#the ac? professional bootlicker

[raeyhem]

fuck dude i love god troubles me so much because all the characters are fucking losers. none of them are cool. none. protagonist, chosen one, child of a god and monster? she's literally a one in a million failure. cringefail girloser. she's poor, she's lazy, she's an icon. threw a guy into the stratosphere twice and then cried in a haunted house. the pretty, powerful looking immortal? moron. malewife. pathetic with his cunty little outfit. never had a full thought in his life. he's a phone btw. the aloof, standoffish "cool guy", strongest in the Monster realm? he only cares about video games and cat food (he's a cat). idiot. prefers to remain as a cat 90% of the time so he doesn't have to do things. can't cook. they're all insane. nearly defeated by 3 bugs and a rat. whatever

[nightlilly0110]

Because tumblr ate my old post, I’ve decided to remake it again. I’m relatively new to the RWBY fandom, having gotten into the show just a couple months before and I see a lot of people, for various reasons, complain that Volume 7 was bad, citing in particular that a lot of decisions made were out of character.

Volume 7 was actually very in character, so I’m going to go through the major issues I’ve seen people have with it.

1) “Ruby, hiding things from Ironwood, doesn't that feel like what Ozpin did to us?” - Oscar Pine to Ruby Rose in 7x3: Ace Operatives

Yes. Yes it is exactly like what Ozpin did to them. But Ironwood is paranoid about Salem. Telling him that she can’t be killed is probably not the best thing to do, and unlike Ozpin, Ruby planned to say something. It just never came up organically. As to why she chose not to say anything immediately, Mantle is not exactly the picture of a city that’s doing okay. Ironwood’s panic is very blatant in the first episode of the season and the last adults that they trusted - Lionheart and Ozpin - betrayed and lied to them, respectively. Obviously they’re not going to be in the right headspace for spilling any earth-shattering secrets. Both Ruby and Oscar are right in this situation in that it’s a bit hypocritical to keep secrets but sometimes secrets are necessary, especially when you’re not sure who to trust (which I will go into detail with my next point). Obviously Ruby can’t both be cautious and tell the truth, so she picked the one she thought was right (though tbh I’m pretty sure Ironwood would’ve flipped his shit no matter when she came clean).

2) “For a season where the theme song is Trust Love, no one trusts anybody” - a reoccurring joke I keep encountering

As I’ve said, Ruby and co. had to pick who they trusted, and they trusted each other rather than Ironwood. A lot of the time when trust is brought up this season - with Robyn, with Clover’s death, etc. - the characters are punished for being trusting. When Yang and Blake tell Ironwood that they told Robyn about Amity, he immediately snaps at them. The council turns on Ironwood for not telling them about Amity. The narrative literally does not allow for trust to form in this volume, and before you go off telling me that this makes no sense, consider that when we first see Mantle there are ads everywhere reminding citizens about curfew and posters protesting the boarders closing. It was set up perfectly.

3) Why did the Ace Ops side with Ironwood?

I ship Fair Game. I like Clover. But he is a cop. He is a military operative. He is a fucking bootlicker and he has said multiple times throughout the season that he trusts Ironwood with everything. He and the Ace Ops serve Ironwood and Atlas, and serve Mantle only when it’s convenient/a part of their job, and if Ironwood is telling them to leave it behind, they will. Harriet in the new episode refusing to take Robyn’s hand only proves this blind loyalty further as she would rather believe Qrow killed Clover than know what actually happened. “But they spent time with the kids and know they’re good people.” Doesn’t change the fact that they’re fucking cops. They’ve known RWBY, ORNJ, and Qrow for maybe a year at most. They’ve most likely gone to Atlas Academy and have been employed under Ironwood for years. They know him better than the kids, so of course they’re going to stick with their blind loyalty and consider them a threat to their mission. As Clover said, he wanted to trust Qrow, but his trust for Ironwood was greater.

4) “They ruined Ironwood’s character. They made him evil out of nowhere.”

At the core of his mental breakdown is paranoia, and he has been paranoid ever since he was introduced when he brought his military to another kingdom in a time of peace. “But the military was helpful. The enemy was in Vale.” Yes, yes it was, but the military only made things more complicated as all the machines were hacked and turned on everyone, creating even more panic. Having his systems hacked only increases his paranoia as their system is supposed to be unbeatable. We don’t see him again for a while but when we do he’s sporting a beard. I do think this might be a small detail that indicates his mental state, as one often tends to neglect their appearance if they are in a bad place mentally. I think it’s in character that the beard is the only thing about Ironwood that’s changed because as a military man he would have to keep himself otherwise orderly. I think his mental state would’ve declined greatly in the two-year span between Volumes 3 and 7, and the final breaking point being the chess piece left in his office by Cinder, as it’s a direct taunt that the enemy could get into his office without him noticing. Ironwood has been slowly succumbing to paranoia since his introduction, and because he’s not working blatantly with Salem like Lionheart was (or he hasn’t been shown to be completely gone) people seem to take this as a sign that this change came out of nowhere. (Ironwood’s comment to Qrow about having him shot is also not in good nature and hints that Atlas might have some history with some not-so-legal punishments and that he’s perfectly fine with administering them.)

