#theodore lionheart

[onyxmagica]

The third installment of Lionheart character sheets by @greenerteacups Theoooo my baybeeee. Poor guy getting more and more eyebags, but I always thought he'd have the cheekiest grin.

[bobauthorman]

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and I want to bring it out into the open. Each of Oz’s main lieutenants are deconstructions of character archetypes. Well, everyone in RWBY is a deconstruction, but no one wants to talk about Oz’s circle.

Oz, as has been established, turns the fantasy mentor archetype on its head. Not only is he a bad mentor, whose reckless manipulations never pan out, but the protags are far less forgiving of his string-pulling, and have every right to be. Unforgiving, that is.

Ironwood, similarly, deconstructs the ‘Anti-authority authority figure’; like Captain Kirk (Star Trek) or Nick Fury (Marvel), they are military leaders who frequently chaff under their more politically-minded peers and superiors, who undercut those peers whenever they can. Unlike Kirk/Fury, this is not a sign of open-mindedness, but arrogance and stuborness, the childish belief that the rules don’t apply to him.

Qrow is much like Wolverine (X-Men), a ‘Bad Boy with a Gold Heart’ who is kept in line by his loyalty to the mentor figure. In this case, Qrow’s Too Cool For School ‘tude is coping mechanism and mask for the massive chip on his shoulder, and because his self-worth was tied so deeply to serving Oz, when Oz is exposed as the fraud he is, Qrow has a full-on breakdown.

Lionheart was much harder to figure out, given that he only has one volume’s worth of screen time, and even we don’t get much of Lionheart’s personality. I theorize that Lionheart was intended to be a dig at the ‘Token Minority’ archetype. For many series in the old days, there are these characters who supposed to represent different races. (For example, Haji from Johnny Quest). Unfortunately, these characters are rarely given any personality outside of ‘Guy from foreign culture’, often becoming a deliverer of stereotypical views showrunners have. CRWBY has stated that Lionheart was made headmaster by Oz as a token for Faunus (The series allegory for minorities), but we hear nothing of whether that did any good (Blake even accuses Oz of not doing more for the Faunus). It’s possible that because of this Lionheart lacked the strength of self to stop Salem from forcing his compliance with the attacks on Vale and Haven.

Theodore hasn’t appeared in the series proper, but from the book Before The Dawn I could make a case that he encompasses the stock shonen hero; destructive strength and a destructive temper. The problem is, he’s a moron, but lacks that ‘Deeper wisdom’ even himbos like Son Goku and Monkey D Luffy have to compensate. And his dependence on the smarter but weaker female lead (In this case, Rumpole) to handle the more organizational aspects of his position means that when Rumpole is compromised, Theodore’s shoddy management nearly causes Shade Academy to implode.

[nightmare-foundation]

I haaaate stupid takes on the Academies

Where, exactly, does the show or even the books say that students REGULARLY die in the Academies? And why are we assuming that the Academies are immune to legal repercussions??

Students don't die regularly, at least not with nearly enough regularity to be notable. Shit happens, yeah, Gretchen died, but it's never stated that this is a regular thing that happens. Iirc, it's treated like it's UNUSUAL. A tragic accident that never should've happened.

Also the Academies I really doubt are immune to legal repercussions. The 'propaganda' I don't think is anywhere NEAR bad enough to keep people from suing the Academies (a good example of such a thing is the pro hero industry in BNHA).

It's explicitly stated that there are no legal waivers that students or their parents have to sign. This says that the Academies are safe enough to NOT HAVE a legal prevention to be kept from being sued into the ground. If they were regularly being sued or something similar, it would've long been stated in the show or books.

The only other possibility is that the Academies have some other kind of protection against legal action. Unfortunately this goes directly against Oz's character, because there's NO way he'd refuse to take responsibility for the death of a student, even when it isn't even his fault. If there is, it's very likely it was implemented AFTER Oz's death, in which case it's STILL not his fault.

However I highly doubt that's the case. If the Academies had a way to keep people from taking legal action against them, it would've been stated. It's not even implied that's the case.

