So Can We Start Hunting Down White Liberals Now Or What

How Oscar’s annual “goes missing” arc will go in Volume 9

Emerald: Ren! Nora! Oscar is missing!

Nora: Ah okay. Give him two days

Emerald:… You sound so used to this

Ren: Happens every year

Meanwhile

Oscar: Annual two day vacation, here I come!

RWBY Characters in Song ♦ Yang Xiao-Long & her family

Piece by Piece - Kelly Clarkson

And all I remember... is your back Walking towards the airport, leaving us all in your past

I traveled fifteen hundred miles to see you Begged you to want me, but you didn't want to

But piece by piece he collected me Up off the ground where you abandoned things. Piece by piece he filled the holes, That you burned in me at six years old.

And all of your words fall flat. I made something of myself, and now you wanna come back ?

But your love, it isn't free ! It has to be earned. Back then I didn't have anything you needed,

so I was... worthless

Piece by piece, I fell far from the tree, I will never leave her like you left me

And she will never have to wonder her worth Because, unlike you, I'm gonna put her first !

And you know : he'll never walk away, He'll never break her heart. He'll take care of things, he'll love her

And piece by piece he'll restore my faith That a man can be kind and a father should be great

☼ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ☼

A song about the Xiao-Long & Branwen family

➸ Yang suffers from Raven's abandonment, knowing that her mother left and didn't consider her daughter important enough to *stay* for. For YEARS she knew nothing of her. And saying that Raven didn't want to want Yang seems pretty accurate.

➸ It's thanks to her father & uncle that Yang is so very aware of what love (actual love) is. It's why Yang is so different from Raven, why she cares so much and isn't impressed by Raven's attempts at "kindness". She wanted to know her mother & why she left. But after years and years wondering... the time to "come back" is long lost. Yang is far from impressed by Raven's philosophy.

➸ All in all, it's clear that if Yang is so well-adjusted most of the time it's because she had her own family, without Raven, that she could always count on. Her father who, having given up on the Hunter life, took care of his daughters & loved them as best as he could. Her uncle who, unlike his twin, chose to STAY as much as he was allowed. A credit to how fiercely Qrow loves as well, that shows how different the twins are.

➸ Raven might have abandonned Yang, but Yang isn't planning on doing the same. She'll be there for Ruby as much as possible, and she can feel safe in the knowledge that Tai & Qrow will always be there for the both of them as well.

Okay so This is just a way to let out some frustration so I can put it out there and stop mulling on it bc I'm bad at this sort of stuff - Feel free to ignore it

I'm putting this under Read More; if your fav past-time is to call anyone who likes Ironwood's character or was disappointed by his V8 turn to villainy a stupid bootlicker who "should have seen the signs he was always a tyrant !!" please don't interact with this post. You're ultimately free to think what you want but honestly I see enough of that in the main tag when left alone, I don't need it on my blog it doesn't make me feel good.

Anyone else... well you can read if you're interested but you don't have to either. Feel free to respectfully disagree though, I'm not that bullheaded that I can't partake in a friendly argument =) I'll just be listing some things about Ironwood's reading by the FNDM who get old or draining as someone who doesn't like the V8-characterization they went with

Can people please stop just... copy/pasting real world issues on a world/characters that have nothing to do with them or a completely different context ?

Like,, I genuinely try to educate myself on real-world issues. I know I'm rather privileged so I try to listen and hear out people who speak out about the issues they live through day by day. I know why the "ACAB" moniker exists. I understand the problem that lies within the american police system (and likely other countries as well). I see why the army, on our blue planet, is criticized & its many failings. Etc, the list can go on...

But I'm sorry to say, Remnant isn't OUR Earth. Their Army's primary job is to fight actual evil soulless monsters, not people. The Ace Opps or Huntsmen are not an organization directly inherited from slave-hunting groups. James Ironwood isn't the US army general bombing Middle East. Clover Ebi isn't the racist cop you want in prison. So WHY are they treated as such by so many people ? Stories are not a 1-1 where you can take everything you know and just apply it to a completely different world.

