#yang honestly seems in such disbelief any time she's shown affection and it hurts

[chittychittyyangyang]

“Knowing what it is to feel loved…”

So, I want to preface this by saying some of this is from my own personal experience as well as just kind of what I know from adopted people in general. While not outright stated, Summer Rose basically did adopt her, and the fact he was so young when Summer died, and she found out about Raven are both relevant. Because I feel like if Yang truly knew what it was like to feel loved on a deep, visceral level, she wouldn’t put herself in a position to always sacrifice herself for others. She wouldn’t martyr herself and have someone else feel the pain she has felt by leaving them behind.

The thing is, I don't think people understand how unlovable you can feel when you are adopted. Our society, puts motherhood on such a pedestal (and RWBY not existing in a vacuum we can assume there too), that it is so easy for a child to internalize there is something inherently unlovable about them that would make their own mother give them up. And you can just learn that as a kid even under ideal circumstances where others try to make you feel loved. Had Summer not left, Yang could have possibly lived a happy life without ever knowing Raven didn’t want her. But that’s not what happened. She had two mothers leave her and was left with a dad unable to take care of her and having to step up for her sister. No one ever stays, and Yang has to be the one to pick up the pieces.

When Beacon fell, Blake ran, Weiss’s father came and took her back to Atlas, and Ruby went off on her mission. Her own father says in ear shot he can’t go looking for Ruby because he has “to look after other things” while looking over to Yang’s room. As if she’s in the way of the daughter he really cares about because he out right states she reminds him of Raven. Speaking of, imagine growing up knowing your dad almost resents you for reminding him of the mother who left you, who you’ve been trying desperately to find, only to find out your father knew where she was and was intentionally keeping that information from you. Yang’s feelings of being unloved are so directly tied to being Raven’s daughter, and being forced into a parental role way before she should have been. I also mentioned with Blake in another post, that she did everything “right” with Blake, and she still left without even saying anything. “What if I needed her here for me?” Blake leaving her is just further proof that she must inherently be unlovable and not enough to stick around for.

Yang’s feelings seem so secondary to her that she finally finds Raven to help find Ruby. Yang gets to confront a woman who is nothing like the woman Tai eventually told her about, just for Raven to deflect and not answer the question of why she left. Yang’s feelings truly don’t matter right now because right now this is about getting to Ruby. Never mind, finding her trying to find Raven was how we were introduced to her character (Yellow Trailer). When Yang gets to confront her again, no one around, call Raven out on her shit, all but beg Raven to pick her over power and safety. Beg Raven to be a mother to her and love her, and Raven can’t. We, the audience, can see that Raven is conflicted and loves Yang as much as she can (which Yang can’t see because her back is to her), but it’s truly not good enough. It’s not what Yang needs. Raven might have been able to come up with an excuse before for leaving Yang, but now Raven is actively not picking to her face. Because in the end no one picks Yang.

But Blake did. Blake picked her all the way back in the Emerald Forest, and as far as we know Yang doesn’t know that. We don’t know if Yang knows that Blake ran to keep her safe. Yang doesn’t know Blake wanted her to hate her to further keep her safe. Everything Blake did was for Yang, but Yang doesn’t know that. Yang doesn’t know Blake is doing so well now because of Yang being in her life. Blake is in a perfect position to be there for Yang now and help Yang feel loved. Blake has gone through her journey and processing, and she’s seen and been demonstrated loved through her parents. We can only truly understand love when it’s been demonstrated for us. Yang has never had that, and Blake can be there to focus on her needs and show her what a good partner is like, because she knows what a bad one can be. Blake can take the lead and allow her to feel love in a way neither of them has felt before. It won’t completely fix Yang’s feelings of abandonment, but Blake can be there to help her hold that feeling so it’s not such a heavy burden.