If anything, the Academies, or at least Beacon, takes steps to ensure that things DON'T go wrong, whether that's initiation or training missions. There's cameras in the Emerald Forest and Ozpin and Glynda are right there watching them. Training missions are accompanied by a real Huntsman. Most training and teaching are done inside of the Academies themselves.

Naturally though, shit WILL go wrong. Unpredictable things will happen, lives will be lost, it's impossible to safeguard against every little thing, especially in a place like Remnant where literally everything wants you dead. These students are consistently given an out, an option to leave if they can't handle it. Not only that, but a lot of these students come from all KINDS of different backgrounds. A lot of them know the risks and possibilities of shit going wrong, whether that's because they experienced it themselves (Blake, Nora, Ren) or they grew up like that (also Blake, Fox). There's also the people who have lost family members to the Grimm (Ruby, Yang).

In a place like Remnant, you Cannot keep everyone safe. It's literally impossible. You can do your best, absolutely, to keep people safe, and to prepare them for what's to come, but you can't guarantee they'll live. The Academies, although pretty deeply flawed, are there to do that.

Really the biggest issue with the Huntsman system are the combat schools. Its definitely not a hugely good idea to train children to fight. Unfortunately combat schools have been around far longer than the Huntsman system (iirc).

Ultimately I'm of the opinion that the Academies are a strictly neutral force. They can be corrupted like any other organization, but they can also be very good.

[howlingday]

Ozpin: Excuse me?

Goodwitch: You want to know our...

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Port: Favorite mugs?

Oobleck: Hm... A fair question.

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Cinder: I'm sorry, but what does this have to do with anything?

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Lionheart: Um, is this a trick question? Are there really different types of mugs?

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Theodore: HA! The most powerful mug of them all!

Ironwood: The mug that ensures I am 100% capable of performing my duty.

Xanthe: What are you both talking about?! Why is this even a question?!

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Ghira: Mm... I'd say whatever mug I can share with my Kali. Maybe as an anniversary gift?

Kali: Oh, Ghira...

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Winter: My pirate cutlass handle mug. It is both efficient and endearing, as all mugs should be.

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Qrow: Are you sure this is what you wanna ask us old folks?

Taiyang: Huh... I've never had to think about this before. So... many... choices...

Weiss: RUBY ROSE! STOP ASKING PEOPLE ABOUT MUGS!

Ruby: BUT WEISS, THIS IS IMPORTANT FOR MY RESEARCH!

[kazashiniwielder]

Okay so I was re-reading RWBY ‘Before the Dawn’. So this passage in particular is interesting to me. This is AFTER Leo betrayed everyone but BEFORE Ruby’s message to the world so Atlas’ fall and Ironwood’s betrayal hasn’t happened yet. Theodore has limited contact with Glynda but no contact with the rest.

Now if I remember correctly, Qrow and Oz both expressed concern about Leo’s loyalty before we met him. They remarked Leo had been out of contact before the fall so clearly everyone was already suspecting Leo. Which explains part of why his photo is now gone from Theodore’s office. But Ironwood is also absent, which is interesting because as far as Theodore is aware, Ironwood should still be an ally.

There isn’t much to evaluate how Theodore feels about Ironwood but there are two comments that stick out to me. Theodore refers to Ozpin, Ironwood, and Leo as ‘reckless’. And in just two pages after this one, considers Ironwood’s actions during the vital festival as having weakened Beacon for the attack. So I think it’s safe to say Theo pretty much determined Leo and Ironwood couldn’t be trusted before they fell. As it stands, I think Theo probably has the best judge of character.

It’s also pretty clear he still trusts Qrow. Qrow isn’t spoken about at all in the novel, but Velvet tells us on this page that Qrow’s picture is on Theodore’s wall. In fact the only two left from Oz’s circle are Qrow and Oz. Everyone else was either not up in the first place (Glynda) or removed (Leo and Ironwood’s). And interestingly enough just moments about this page, Theodore shatters the frame that Oz’s picture is in on accident. I really hope this isn’t foreshadowing for volume 10 (if we get it).

I think it’s really interesting how Theo still trusts Qrow (who as stated in volume 3 had gone silent for months and was thought to be compromised or possibly even dead) after he fell off the face of Remnant but when Ironwood did he saw enough signs to indicate to him Ironwood was not someone he could trust any further and had to be cut off.

