruby snapping at her friends and running away, and even pushing Little away.

And on top of it she feels like her friends don't care, the world is against her, etc. which is YET another red flag.

(Massive disclaimer that this is NOT anti WBY and they, especially Yang, tried to reach out to her throughout the volume.)

I'd like to mention that if your loved one attempts and you tried to help but couldn't do it, it is NOT your fault. We're not all experts and we try our best, so do not ever blame yourself for these things.

It's not uncommon for suicidal people to refuse help, and on top of it Ruby has always been selfless to self destructive levels.

And the last thing, her self blame over her loved ones dying. While Penny and Pyrrha were apparitions, they still reflected her self blame. And Little dying? The final straw.

So her suicide attempt in the end was being built up all volume.

All I can say is that I hope Ruby somehow gets rescued and also recovers from her mental health problems because JESUS CHRIST.

This was a bit hard for me to write, especially as someone with BPD and frequent suicidal tendencies. This topic hits hard for me. However, I'm not an expert and this post shouldn't be taken as gospel. There may be details even I missed, so feel free to add your own observations.

And remember that if you are suicidal as well, you're not alone. You'll always have people who care about you, and resources to help out.

[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.

[hiraganasakura]

I'm rewatching RWBY and I just finished V3 and like. I'm having so many thoughts about Ruby

She was an eager student, yearning to follow in her mother's footsteps and help others, who got accepted into Beacon Academy two years early. But she felt worried that she'd be singled out; she wants to be normal among her peers, not anything special. "I just want to be a normal girl with normal knees," she says to Yang.

Then she's thrown into the position of leadership despite her young age and relative inexperience, and while she takes it in stride she's incredibly hard on herself in the process. "We need to put our teammates first, and ourselves second," she says to Jaune.

And just when she grows comfortable in her skills and her position as team leader, everything falls apart. Beacon falls. Penny and Pyrrha die horrifically right before her eyes and she's left behind to blame herself. Yang loses her arm — and a part of herself. Weiss is snatched away by her father, Blake runs away. Ozpin has vanished, his lieutenants left to pick up the pieces of the broken, ruined Vale. Most of the ppl that Ruby has come to count on, just... gone. And then immediately after she wakes up from all that, Qrow dumps on her that, congratulations kid, you have silver eyes which basically means you're destined to save the world, have fun! "Then what can I do? If I'm so special, I can help, right?" she says to Qrow.

It's no wonder she got such a martyr complex, no wonder she threw herself so heavily into the identity of a hero, no wonder she fell to pieces and grew consumed by guilt and grief and self-loathing later in the show. She just wanted to go to school and learn how to protect ppl. And then she couldn't even protect the ppl who mattered most to her, not out of some failing on her own part, but bcus she is a child, a child with way too much on her shoulders. And it's just gotten worse. Now she's expected to save the whole world, all bcus she inherited her mother's eyes.

The weight of the entire world upon the shoulders of a grieving teen girl.

How would that not be too much for anyone to bear?

[chaikachi]

The Little Prince, The Rose, & The Aviator

AKA We just got confirmation that Oscar's main allusion is in fact The Little Prince so I wanted to gather all evidence that supports it in show thus far.

cross-posted from twitter

A brief summary for those who aren't familiar:

The Little Prince is a story about a young boy that travels to many worlds & meets many people. It is told out of chronological order from the perspective of an airplane pilot that the prince meets close to the end of his journey.

It explores themes around childhood and growing up, love, loss, friendship, loneliness, and hope, among other things. All ideas very prevalent in RWBY.

Part 1: The Little Prince

The first theme I want to touch on is that struggle of trying not to lose yourself as you grow up.

"Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is exhausting for children to have to provide explanations over and over again."

Oscar is the youngest of the group, and yet he is one of the characters most often shown trying to reason with the adults in the room.

Yes, we've mainly seen it with Hazel, Ironwood, and Oz... but while the rest of RWBYJNR are also 'just kids', he spends so much energy trying to reason with them and mediate conflicts there as well. All while still being the youngest of the bunch.

Another way this shows itself is in Oscar's resistance to merging with Oz. The merge is a very clear metaphor for how the people you meet and the things you experience can often change you. And how, when you're a kid, it all feels like its completely out of your control.