Has Atlas been presented as a country that suffers from racism & classism ? Certainly. Has it be shown this way ? That's already more debatable since the only racist arguments we got were in Mantle (which is the city we're supposed to be rooting for so that's a weird choice but eh it's whatever). Are the characters, as persons, shown to evoke these issues in a way that deserve our scorn ? Not really.

Is Ironwood depicted as particularly racist for example ? I wouldn't say so seeing as one (or more considering Tortuga) of his Ace-Opps are Faunus & it seems perfectly accepted; and he hates Jacques Schnee's guts. So why does he get to shoulder all of our real-world issues as if he was responsible for them, in a context where (pre V8) his army had most likely never killed anything else than Grimm and was shown to elicit very positive reactions from most of the population (V3) ? (In direct contrast to the polarization that the US army might evoke for example.)

You can totally hate Ironwood because of the feelings he evoke, the trope he stems from or the parallels to be made. That doesn't mean however, that he IS truly guilty of every one of OUR world issues (pre-V8)

Just because classism is prevalent in Atlas society does not make Ironwood the figurehead & leader of this issue.

Is classism an issue in Atlas ? Yes. That's been made clear because of Mantle's state as well as Jacques Schnee entire existence & even Cinder's backstory. Does that mean every single one of Ironwood's decisions reeks of classism ? NO

Trust me, as someone who found Ironwood's V8 characterization not... well-executed & too much; there's nothing more annoying than being assaulted by posts about his fall going "it was so obvious !! look at -" only for them to then list reasons in a really biased way or even headcannons based on (again) irl problems. An exemple...

Reasons his turn was good that I see thrown around : "Ironwood left Mantle behind because he only wanted to save the rich. He's a selfish coward & an asshole !"

What we were actually given : "Ironwood suffers from PTSD, and faced with Salem's imminent arrival, he tried to save what he was CERTAIN to be able to protect aka the flying city and all the people on it including Mantle evacuees. There is absolutely no text backing the idea that he wanted to leave with Atlas because it's rich. We could even suppose that he would have left with the 'poor' Mantle if it was the flying city and rich people were hanging safely on the ground. There is indeed an issue with Atlas & Mantle disparity, but Ironwood isn't directly responsible for it."

Does that make his decision to leave Mantle behind a morally right one ? That's of course NOT what I'm saying. The situation is still very ambiguous. But the classism theme has NO place here.

"Ironwood leads Atlas & Mantle. As such, he inherently holds responsability for the issues plaguing it." THIS is an acceptable reading according to me. I would probably argue that even if Ironwood's the only Atlas leader we're shown; he actually only oversees the military & academy (where we haven't ever seen classism issues), so putting Atlas' classism issues on him still doesn't sound fair to me. However the idea & argument is sound.

Acknowledging only how his actions look/the tyrannical surface reading and not the reasonnable justifications or glimpses we were given (pre-V7) of Ironwood being more than his trope

I'll probably stop after this one, but the last thing that is both tiring & annoying after too much of it; is seeing people boil down all of Ironwood's character to the most basic summary, inherently written to paint him in a bad line. And then saying that everything led up to his downfall by using these watered-down versions of the show's events to justify it. Or worse (imo), saying that people who are not satisfied with his V8 characterization that THEY don't understand how good a character he is and don't really appreciate him.... All the while only ever highlighting his characters flaws. Please stop this.

"Ironwood brought an army to the peace Olympics why are you surprised he turned out this way ?" ==> Ironwood brought an army to a country where the civilians visibly have no issue with said-army, to protect a peaceful event that he KNOWS to be targeted by foes. It's definitely overzealous & his conviction that threats should be dealt with by blunt force IS one of his flaws; but pretending that he did it for fun or because he's a tyran is just as misplaced.

"Ironwood said he'd shoot Qrow if he were one of his men why are you surprised he shot Oscar ?" ==> Do I really need to flip through every joke in this show and consider it as absolute truth & proof that the character would enact these words if given the occasion; even when we're shown with certainty that they actually don't mean it ? (IW hugging Qrow to welcome him, refusing to attack Qrow when he's certain Qrow IS attacking him...)