Edit: the more I reread it, the more I’m weary of Theodore too. He’s got some red flags that combined with the picture shattering shadowing…I really hope I’m wrong but I’m concerned

Edit 2: I rewatched vol 4-6 yesterday. Leo’s betrayal was not made public. Qrow’s official report on the incident that was made public at Ozpin’s demand stated that Leo had worked WITH Qrow to defend the school from assailants. So Theo had no way of knowing that Leo actually betrayed them.

So for unknown reasons Theo removed James and Leo even though they were still ally’s

[lore-of-the-silvereyes-rwby]

Ozpin’s age and Beacon

Questions asked by @angstandhappiness

Who do you think was the headmaster/headmistress of Beacon before Ozpin? 

Hard to say as crwby really hasn’t gone into detail about their lore and history so it really is impossible to say who was in charge of beacon before Ozpin, heck they still haven’t even named the King of Vale so I doubt we will ever get a line of succession and names of all of the other headmasters before Oz but if I had to say who as a character and why they were chosen it would probably be someone who was part of the secret group and thus a follower of Ozpin that became headmaster either before or soon after the death of Ozpin’s predecessor as Glynda would post fall of beacon.

What kind of initiation test did they do for newcomers, and how did they use it to sort out the teams? 

Same as the last question but as far as I’m aware it would probably have been the same initiation test that the main characters did in V1 as Glynda implies that this is more or less the standard by that time with the only difference being the choice of relics. Like there is nothing that implies that there was a different or other form of initiation prior to what we see the mains do in V1.

When was Ozpin chosen by the incarnation cycle, and at what age?

Hard to say but given key dialogue from Raven in V5 and the confirmation that Ozpin was Younger than Theodore who was stated to be in his mid to late 40’s (44-49) making him the youngest of the 4 current headmasters before the fall of beacon. And since Yang stated that he was the youngest ever to become a headmaster, implying that the average age is significantly older for someone to become a headmaster but would have to have been older than 21 years of age as he would have needed to graduate first.

But he would still be older than team STRQ as he was their headmaster during their time at Beacon so Older than 17 at the time by at least 4 years. And since it was confirmed that Ozpin spent some time traveling as the fairy tales of remnant book is a collection of stories Ozpin gathered from his journeys which he would later add them to Beacons library and academic curricular so at least a couple of years to travel and explore the known world (assuming he didn’t do much during his time as a student.)

So, with that in mind our possible age range for Ozpin is at least 5-7 years older than STRQ when they went to beacon for the first time (STRQ; 17/Oz; 22-24) and assuming that Raven had Yang at 23 and STRQ were at least 40-41 by the fall of Beacon that makes Ozpin's possible age at death at or around either 45 or 46 and still be younger than Theo who is nearing 50)

With this in mind and since there's no age criteria in the reincarnation cycle it is likely possible that Ozpin was likely chosen during but most likely before his time at beacon. So at or around 17 years of age did he become the man with two souls.

Sorry for the delay but here is the first quarter of your questions let me know what you think

[dragynkeep]

Oh, I know, Leo is not part of the plot. That not what i mean. I just want Leonardo to be part of Theodore personal story.

OH.

I mean fair dues, do whatever floats your boat anon, I just absolutely hate Leo and would rather put him 73928743278643 miles away from me.

[maybelacrimosa]

Personally I think it would have made sense if the wizard of oz inspired characters (like the qrow, Lionheart, Ironwood and Theodore)  been one team at one point, idk it would have made the allusion clearer I think. STRQ and stuff would still exist. The oz teamup could have been a temporary group set up in an attempt to promote unity throughout the kingdoms or as like a covert group for a mission Oz set up that resulted in them being part of his inner circle. idk, I think I just like the image of them all wandering off to ‘follow the yellowbrick road’.

[green-like-pine-trees]

Lionheart tried to hurt Oscar, Ironwood tried to hurt Oscar… C’mon Theodore, we’re all rooting for you to break the pattern.