Speaking of the hoverbike scene, I want to shift to a different part of The Little Prince. The infamous moment with the fox and what it is to be 'tamed'. To be tamed is to create ties with others. To become important to them and for them to be important to you.

When Oscar is having a talk with Oz in v8 about how he finally felt like himself, the person he wanted to be, and felt like he was finally "part of the team"... There is a fox plushie lying on the ground as he passes by.

But we see that Oscar was right to feel this way later on.

Because just as he was "only a little boy like a hundred thousand other little boys" when he first met everyone... he had since been tamed, and tamed his friends in turn. And they fought tooth and nail to bring him back when he was captured by Salem.

Part 2: The Aviator & the Rose

In RWBY, most characters have a main allusion that is central to their arc and then secondary allusions for what roles they fill in relation to other characters. (Ex. Yang's main allusion is Goldilocks, but when thrown into the plot, she also becomes the Beauty to Blake's Beast, just as Blake was once the Beauty to Adam's Beast).

If we apply that metric to other characters here, we know that Ozpin's main allusion is The Wizard of Oz and Ruby is Little Red Riding Hood... so when placed within Oscar's story structure of The Little Prince, they become The Aviator and The (Ruby) Rose, respectively.

The aviator is a man that struggles to hold onto his childlike wonder. He tries, but he lives in a world of grown-ups so it becomes difficult with time. The little prince - much like Oscar with Ozpin - helps him remember some of the things that he's forgotten.

When the little prince meets him, the aviator is grumbly after crash landing his plane in the desert & is trying to fix it before he runs out of water.

Funny then, that when Oscar is crash landing a plane it is Oz that instructs him on how to do it.

When the aviator explains his circumstances, the prince laughs and exclaims that he "fell from the sky too". Which is an interesting tie in to the canon RWBY fairytale mentioned in Before the Fall, The Boy Who Fell From The Sky...

...as well as another fairytale we've seen mentioned in the show proper: The Girl Who Fell Through The World. A tale that was first talked about by Oscar, later expanded upon by Ozpin, and finally lived by Ruby Rose herself. (Yes her team also experienced it but it's very strongly emphasized Ruby and Alyx were paralleling each other in ways the others were not).

One thing about the little prince and the aviator is that by the end of their journey when it's time to say farewell, it's quite clear they've tamed each other as well. So much time spent by the pilot wishing to fix his plane and get out of the desert, but when it's finally time to say farewell, he does not want to go. This is not something we've gotten in show yet, but I'm willing to guess is going to be the basis for when the war is won and Oz is finally set free. Leaving the two of them to finally have to say goodbye.

And I realized I couldn't bear the thought of never hearing that laugh again. For me it was like a spring of resh water in the desert. "Little fellow, I want to hear you laugh again..."

Moving onto the Rose.

In the story, the little prince is enamored by her as soon as he sees her for the first time. As he gets to know her, she is described as many things. Some that fit Ruby well (miraculous, naïve) and some that she subverts (vain, self-centered).

Ruby might not be caught up on physical appearance, but she is convinced that she's the only one in all the world that can do what she has to do. It's a childish way of looking at things, and to believe you can't accept help from others is - in its own way - selfish.

In the book, the rose asks the little prince to tend to her. She's very needy with her demands and while the prince loves her dearly, it is a strained relationship. In RWBY, Oscar sees Ruby wilting very early on and decides to tend to her without waiting for her to ask. Of which we have... SO MANY EXAMPLES AND I DON'T HAVE A HIGH ENOUGH IMAGE LIMIT TO POST THEM ALL SO YOU GET 2.

Not pictured here, but still worthy of note: Oscar mediating when Ruby is being undermined in v8, Oscar talking the responsibility of telling Ironwood the truth in V7, the "food always makes me feel better" / "I made you a casserole because you were sad" scenes. The List Goes On.

Part 3: Other Easter Eggs & Evidence

There are also other fun little pieces that drive home just how much these characters allude to the book as well as the inspiration it's had on the show in general.

The first thing the little prince asks the aviator for is a drawing of a sheep that he can take home with him so that it can eat up the sprouts of baobab trees before they overgrow his entire planet and destroy it (and his rose) in the process...

The tree in the Ever After has maple leaves, but the shape of its trunk is very clearly not a maple. When compared to these illustrations, it seems to have pulled inspiration from baobabs... and what does the tree in the Ever After do?