"Ironwood has his military all over Mantle, there's a curfew, all of this is tyrannical why are you surprised he's also down for genocide" ==> Damn, it sure is criminal to have Mantle defended from the litteral monsters roaming inside & out, and to make sure with a curfew that the people are not at risk during the night. I wonder if any recent events could make us reconsider our stance on how evil a enforced curfew is. Mhmmm maybe a pandemic ? Nah I must be imagining things. For real though, at what point did Tyrian's framing/lies (IW has his soldiers all over Mantle because of politics/he's a tyran who refuses opposition) became the truth of the situation for the FDNM too ? Again Mantle's situations SUCK, and that's a problem in itself. Making up problematic reasoning for the situation is dishonest though.

To end this, I'll just make clear. I do not condone any of Ironwood's actions post-V7. I don't think he had to be the big hero of the Atlas arc. Nor that he was without faults. I merely think that he'd have been a better antagonist than villain. And that it'd have been nice to keep the ambiguity/morally greyness that surrounds him; the knowledge that he's TRYING hard to do what's best for everyone; that he has good intentions. That he cares about individuals too to a lesser degree, and that he had people who cared about him as a person.

For short... Ironwood as an antagonist with understandable issues, flaws & failures; making questionable choices but with good intentions ? Hell yeah. Ironwood as a villain, more irredeemable than Hazel, willing to kill people for NO reason or even wipe out a city ? I'm not convinced.

Okay I might have to pause this "one chart a day" thing I have going on, I'm starting an internship at the hospital & I'm not sure I'll have the time to keep going. So... Enjoy this one !

This is a hand-made template so I'm putting it at the end in case someone else wants to give it a go :D

THE WHY-s

Oscar sweetie I love you very much and you're doing great but when you're constantly dealing with your trauma offscreen I'm forced to put you in the "no emotional vulnerability" category

When you're constantly yelling at your ex & her blonde teammate about your problems and how hurt you are, I'm putting you in oversharing (yes this is about Adam. Bitch)

Mercury & Emerald : emotional vulnerability ? never heard of her. Just on slightly opposite ends of the axis

RWBY just love piling up the angst & breakdowns on their emotionally-stunted adult men am I right. Sorry about that Oz, James, Qrow.

Babies <3 <3

doodle of older (?) oscar and whitley designs, idk i want them to be huntsman partners sooooo bad 😭 so this is how i cope lmao

happy pride to one of my favorite genders

@incorrectozfamily draws: posts that happen to have the king of vale edition

Fanon Oscar’s great Tired feral sassy boy It’s what he deserves

I know Ozpin is intended as this sort-of morally grey Dumbledore; but he's missing Dumbledore's main flaw of voluntarily withdrawing from the fight in favor of letting a chosen one kind deal with a mad man alone because "destiny"

It's just wild to me, constantly, to see how much Ozpin's decisions are warped in some people's mind. He never asked the kids to go toe-to-toe with Salem herself; he gave people the training needed to fight against Grimm : creatures who always existed even outside of Salem's control and WILL attack people regardless of what he does. He told them about Salem because they were attacked by her hunchmen and they needed to know, that wasn't a subtext for "now go fight Salem herself." That wasn't the terms of their training; which is why is lying isn't actually as evil as some people make it out to be.

Is Ozpin flawed ? Yes. Does he always take the best decisions ? Not really. Was the lying one of his flaws ? Yes. The root of it was human and he had good intentions (on top of his trauma & trust issues let's be honest) but it was still fundamentally flawed in several aspects. Was it evil... Not really ?

I know Ozpin is meant as this morally grey character, who's sketchy and manipulative if still well-meaning; but honestly with what we were given I'd call him a very pale grey at most, so it's even more mind-boggling for me to see people calling him pure evil.

...Or say that he would have no problem taking over Oscar's body completely.

I have recently learned that during Volume 6 (and possibly 7) parts of the RWBY FNDM believed that when Oscar was missing Ozpin came back and now was now controlling Oscar’s body pretending to be him.

And think this is a reflection of the FNDM’s belief that Ozpin is evil, because that’s pretty fucking evil; and not something Ozpin would do

A very confused Ozma during his first reincarnation

Tired old wizard and his Maidens

Ozpin feeling conflicted about the decision to make Pyrrha an "unnatural" Maiden

Some more Oz-carnations gifs I put together