[rwbyrg]

A Rosegarden by Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet

AKA Reasons Why Rosegarden is Canon #015: Ruby and Oscar's Multiple Shared Allusions to Other Fairytale Love Stories

Typical disclaimer that while all characters within the RWBY narrative have a main allusion, they often have secondary allusions that apply to the roles they fill in relation to other characters stories. Like how Yang is Goldilocks on her own, but becomes the Beauty to Blake's Beast when paired together.

The first, most notable example for Rosegarden is, of course, The Little Prince (expanded upon here). Oscar's primary allusion is of a boy who grows up on a planet "scarcely bigger than himself, who was in need of a friend", and one of his most influential relationships is that to a rose with whom he loves. They spend much of the story separated from one another, while the prince wanders lost in a desert, pining for a way to reunite with her back home.

Important to note this isn't the only time Ruby has been a Rose for another fairytale. She also slots in as the Rose Red to Weiss' Snow White, she acts as the successor to her mom as The Last Rose of Summer, and she also stands in as the Enchanted Rose to Bumbleby's Beauty and the Beast given how it's a "true loves kiss will break the spell before the last petal falls" situation... and BB kisses two episodes before Ruby Rose "dies".

The second notable allusion for Rosegarden is the Warrior in the Woods (expanded upon further here), a canon RWBY fable from The Fairytales of Remnant. The very first story within the book is about a village boy who becomes a huntsman after being inspired by a huntress he meets in the woods. A huntress, I might add he fell in love with the moment he saw her silver eyes.

Something to note about both of these examples, is that they are each stories with a focus on caring for someone else in unique ways. With The Little Prince, the Rose is vain and has many demands and asks the prince to tend to her; while in WitW, the warrior works tirelessly without thanks to protect a village. When the boy meets her, he starts looking after her for a change because he figures that's the least he can do to repay her. Both of these tie in well to RG's dynamic of Ruby carrying such heavy responsibilities alone, with Oscar making a conscious and active effort to help her shoulder those burdens.

The third, more subtle allusion, is their respective ties to The Wonderful Land of Oz. Oscar's first confirmed allusion before the Little Prince reveal was originally to Princess Ozma/Tip, the heir to the Kingdom of Oz given his proximity to Ozpin as the man behind the curtain, as well as to fit a "genderbend" character within the framework of team JNPR.

How does Ruby tie into this one? Well, we have to work backwards a bit. Ozpin's initial four lieutenants were all linked to the original cast of Oz:

Qrow as The Scarecrow without a mind (travels around as a crow and is regularly inebriated)

Ironwood as the Tin Man without a heart (his multiple cyborg prosthetics and character development in Atlas)

Lionhart as The Cowardly Lion (his fear overtakes him and pushes him to join forces with Salem to save his own skin)

Theodore as Dorothy Gale (donning ruby gauntlets instead of the traditional red slippers)

But RWBY is a story about legacies and breaking cycles. With the new generation of huntresses in Oz's inner circle, they replace those who came before them.

Blake takes Lionheart's place (cat faunus that ran out of cowardice, only to become brave and return to the fight)

Weiss as the Tin Man (aka Ice Queen, who's heart melted as she became kinder and grew more attached to those around her)

Yang the Scarecrow (no longer blindly following orders, but making an active effort to question the words and intentions of those around her)

Ruby as Dorothy (her little dog Zwei and the red - or silver, depending on movie or book adaptation - slippers that lead them all on their journey)

Why bring up Oscar as Princess Ozma and Ruby as Dorothy? Well, according to the original books and not the movie, "Dorothy and Ozma are each other's closest relationship" as illustrated here:

Very good friends. Just gals being pals. Sharing the responsibilities of leadership with one another. Smooching in the palace gardens. Dorothy as the only one who's allowed in Princess Ozma's rooms without an invitation. #BFFS4EVA

These are all the canon ones that are easy enough to parse, but there are some similarities to others famous stories that can be found with a bit of squinting that I will also share just for fun.

The first is how Ruby's experience in the Tea Party acts as a near perfect display of Romeo and Juliet's ending. For those unfamiliar with - or who have forgotten - the bard's infamous tragedy, it is a story about two star-crossed lovers very much doomed by the narrative. It ends with Juliet faking her death without telling Romeo. So when her prince charming comes across what he believes to be her corpse, he drinks a vial of poison and kills himself out of grief. When Juliet wakes and sees he has left her, she takes his dagger and stabs herself so they might be together.