Its roots consume the rose.

One of the lessons that's brought up repeatedly in the book is that:

"One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.”

This is brought up in a few different ways:

The little prince left his rose back home, so when he looks to the night sky, separated from her, he says:

"The stars are beautiful because of a flower you don’t see . . ."

When Ruby is in the Ever After, with no one to tend to her, she is in a town filled with paper stars.

It is brought up again in reference to the desert, which we have a wonderful tie-in now thanks to the animatic shared at RTX recently:

“What makes the desert beautiful,” the little prince said, “is that it hides a well somewhere . . .”

And again by the aviator in reference to the little prince himself.

What makes the little prince special is his loyalty to a flower. Ruby Rose, who inspired Oscar to keep fighting, who reminded him he was brave, and who's mission he has worn on his literal shoulders.

Two other lines in that passage I've highlighted I also want to mention.

"As the little prince was falling asleep, I picked him up in my arms, and started walking again. I was moved. It was as if I was carrying a fragile treasure."

This line about the little prince being a treasure (treasure is an rg song truthers rise up 🙌)

And the emphasis on lamps being symbolic of the Little Prince himself which... we've seen for Oscar A LOT.

"What moves me so deeply about this sleeping little prince is his loyalty to a flower - the image of a rose shining within him like the flame within a lamp, even when he's asleep... (...) Lamps must be protected: A gust of wind can blow them out..."

Also Ruby has been referred to as a "spark" by Oz before and when Oscar is worrying over Ruby at Brunswick farms, Maria tells him to "keep that fire fed" which is exactly what lamp lighters do. Just very deliberate use of that imagery here.

It ALSO ties into earlier in the novel where, among the little prince's many travels meeting plenty of confusing adults he doesn't understand, he encounters a lamplighter. And of all those that confused him, he found he could at least relate to this one and see value in his work.

There is also a matter of how the prince's first appearance is at sunrise:

That he is cited to live on a planet "scarcely bigger than himself" and "being in need of a friend". How we see Oscar very alone on his farm back in Mistral, just like the prince, only tending to his daily chores by himself, we never even see his aunt.

And while there are a few other bits and pieces i'm surely forgetting, the last big one I want to talk about is how both the beginning and end of the book start with a venomous snake.

The aviator shows us a drawing of a boa constrictor eating a wild beast...

...versus Oscar's first appearance coming immediately after he wakes from a nightmare of Tyrian, a venomous scorpion faunus, being sent to capture his rose.

And the story ends with the little prince in a desert getting bit by a venomous snake that sends him back to his rose and away from the aviator... thank goodness RWBY loves to subvert its fairytale origins, amiright?

"(The little prince) fell gently the way a tree falls, there wasn't even a sound..."

tl;dr Oscar is for sure The Little Prince, Ruby has always been his rose, RG canon, Tryian vs. Oscar in the desert real and #GREENLIGHTVOLUME10 SO WE CAN SEE IT HAPPEN ALREADY >:OOOO

Thank you for reading 💕

[erros429]

i love how this week’s rwby beyond episode talks about not just finding the positives in a bad situation, but also about remembering what makes all that suffering worth it. jaune is urged to recall the good times, and the people he’s fighting for, and the love he feels for them.

and this is the EXACT ideology that makes a silver-eyed warrior so powerful. that love and desire to protect and auauhhhhhghhhhh my god the jaune and ruby foils never cease

[iamafanofcartoons]

Remember how people claimed that team rwby had no plan, that ironwood was the real hero, and that ruby somehow had a messiah complex?

The Finale of V9 basically showed every Ironwood Simp that Ruby’s plan worked!

Team RWBY made the right call, and Ironwood failed.

Somebody pick up that phone, because I FUCKING CALLED IT!

@instantbee thanks for the screenshot!

#GREENLIGHTVOLUME10 

[howlingday]

Have you ever feel that Jaune got to much focus? I mean he's called a main charater (for better or worse) in a show called RWBY. About Team RWBY. It's just looking at both sides as much as I like Jaune maybe their was or still is to much focus on him.

Hardly.

Tell me something. Did Sasuke get too much focus in a show called Naruto? Did Knuckles get too much attention in the show Sonic X? What about Harry Potter? One Punch Man? Hey Arnold?