5) Who’s fault is it that Clover’s dead?

Everyone. Well, not everyone everyone. Notice I did not say who killed Clover because there’s a difference between who’s fault it is and who killed him.

So who killed Clover? Tyrian.

Who’s fault is it? Ironwood, Qrow, Clover, and Tyrian.

Let’s do this one by one. And I know I’m gonna get shit for this. I stand by what I say.

Ironwood is simple. If Ironwood had not declared martial law, the argument wouldn’t have started and the plane wouldn’t have crashed because they would’ve had their eyes on Tyrian instead of fighting each other (and if it did crash, it would’ve been 2v1 rather than 1v1v1, provided Robyn still ends up unconscious).

Qrow did choose to fight with Tyrian rather than against him. Although his intentions were to disarm Clover and have this fight end without bloodshed, things did not go as planned. He also left Harbinger unattended because he didn’t want this to end bloody, but it lead to Tyrian picking it up instead. His bad luck is implied to have played a part in this.

Clover is the one that started the fight. As I’ve said, it was in-character that he chose to want to arrest Qrow. I believe it was also confirmed that he “wouldn’t let up,” as Qrow said, because he canonically believes Qrow - a professionally trained Huntsman and one of the very few proficient with a scythe which is canonically a very hard weapon to use - was the greater threat in that fight. He also chose to divide his attention between Qrow and Tyrian and turn it into a 1v1v1 rather than help deal with Tyrian, their initial target, first.

Tyrian being at fault is kind of obvious, as he was the one who dealt the killing blow, but if he hadn’t intervened in the fight, it would’ve ended with Clover still alive as either Qrow would’ve disarmed Clover and fled or Clover would’ve disarmed Qrow and taken him in. They’re both professionals and I don’t doubt that if one of their auras shattered, the fight would’ve ended.

Can I also mention that Clover’s gotta be hella strong since all the other Ace Ops went unconscious when their aura shattered???

(If you ask me, they killed off Clover because if Qrow had gone to jail and he was still alive he would’ve been more susceptible to defecting than Marrow. If it were any of the other Ace Ops that died and Qrow was insisting it wasn’t him that did it, I bet Clover would’ve taken Robyn’s offer to take her hand. This has nothing to do with my analysis, but I thought it would be good to throw in.)

TL;DR Volume 7 was actually in character and a lot of you like to call bullshit and “bad writing.”

[drbtinglecannon]

Ok so @bad-luck-qrow made this post about an exchange they had with their cousin, who Galaxy brained suggested a far better solution than what v7e12 did. I really wanted to expand and ramble off on it and all the ways this rewrite idea was better than what canon did, but I didn’t want to bog down their original post so here’s a new one!

Their cousin had suggested that instead of Clover dying in ep12, that Qrow was the one who Tyrian stabbed, but he survived. It would’ve avoided any character death and given Clover the chance to reconcile with the fact his partner almost died because he refused to disobey Ironwood’s orders for even a moment.

I love that! Avoids BYG, allows more development for Clover, avoids unnecessary character death angst, and frankly CRWBY wouldn’t have gotten nearly the amount of backlash it did over that ep. The only addition I’d make to this rewrite idea is that Qrow purposely threw himself in the way to save Clover, and the reasons for that is because it would have…

Followed Qrow’s canon tendency for self-sacrifice, and allowed this unhealthy habit to be later addressed and worked on like his alcoholism currently is. Frankly I’m surprised it hasn’t been mentioned at all thus far in canon (that I can think of anyway), because it’s come up in a few fights I can think of off the top of my head where it incapacitated him at least briefly when he did this, the most notable one being in his first fight with Tyrian. So addresses a bad habit and comes full circle.