In the tea party, Ruby fills the shoes of Romeo and Oscar of dear Juliet. Oscar is "killed" by Ruby's blade, but it is an illusion. He's not real. Like Juliet, he's not really dead. However, the vision is still enough to push Ruby into drink a vial of poison (the tea that takes her to the tree), giving up in the face of her grief, just as Romeo does.

And if we need any more evidence for this one, can't hurt to bring up the infamous quote of Juliet wherein she likens her love to an oh-so-familiar flower:

What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet;

A line that Juliet says to proclaim that if her Romeo weren't a Montague, then she would still love him regardless, but through which implies that it would be easier for them to be together if he were not himself. And within V9, Ruby's cited motivation to go to the tree is because she doesn't want to be herself any longer.

And last, but certainly not least, is how a lot of ships within RWBY seem to have fairly direct parallels to the myth of Eros and Psyche. It is a classical tale about the trials of love, putting the protagonists under multiple tests of loyalty and attachment before letting the two lovers unite at the end. Both love stories within Beauty and the Beast and Snow White and Rose Red pull inspiration from the myth, and we see it in CRWBY's approach to writing romances throughout the show thus far.

Blake and Yang being separated, breaking and rebuilding trust, before coming together in V9; Ren and Nora going through trials and conflict, currently apart now so they might discover who they are on their own before re-uniting with one another again; and Rosegarden having constant reunions, separations, and trials with strong focuses on their attachment to each other. Another common archetype they use from Eros and Psyche is that of the "Animal as Bridegroom", wherein at least one of the partners undergoing a transformation that is often monstrous in nature.

Bumbleby is self explanatory

WhiteKnight has the issue of Jaune being lost to time and becoming an Old Man, who's curse is reversed by magic. It alludes to his role as the Prince within Snow White and Rose Red who was initially turned into a bear via a curse

Rosegarden, has this instance for both characters. Oscar as an Ozcarnation (becoming something he doesn't want via a curse they are trying to break before time runs out) and Ruby's future fate should she be captured by Salem (being turned into a Grimm by the wicked witch - or eaten by the wolf - like her mother before her).

All of these line up with the myth's structure as well as Monty's foundational philosophy on love stories that we see in his quote from many years ago:

A lot of these all have really tragic endings so uh. Good thing RWBY likes to subvert the stories it's telling, right? They're going to get a happy ending, right CRWBY???? 😰

[bestworstcase]

Could you elaborate more on if Summer and gylinda (sorry if that's spelled wrong) were narrative foils? That sounds really interesting!

right so from what little we know about what glynda’s been up to since the fall of beacon is that she is, to all appearances, the ONE member of the inner circle who took a deep breath after ozpin died and kept her shit together. the others:

lionheart, already a traitor, continued to ask how high when salem said jump

ironwood exacerbated the global crisis by withdrawing his troops and closing the borders, thus inflicting deep economic pain on mantle and eroding international trust

qrow imploded and had to crawl back up from rock bottom after his faith in ozpin was destroyed

theodore refused to act until it was almost too late to prevent the crown’s coup because he was preoccupied with the more distant threat of salem

but glynda? she took point on the effort to reclaim beacon academy from the grimm and whenever she wasn’t doing that she was personally rebuilding vale. the last we see of her in v3, she’s on the brink of collapse working herself to the bone in vale. but in ‘after the fall’ she’s holding things together, even if just by her fingernails; she’s on top of it enough to have team CFVY’s academic transcripts and a letter of recommendation ready for them when they decide to apply for transfer to shade. in v4, half a year after beacon fell, port and oobleck seem optimistic about the situation at the beacon (“there is still much work to be done at the school” says busy and difficult, but the mood isn’t dire). and when we glimpse her again in v8, it’s apparent that normalcy has been restored in downtown vale; the dust shop is open for business and the streets outside are not overrun by grimm.

glynda had a hellish nightmare situation thrust into her hands as the de facto new headmistress of a fallen school and the person all of vale turned to for protection and guidance in the wake of this horrifying tragedy, and within a year she managed to pick up the pieces and restore peace and safety within the city, even if she couldn’t take back her school. that is astounding, and especially striking in context with the rest of the inner circle crumbling.

