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Oscar and Ozpin Part 1 of 3: Like-Minded Souls

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What's my opinion on Oscar/Ozpin? It involves a lot of psychological background stuff, so it's in three parts. The first part talks about "like-minded souls", the second part talks about early adolescence, and the third part talks about Ozpin himself. Ready?

Part 1

"Nature vs. Nurture" is an age-old question, but significant strides have been made in answering it. Scientific studies on IQ began in the late 19th Century, and by the late 20th Century enough was known that it could be safely said that every person came with an intelligence "preset", which while often quite higher than it appeared to be, nonetheless had an upper limit. A quality education could help a student reach that limit, and often exceed perceived limits (especially when cultural stereotypes were factored in), but the limits themselves appeared to be innate. Then came the 1980s, and things got interesting.

Mid-Twentieth Century America was overly fond of the practice of stranger adoption, whereby an infant was completely removed from their biological relatives and placed with total strangers, with no knowledge whatsoever of their biological background. Today it is looked on much less favorably, and has been all but abandoned in some locations. Nonetheless, it made for a golden opportunity for social scientists to study "nature vs. nurture". A number of studies were made which compared adoptees to their adopted parents and siblings vs biological parents and siblings they had never met. The most important were the studies of genetically identical twins reared apart, including the Minnesota Twin Study, also known as MISTRA.

The MISTRA study united adult identical twins who had never met, and who had usually only just learned of each other's existence, for a week of intense psychological testing. The twins were uncannily alike. Their IQs were identical over 77% of the time, in spite of being reared in different environments. Their character strengths and values showed a similar alignment, and they shared the same personality quirks more often than not. This even held when one twin was reared a German Nazi and the other was reared an Orthodox Jew. It's currently holding with Chinese twin girls who are being reared in San Francisco and in rural Norway.

Most significantly, when compared with identical twins reared together, the identical twins reared apart were markedly MORE alike, without the environmental pressure to differentiate themselves while growing up.

(Note this only happens with identical twins. Fraternal twins like Raven and Qrow show the same lesser similarity patterns as other biological siblings.)

These findings have led to a new theory of personality in which the human brain has "presets" not just for IQ but also for other character strengths, such as Honesty, Loyalty, Bravery, Gratitude, and Love of Learning. Of course, just as with IQ having a high "preset" doesn't guarantee that you will reach your full potential. A person with a high IQ won't thrive in an environment that isn't intellectually stimulating, nor will a person with a high Honesty "preset" thrive in a den of thieves.

(Note the existence of psychological "presets" in no way endorses society putting obstacles in the way of people reaching their potential.)

What does this have to do with Ozpin? I believe Oscar and Ozpin are indeed "like-minded souls". I think the mechanism the God of Light set up for Ozma's reincarnation made a template based on Ozma's "presets" -- his intelligence, character strengths, and personality quirks -- and set it to look for the human male in the appropriate age range who best fits that template. "Best fit" doesn't mean "perfect fit", but it does mean that Oscar and Ozpin share many traits, and even without the Ozma collective roosting in his head Oscar would have become a man similar to Ozpin in many ways when he was grown.

We saw at the farm that Oscar was responsible, diligent, meticulous, and a self-starter -- not many 14 year old boys get up at dawn to begin hard labor without prompting. We saw that he had intelligence, a love of learning (the books in his room), a sense of humor (his interaction with his aunt), and a strong sense of privacy (he both lived in his own little "tower" and he didn't tell anyone else what he was going through). Most significantly, he refused to make a decision until he felt he had all the relevant information, but once he did he acted quickly. These are all traits he shares with Ozpin.

On the road he's also shown kindness, perceptivity, patience, modesty, politeness, curiosity, a calm and somewhat reserved demeanor, and an unwillingness to judge others at first sight, also traits he shares with Ozpin. And there's the equanimity to recognize that he has the equivalent of a potentially devastating psychological disorder and the courage to persevere in the face of it.

Indeed, there's only one major trait of Ozpin's that we haven't seen Oscar exhibit on his own, and that is Ozpin's phenomenal ability to recognize and nurture talented individuals. That was a skill honed over an 80 year lifespan. We don't know if Oscar has it or will develop it. It's possible it was a trait they don't share in common. It's also possible Oscar just hasn't needed it yet.

But what about Ozpin's faults? In some people a combination of bluntness and detachment is a symptom of depression, and I started to wonder if Ozpin was concealing a bout of severe depression by the third episode. His passivity in the second and third volumes convinced me of this diagnosis, especially in light of Ironwood and Goodwitch calling it uncharacteristic of Ozpin. There's also the reluctance to share his problems with others that tripped him up so badly in Volume 6, as well as the grief and despair with which he spoke of Lionheart's betrayal. So the question is, if Oscar was frustrated, scared, or depressed, would he tend to keep this to himself? Haven't we seen signs of that already?

So the major differences I see in their personalities are products of age, experience, and/or damage.

For a final bit of evidence that innate character strengths are an important part of the story, consider the Volume 6 intro song, complete with the line "trust the way we're made".

Best case scenario, the Ozma collective in Oscar's head merely reinforces character strengths he already has, allowing him to attain his maximum potential with those skills decades before he would have done so under normal circumstances, while providing him a deep database of collective memories to draw from. This falls in line with Ozpin's own description of the process, "In time Oscar will inherit my (skills)". But there are other, darker possibilities, especially in light of Oscar's youth. We'll get into those next time. I promise it won't be nearly as long.

#rwby #rwby theory #rwby thoughts #oscar pine #ozpin

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