Shown Qrow AND Clover both following the theme song’s message of ‘trusting love’. The theme songs are supposed to be super relevant to the volume right, but I can’t think of a single case of someone trusting love over duty or orders or what have you in the volume ending, except Penny who was like…already mostly on their team anyway? Winter went against her own sister, the Ace Ops fought the kids, Ironwood turned against Oz and almost killed Oscar to do so, and Clover decided orders to arrest Qrow were more important than dealing with the serial killer who works for Salem (Which were already orders he was following. Why do new ones cancel out the old one?). If the fight ended with this rewrite idea it would’ve followed that theme, but especially it would’ve portrayed Qrow and Clover following that theme, two chars who arguably should do so the most. Qrow with his history of being betrayed and fear of getting close and self-hatred from his semblance, and Clover the professional military man who keeps everyone including his own team at arms length and expressed (in a throwaway line) that he trusted James with his life. The growing relationship between these two despite the long laundry list of reasons they could’ve hated each other was a reoccurring subplot in this volume, and it should’ve had some kind of fucking pay out. Imagine if Clover saying “I wanted to trust you too” was the last verbal exchange they had before Qrow threw himself in the way of the attack? That despite their disagreement and the bs of that situation Qrow trusted in love, and then with Clover having to rush to get him help and reevaluate that if he just listened to his heart Qrow wouldn’t have gotten hurt in the first place.

Been adequate angst without BYG! Imagine! Getting angst without a graphic death of a queercoded char!

Been far more interesting than killing Clover ever was. People are more attached to Qrow, unlike Clover he’s been around for a while, has been given the chance to grow, and is directly related to the protags. He has a lot more involvement and at stake with the plot so people would’ve been more invested in him getting better than with Clover doing so. We just met Clover, give us more time to get to know him and fall in love; what better way than to have him save a char everyone already loves!

Allowed some great symbolism with their semblances (that somehow ended up being a completely wasted opportunity the entire volume). The unlucky one survived again, the lucky one survived only because of the unlucky one’s involvement and not by his own luck, Clover cursing his luck he let Qrow get hurt, etc. It’d also maybe get some more use of Clover’s pin (that got its own focus in the opening) and how Clover can more or less control good fortune whereas Qrow can’t control misfortune, like idk he flicks it calling for help even though they’re out of range but help answers and shows up soon enough it can save Qrow.

Allowed Clover more character development!!! What’s the point of introducing new chars and killing them before we can really get attached? Drama? Get out of here. Personally, watching an already beaten down broken man that was trying to recover and finally made a friend scream out in agony against the bi flag sunrise was not at all enjoyable!! However, watching the Mr. Perfect new guy panic while his meticulously crafted military persona crumbles as he does everything he can to save his new friend (lover) and ignore orders he knew were bad all the while? That I’d be interested in, provided it had the payout of everyone living which in this scenario it does. It’d expand so much more on the many hints that Clover was more than a blindly loyal bootlicker too. Plus from a writing standpoint, watching someone panic as they go against all odds to save their loved ones and the visceral relief when they succeed will always be infinitely more interesting and worthwhile to watch than violently killing chars off for the dramatics imo. (BYG trope or not it’s just not good writing!)

Caused the tension between Qrow and Tyrian to reach new heights in a satisfying way. (@theonceoverthinker wrote a post on this that I was specifically thinking of writing this bullet point.) Like, from Tyrian’s POV in this rewrite he tried to get revenge and STILL failed, this bitch survived a stab from him twice! TWICE! For a serial killer with a personal beef with this guy that’s gotta drive him insane! There’d be great potential for an all-hell-breaks-loose fight now. Instead the way Tyrian said his final words before running off in ep12, it gave the impression he knew Qrow was just gonna rot away in guilt and anguish, that he won, he got his revenge and that’s the end of that conflict, that the combined efforts of 3 seasoned Huntsmen/Huntresses was wasted. I know it probably won’t go that way and Tyrian will probably die by Qrow or Ruby’s hand, but watching that scene it felt like both Tyrian and Qrow accepted that Tyrian won and it was over. Idk maybe that’s just me.

Would’ve expanded upon Qrow and Clover’s relationship, which was am important subplot this volume, in a way that’s like, feasible to fix. I love the Staff of Creation theory, but honestly the trauma and broken trust those two are gonna have to work through feels overwhelming as hell, and that’s ignoring how long the feelings of guilt and bitterness are gonna be festering before Clover gets res’d (if it even happens). Instead, if Clover saved Qrow after Qrow saved him, yeah there would still be that conflict to work through (and Qrow’s self-sacrificing I mentioned earlier), but neither one died, they both immediately showed great care for the other by their actions in that situation, and would’ve been able to apologize and start mending their relationship pretty much instantly from there. Plus, it’d be so easy to finally drive home their dynamic was in fact romantic in this situation, something a lot of fans (homophobes) kept arguing against despite all the flirting, and winking, and call back to canon het flirting volumes ago, and complimenting semblances/colors, and parallels to bumbleby and a few to nuts and dolts too. Think of the romantic tropes this could’ve done, the tenderness the dialogue the reunion scene!! Wasted!!

Ok I think I’m done and y'all get the point. I’m not gonna say OP’s cousin was the first to suggest this rewrite idea, but when I read it I started frantically thinking of all the ways it would’ve easily fixed the shitstorm that ep12 ended up being.