what made her different?

this is speculative. but i think that glynda, like summer rose, is a true believer in the ideals that huntsmen are supposed to uphold: compassion, mercy, cooperation, striving for peace, defending those who cannot defend themself. she trusted ozpin, but unlike the others, her loyalty was not for him but for the things he claimed to believe… so when everything fell apart and the burden of leadership landed on her shoulders, she acted in accordance with those ideals. reached out, brought people together, trusted in those who offered their help, and kept widening the circle until the great burden had been shared between many hands. and after salem razes vale? she does the same. goes to find help.

(i don’t think she told anyone about salem, but rather she put her faith in humanity’s capacity to pull together rather than try to shoulder everything herself. this is in contrast to qrow during the haven arc and ironwood, who bring new people into the loop but see the world as hopelessly divided and riven by distrust.)

if i am right about this and also on the mark with regard to summer rose, this would position them as reflections of each other: both huntresses who believe in and embody the true ideal of what they are supposed to be, both guided in their choices by this staunch moral conviction. summer discovers that she is complicit in enacting a horrific injustice and without hesitation turns around to stand with the victim against even her own family; glynda weathers a catastrophic tragedy and stands tall while every other pillar of ozpin’s circle collapses because she puts herself among the people and inspires them to keep pushing with her. both of them Do What’s Right.

which makes it very narratively compelling to juxtapose them with each other, because they are opposites—fighting on opposite sides—but they are also the same.

furthermore, summer has been holding beacon academy against glynda’s siege for the last year-and-a-half or so; either summer has been able to avoid notice during this time, in which case glynda is due to be hit by a freight train of a moment of realization, or glynda has seen her and knows that her opponent is summer rose—a woman who may once have been her student or her classmate, depending how old glynda is supposed to be, and certainly someone she knew and worked with fourteen years ago when they both believed in ozpin.

if that isn’t grounds for a very personal enmity in the vein of cinder and winter or qrow and clover, i will eat. my. hat. summer was there the night beacon fell—she’s the one who left ruby alive when she scraped cinder off the tower—fighting on the side of the grimm. she’s the one who’s been steadily drawing grimm to the school on salem’s behalf! that is glynda’s home! those were her students who died that night! and in reverse, it is almost certainly glynda who knows the secret of the vault’s location, glynda who remains steadfastly loyal to the divine cause of subjugation-or-annihilation, glynda who upholds the system summer fights to tear down. DO YOU SEE MY VISION… the disciplinarian and the revolutionary…

[greenerteacups]

Hello GTC,

I was re-reading Lionheart yet again and realized Draco first met Theodore on the boat to Hogwarts. Does that mean Draco didn't have any friends growing up?

What's a kid with no friends even do in that manor all by himself, except for his mum and a house elf?

I can't help but think of sad things when I try to imagine how his childhood was. What do you make of it?

That's an interesting inference to draw — you could read it that way. On the other hand, Draco knows both Crabbe and Goyle from previous interactions, and there are a few references throughout the early books to interactions with Vince and Greg that happen before the start of the fic. Of course, you still can't really call them friends, based on their train interaction — the vibes are more "playdate vets whose moms made us hang out, deciding now if we want to be friends on our own terms at school" — but as his sole parent in the pureblood sphere, Narcissa would have been the pilot of Draco's social life until Hogwarts. Meeting Theo on the boats tells you Narcissa elected not to introduce Draco to the Notts (nor the Greengrasses nor the Parkinsons, as we see later).

Her judgment here is worth a mention — Crabbe and Goyle Senior were both Death Eaters, so it's clearly not a matter of principle. But Narcissa also speaks with extreme derision about the Crabbes and the Goyles, and when she speaks of the Notts and Greengrasses (and to a lesser extent, the Parkinsons, once she's met Pansy) she treats them with much more dignity and respect. (She welcomes Theo and Pansy with her on vacation!) In general, you get the idea that Narcissa isn't threatened by the Crabbes and Goyles, neither of whom are S28, and so is comfortable using them as playmates for Draco, because she knows she holds all the power in that relationship. That can't be said for the Notts or the Greengrasses.