The Jaune "getting too much focus because the show is called RWBY" is the saddest, weakest excuse ever uttered. Jaune is a main character, along with Ren and Nora, who, need I remind you all, got plenty of love and attention despite not being "Team RWBY"?

Now, does the FNDM give him too much attention? My second favorite tag on this hiellsite is "jaune arc," AFTER "rwby," agrees with this statement, and to be honest, I don't think that's a problem with the show's writing as much as it is with the audience's reception of him.

There being "too much focus" on Jaune is only in comparison to the weaker writing for the "main characters" because the show puts more effort into the action and the plot than into the development of the core cast of Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang.

Ruby has silver eyes and is supposed to be the hero who saves the world, but it wasn't until Volume 9 that she really got a solid win for her character.

Weiss comes back home in Volume 7 and her biggest character moment is when she's stopping her father's escape. Then... nothing.

Blake and Yang are by far the worst because their characters are now wholly reliant on each other. And before that, Yang's character was reliant on Ruby while Blake's character relied on the White Fang plot, which ended in Volume 5, and Adam, who died in Volume 6.

But what about Jaune's character? Well, let's see; Jaune was the loser everyman character who acted as the foil to the prodigal child of destiny that was Ruby Rose. His partner, Pyrrha "Invincible Girl" Nikos, takes him under her wing and trains him as her mentor. She then dies, leaving him to train and grow on his own despite his team being there, whereas Ruby loses her entire team and gets their help to accomplish reaching Mistral.

...Typing this out, yeah, I would say Jaune got more thought and effort put into his story and character development, but I don't think it's "too much". If anything, I'd say the issue is RWBY didn't get enough. All we got for them were flashy moves and kicks and bruises, but it's all shallow, surface-level development. Looking back, I see RWBY as the same people as they were at Beacon, while Jaune has completely changed since his initial appearance.

And again, that's not Jaune getting too much attention. It's just RWBY never really grew up right.

[anthurak]

I’ve talked before about my theories about the full potential of Ruby’s semblance. That being, Ruby’s ability to deconstruct and reconstruct herself at a molecular level has some pretty wild applications.

Among others, the ones I think are the most interesting are Ruby effectively being able to shapeshift, ie; she can reconstruct her body, her clothing and Crescent Rose into entirely new shapes and forms. And on top of that, Ruby’s ability to reconstruct herself would potential allow to recover from just about any injury. Whether it be losing a limb, being impaled, cut to pieces or even EXPLODED, one activation of her semblance later and Ruby is back to normal. Effectively giving a ‘healing factor’ on par with Salem’s immortality.

And the thing is, I think abilities like these are thematically perfect for Ruby.

You know how there’s been a lot of discussion on how it seems like every character’s semblance seems to represent the major flaw/problem that character has spent the show grappling with in some way or another? Often in some dramatically ironic way? Like how Weiss is a girl who has been working so hard to separate herself from the baggage and burden of her family’s responsibility and legacy, yet has what seems to be the ONLY fully-hereditary semblance in existence? And in Ruby’s case, of course the girl who has spent the entire show, and likely much of her life running away from her pain and trauma has a speed semblance.

But the funny thing is, for Ruby it’s pretty clear that the show has already started building to a big subversion of this idea. In Volume 7 we see that while Ruby has always thought she had a speed semblance, Harriet voices that it’s probably something else.

And in Volume 8, Penny outright confirms that Ruby’s semblance ISN’T ‘speed’, but rather the ability to deconstruct and reconstruct herself at a molecular level.

It turns out that Ruby was wrong about what her semblance actually did. And through that, it turns out that this idea of Ruby’s semblance representing her attempts to run away from her pain are likewise flawed.

And now that we are in a Volume set to explore themes of transformation and our characters discovering who they might truly be, I think this is going to be the perfect time for Ruby, and the narrative, to reevaluate just what it is her semblance represents.

Because whereas Ruby’s Petal Burst simply being speed represented Ruby’s fixation on running away from her pain, Petal Burst being molecular deconstruction/reconstruction can instead represent Ruby’s unshakable idealism fully realized.

Now there is no obstacle that can stop her, because there is nothing she cannot move around or through. There is no challenge she cannot find a solution for, because she is infinitely adaptable. And there is NOTHING that can truly break her for good, because she can ALWAYS build herself back up from her literal molecules.

