#faunus racism

[reashot]

Jaune Hunting Season. (Feat. Wolf Faunus Ruby.)

Papa Arc: Wake up Son we're going hunting!

Jaune: But dad I don't want to go hunting!

Papa Arc: Son. I'll pretend I didn't hear you. There is nothing more noble and honorable than shooting a defenseless animal with a high powered rifle.

Jaune: Dad killing animals is wrong and barbaric.

Papa Arc: What wrong is you not getting your butt inside my car right this instance.

Jaune: No dad I won't do it.

Papa Arc: Oh I see. As a father I need to respect my children's wishes... Sike! *snatch & tie Jaune up like a hog* You're going on a hunting trip with me boy and that's final. Besides we hardly bond together lately.

Jaune: That's because of stuffs like this dad! Why can't we just bond over board game or something boring like that?

Papa Arc does not listen to what his son have to say and just place Jaune in his car. And before they know it they already in their hunting gears.

Papa Arc: Okay Jaune we will meet up here later this afternoon. For now go ahead and find something to shoot. I'll be right here setting up camp. And be careful around this part I set up trap around this area since yesterday. If you found one caught in my trap go ahead and put it out off its misery.

Jaune: Okay dad. I'll be going... (Finally I'm out of there.)

With a rifle in hand. He walks into the wood, not to hunt but to mostly get away from his dad's venal attempt in trying to turn him into a man.

??? : *howling in pain*

Jaune: What was that?

He said despite knowing that there's only one animal that can make that kind of sound and they are in pain. With haste Jaune runs as fast as he can to the direction of the sound.

Wolf Ruby: *snarl. Yelping in pain* 🐺

Jaune sees a small wolf Faunus girl having her leg been caught inside a bear trap.

Jaune: Oh poor girl. Here let me help you out...

Ruby: Get away from me human!!! *clawing Jaune's eyes out*

Jaune: I-it's okay girl. I'm trying to help you out.

Ruby: No! You're lying. All humans are liar and murderer! Human is the reason my mom is dead!!!

Jaune: I'm sorry about your mother. But I'm not like that. I'm trying to help you. Look see. I'm dropping my gun and I swear I will not harm you. I just need you to allow me to touch you for a second so I can get your leg out from the bear trap.

Ruby: *growl* Fine! But no funny business mister.

Jaune: Okay here goes... *gently removes Ruby's leg from the bear trap*

Ruby: Ahh!!!

Jaune: Shh.... *Rub Ruby's head* there you go... Good girl, good girl...

Ruby: 🤯

Sometimes later....

Papa Arc: There you are son! Where have you been?

Jaune: Dad, you don't mind if I bring a friend home right?

Ruby: *Hugging Jaune's arm* Hello mister Jaune's dad. My name is Ruby and I already Marked your son as my mate. 💕

Papa Arc: I see.... Ruby would you mind if we have some time alone together? You know seeing that we will be in-law after all.

Ruby: I see no problem with that. Lead on Jaune's dad.

The two walks into the secluded area of the forest...

Papa Arc: So Ruby. You and my son, huh. How did you two met?

Ruby: Oh it's nothing to talk about really. Jaune saved me from a trap laid by a human then he used his semblance to heal me. He was so patient with me and so kind that I can't help but want him to be my mate... 😊

Papa Arc: I see interesting... By the way was your mother's name Summer Rose?

Ruby: Yeah, Summer Rose was my mom. Why did you ask?

Papa Arc: Because... *points his gun* I killed your mother.

Ruby: W-what?

*bang!*

#rwby #jaune arc #ruby rose #lancaster #lancaster rwby #jaune x ruby #ruby x jaune #rwby lancaster #wolf faunus ruby #papa arc #papa arc knows best #rwby au #faunus racism

[papillaee]

People don't realize that calling faunus names associated with animals WOULD be fine if there wasn't any faunus racism and if it wasn't established that using those fucking names is considered offensive in canon. And the fact that they established this in canon but still make human characters use these words against faunus to be cute and funny is contradictory and tone deaf. That's why a lot of characters end up sounding like fucking racist jerks even if that wasn't the writer's intention.

If crwby just made faunus a simple and quirky animal people race, they could just do that. It would be fine. But they chose to follow the fictional racism route, which is a plot device they clearly don't have the maturity and critical skills to follow.

#rwde #anti crwby #faunus racism #racism in media

[oddlyhale]

I'm still fucking reeling over the fact that Remnant lives in passive racism and just does nothing with it anymore.

The heroes just accept that their society is racist and they decide, "thank you Schnee Dust Company!" because they produced dust bullets that slaves mined from the mines.