That said, you're right that the aristocratic life is a pretty lonely one for kids compared to, say, Hermione's or Ron's. Draco's summers are mostly spent reading, flying, and practicing whatever magic he can without a wand, which gives you some idea of what he might've been doing before he had schoolfriends to write to and visit. Daphne references "parties in London" as the main way she got to socialize with others, which is not something Narcissa would've done, considering she basically puts them into seclusion from Society as soon as Lucius dies (a political move that isn't quite the same as going full Hermit; it's basically withdrawing from major social events during the season and refusing to expose Draco as a player in the pureblood world until he's of school-age).

[bobauthorman]

Men behind the curtain

I did something similar for Ironwood, but after thinking about it, I realize that each of Oz's main lieutenants are share a distinct character trait with their master;

Theodore hasn't appeared in the series properly, but from what I saw in RWBY: Before the Dawn, the headmaster of Shade Academy seems to lean towards favoritism just like Oz did with Teams RWBY and JNPR in Beacon; He goes well out of his way to welcome Team CFVY (Another of Oz's favorites) but is absolutely mean to Team SSSN when they enroll.

Lionheart and Oz have the same fear and sense of helplessness when it comes to Salem. Both men are fully aware that Salem is essentially unbeatable (Being immortal), the main difference being that Oz is still willing to pretend to manipulate people, but Lionheart can't even manage that and ends up a tool for Salem to use.

Qrow shares Oz's self-loathing; the two of them at separate points call themselves cursed, and because of this put distance between themselves and others. (I would argue that Oz technically IS the curse).

Ironwood shares a lot of traits with Oz, which may not be immediately apparent. Ironwood is introduced as Oz's opposite, preferring direct confrontation over subtle manipulation, but in keeping with RWBY's theme of misleading first impressions, it's more like Ironwood is Oz's darker reflection. They are both troubled, untrusting men who make terrible decisions that consistently benefit the villains, who use their authority to put others under their control. Ironwood is essentially Oz with the glamor stripped away, and the breaks taken off. This is the part where someone says how Oz obviously is better because he apologized and admitted to being wrong, and I mean no disrespect, but the only reason that happened isn't because Oz has some virtue Ironwood lacked. The reason Oz might be getting better is due to Oscar forcing Oz to improve. Ironwood, meanwhile, is effectively trapped inside his own head.

[nightmare-foundation]

Silly rwby/atla au idea

Ruby- Air bender, loves zooming around, on her way to becoming a master

Yang- Earth bender, specifically a lava bender

Blake- Non-bender, extremely talented with chi blocking

Weiss- Water bender, uses ice most often

Jaune- initially thought to be a non bender, is actually a water bender. Extremely talented healer, one of the best in the world

Pyrrha- Metal bender

Nora- Fire bender, uses lightning most often

Ren- non-bender, uses chi blocking

Oscar- the Avatar, comes from one of the water tribes. Not ready for the responsibility

Ozpin- Previous avatar, was an air nomad

Ozymandias/KoV- Avatar prior to Ozpin, was the Fire Lord of the fire nation

Ironwood- Metal bender

Leonardo Lionheart- Non-bender or earth bender (undecided)

Theodore- Fire bender

Winter- Water bender, blood bender (rarely uses it)

Whitley- non-bender

Tyrian- non-bender, uses chi blocking

Watts- non-bender

Hazel- Earth bender

Cinder- Previously non-bender, received fire bending

Emerald- Non-bender

Mercury- Was a metal bender, had his bending taken away

Salem- dark spirit??

Qrow- non-bender

Raven- non-bender

Glynda- no idea tbh

Sun Wukong- air bender

[kitkatopinions]

Nitpick for Day #9

There's like, barely any work put into the relationships between the adult characters in RWBY and it makes them feel unplanned and half-baked. It's obviously not as important as the kids relationships with each other, with their mentors, etcetera, so it's technically a nitpick, but it's one that drives me up the wall.