In other words, Ruby’s body may be weak and breakable, but her spirit is INDOMITABLE.

[instantbee]

Just want to point out the brilliant framing of this shot right here

Ruby’s entire breakdown is about how overlooked she feels (and is). She has a panic attack mid battle and nearly dies, physically flinches away from her weapon being returned to her, is seconds from being asked how she is and then MORE silly bullshit happens and everyone immediately drops it. It’s more pressing. Again. Jaune is devastated so he gets focused on and sympathy and she’s left behind all of them. Backs literally turned on her

Ruby just did two things Ruby would never do and the degree to which they showed she is not okay at all was obvious, and it’s still not enough to get her friends and family to focus on her first.

So when they turn around and ask what to do…What? The only time they look at her is when they need something? The only time she’s worthy of consideration is when she’s called on to lead? If THAT wasn’t enough what will be!?

So she snaps. And yells. And says things she probably doesn’t mean because she’s hurt and she’s lashing out. She insults her best friend. She insults her sister and her friend’s new relationship. She mocks and belittles a group of people moving on that Jaune has been (badly) trying to tend to for decades as make believe friends. That’s not a “Ruby is okay” sentence. She doesn’t think that about people. No matter what the people look like. She befriended a mouse in episode 1 of the season

But she’s hurt and she feels overlooked and uncared for and the things she shouts out are the things that are responsible (in her mind) for her being overlooked. And then what happens?

Jaune forces his own issues to the forefront. Jaune eclipses her moment. Jaune takes his issues and makes them bigger and larger and more important than hers. Jaune screams at her that it’s her fault. She did this. It’s all her fault that they’re like this and everyone died and Penny died. It’s her fault he had to do those things. Jaune even acknowledges a second later that he doesn’t mean that and he’s not okay and he’s not right in his head and he didn’t mean it like that. But damage done. In Ruby’s most vulnerable moment she was overlooked and eclipsed. Again.

And the framing shows it

You can’t even see her. Just her shoulder. Someone else’s pain is more important. Someone else’s issues are more important. Someone else needs the spotlight and the help and the attention and the care

So she leaves

[maxiemumdamage]

It’s interesting. Most RWBY fans have been actively rooting for Ruby to break down, to cry, to stop being the one to always put on a happy face and to hold it together.

But when it happens, it’s not a neat expression of grief. It’s messy, and painful, and involves her lashing out at those who care most. Ruby isn’t just crying, she’s lashing out.

And honestly? I’m glad for it. I’m glad that when Ruby expressed her frustration and when her trauma started to show clearly, it was messy and ugly and angry. Because she doesn’t need to be perfect to deserve help.

[swapauanon]

Having finally seen Volume 9, and I think it's important to point out something: A lot of people have claimed that Ruby's "Isn't that why we're here? To make things better?" is evidence that she was ALWAYS taking personal responsibility for everything that goes wrong in the world...

But I'm going to be frank, that misses the entire point of the scene with the Herbalist.

When Weiss, Blake, and Yang confronted their past selves, they confronted who they were at the start of their arcs, in their respective trailers. Each of them has grown into a stronger, more mature, healthier person since then.

Ruby's character arc began with her chat with Ozpin in "The Badge and the Burden". That's when she started taking on more and more responsibilities, to the detriment of her mental health. You'll notice that her mental health REALLY starts to nosedive when Ozpin, Qrow, and Cordovin all wind up letting her down in Volume 6.

Every time someone she looks up to fails her, Ruby starts taking more and more personal responsibilities on. All the while feeling personally responsible for every failure, both real and perceived.

Ruby Rose at the start of the series was a healthier, happier person than Ruby Rose was when she met the herbalist in Volume 9. If she had ALWAYS been that unhealthy, her past self would've acted VERY differently in that vision.

She started the series as a realist, and slowly became a suicidal cynic as more and more of the adults in her life let her down and betrayed her trust.

Where her friends grew and matured, Ruby chafed and regressed.

She underwent NEGATIVE character development, but not in the sense of becoming a villain protagonist as most other examples of this kind of character arc would, but in going from a functional human being to a broken shell. The rest of her arc will have to be dedicated to picking up the pieces.