Tai and Qrow have some sort of moment in V3 before Qrow tells Ruby some important stuff? That's never come up and likely never will again. We have no information on what their relationship is like outside of that singular moment and the fact that Tai laughs about tricking him into wearing a skirt when they were kids (I am so glad I rejected the idea of Tai and Qrow disliking each other for my own headcanons, but that's the sort of vibe those two interactions give me.)

Was Tai originally part of Oz's inner circle? What was his relationship with Raven like? What was his relationship with Summer like before they got together?

Tai is friends with Peter Port and Barty Ooblek enough that they came over to his house, but Yang never is like ??? "why are my teachers here?" And yet there's no indication outside of that scene that Port and Ooblek are old friends of Qrow's, we never see them talk to Glynda or Oz, there's no mention that Ruby or Yang have any reason to believe their teachers are connected to Tai and yet they're in his house later and it's treated as normal old friends just dropping in.

We don't know when Qrow and Winter's rivalry started, we don't know anything about Amber, we don't know if James even really knows who Raven is, we don't know what Glynda or Qrow or James's relationship with Lionheart was like, we don't know when exactly any of them got recruited to Oz's inner circle, we don't know when Oz went to school or with whom despite the fact that according to the After the Fall/Before the Dawn books, he was 'younger than forty,' and we don't know anything about who 'Ozpin' was outside of Oz. We're told that Tai 'shut down' after Summer's death and left Yang to raise Ruby on her own and yet Tai as we know him seems like a perfectly fine and present dad, so when did he break out of it? What was Qrow's reaction to Summer's death? How did the Inner Circle respond to Tai's shut down if at all? Did Summer have parents? Does Tai have parents? Were Qrow and Raven born into the Branwen camp? What sort of treatment did Qrow and Raven get there growing up? Why would Raven leave it just to go back? There are big blazing question mark signs attached to tons of the adult characters, and yet none of it is treated as that important. Literally in ten years, we're only just now starting to get information about Summer that feels out of place because of how little work was gone into the adults in general. The whole scene with Summer and Raven in V9 just raises more questions, and at this point it's unlikely that we'll get any satisfying answeres considering the possibility of V10 being the last volume (if we even get a V10.) What the heck is up with Theodore? We might not hear very much of it, but he's Inner Circle, he's a Headmaster, we should know something about him in the main show.

The closest we get to like, meaningful relationships is Oz's inner circle, James and Winter, the Ace Ops, and then the weird rushed work they put into making Qrow be Clover's friend for a season and then making Qrow be Robyn's friend in the season after that. And even those got not a lot of attention at all so they all feel weird and shallow. We're randomly supposed to believe that James groomed Winter, but we're given very little details on their relationship. We see Oz's Inner Circle working together or arguing or talking things out, we see Ironwood and Qrow hug, we see Qrow want to kill James, and yet even all of that is not actually treated as important enough to really have good resolution or consideration. I like a lot of them, but one reason why I like all of them is because I've come up with tons of wide backstory about their teen years and dynamics and how they wound up joining up with the things they've joined up with.

[askrockandfriends]

RWBY x Pokemon

Ruby and Yang are from the Johto region. Ruby has a Scyther, Roselia, and Murkrow, while Yang has a Hitmonchan, Cyndaquil, and Jangmo-o.

I'm not sure what region Blake would be from, but I'm leaning towards Hoenn. Her Pokemon include Purrloin and Accelgor.

Weiss, naturally, is from the Sinnoh region. She has a Crabominable, Honedge, and Serperior.

If RWBY characters form their own Pokemon League:

Glynda is a Fairy-type Gym Leader.

Ironwood is a Steel-type Gym Leader.

Qrow is a Flying-type Gym Leader.

Oobleck is a Rock-type Gym Leader.

Port is a Fighting-type Gym Leader.

Lionheart is a Fire-type Gym Leader (namely because of Pyroar).

Theodore is a Ground-type Gym Leader.

Jaques is an Ice-type Gym Leader.

The maidens serve as the Elite Four.

Salem is both the villainous team leader and Champion. She uses a mix of Dark, Ghost, and Fairy types. Tyrian, Arthur Watts, and Cinder serve as her team's admins.

Ozpin serves as the regional professor.

Raven is a wandering Trainer that you can encounter at various points on the adventure. She uses Dark types mainly.