Call me dramatic or whatnot, but this one scene from Jaune and Nora just HAUNTS me because it outlines how nobody gives a shit about the horrors the Faunus have to deal with. It was only used to have Ruby remember Weiss, but damn, it's just shabby.

And this makes me ask, "okay, if James put up that embargo, then what's happening with the Faunus slaves that are being forced to work in the mines? Are they still working or are they out of work?" I supposed they were out of work because Jacques was on James' ass about not opening the borders the whole time.

BUT AGAIN, WE JUST NEVER HEAR FROM THEM.

If they ever did bring it up, I guarantee I never heard of it because the Faunus racism matters 🤏 that much.

The one time we see anything about Faunus workers was in Arrowfell when the story decided, "let's vilify the union leader and show him abusing a Faunus worker," and just never come back to this ever again.

This is why I wish they did more with Adam because frankly, it seemed like he was the only one that had to remind everybody that humans were doing crazy shit to Faunus. Because god forbid Blake actually brings it up ever again because she just somehow forgot for a few years after V5.

We just open with how Blake, this whole fucking time, was actually royalty and didn't actually have to struggle as much as her people. She chose to go rogue with Adam and left when the heat got too much. If only we got an introspective storyline of how Blake's privileged life was able to help her not be part of the poor who are easy to take advantage of, but, that would require Blake being flawed.

Oh yeah, and Ruby's kneejerk reaction to assume all Faunus are somehow in cahoots with the White Fang just because they're not human (Ruby vs. Tyrian, V4.) That shit was SO unwarranted, girl. Or wait, does she assume any Faunus that attacks her is a terrorist, too? There's a lot of shit Ruby needs to unpack, ASAP.

So that's why I think the dude-bro CRWBY should've never touched on the topic.

#rwde #faunus racism

[the-path-to-redemption]

Why the Faunus storyline sucks ass: the personal/character level analysis

This is just my opinion, but to put in perspective how absolutely dogshit RWBY’s Faunus narrative truly is, I’m just gonna rant for a while and compare the storyline to another narrative that I think handled the topic of systematic racism and the cycle of violence due to racism very well: Full Metal Alchemist’s Scar and the Ishvalans. 

Preface: The latter two do so well, in my opinion, because they never truly portray racism as a straight-up allegory in the premise of a fantasy world. By separating a fantasy narrative from completely writing it as a reflection of any specific civil rights movement, it becomes a universal message that everyone can understand and make connections themselves to real-life injustices without inaccurately and/or offensively portraying a sensitive topic such as racism like how RWBY did.

Extremely Long Post Below the Cut. Spoilers for RWBY, Full Metal Alchemist, and Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Trigger warnings for: graphic character deaths, depictions/reference of character deaths, ethnic genocide, war crimes, mentions of abuse, racism, slavery, depiction of a hate crime (branding), reference to child slavery, mild gore, and depictions of violence. 

We shall begin on a personal level, then perhaps move on to the systematic level of how these storylines are so different in the portrayal of racism in another post. Let’s start with the bad: Weiss Schnee and her racism against the Faunus.

I’m gonna be front with ya’ll here: I actually didn’t mind Weiss’ initial behavior at first; it’s obvious where they were going with her character and story: she started off as an entitled, racist and cruel person because of many factors in her life. Weiss came from the wealthiest family in Remnant, with a unique and versatile Semblance that can easily grant her a high status in Atlesian society, However, she is also from a broken and abusive household, with a neglectful mother and a father who was willing to put his heiress through a dangerous trial for her to leave to another nation to find her own path, which resulted in a permanent scarring on her face. 

[A screenshot from RWBY White Trailer. Weiss Schnee in a dark room, eyes closed in a painful expression while blood trail down her face from a wound from the Armor Gigas]

However, Weiss has expressed quite vocal and malicious racism towards the Faunus, especially Sun during Volume 1 Chapter 15 “The Stray”

[RWBY Vol 1 Chapter 15 “The Stray”. Team RWBY gathers around an irate Weiss, who refers to Sun as a “riffraff” following his escape from authorities after stowing away on a ship.]

[RWBY Vol 1 Chapter 15 “The Stray”. Weiss holding up a caricature drawing of Sun Wukong to Penny, depicting him as a violent individual while referring to him as a “filthy Faunus”.]

[RWBY Vol 1 Chapter 15 “The Stray”. In response to Blake’s demand as to why she was degrading Sun for being a Faunus, Weiss gestures to a trashcan, insinuating that she equates him to being trash/referring to him as “filthy” due to his status as a Faunus]

Narratively speaking, these are condemnable behaviors for a character to possess, let alone one of the main characters of the show. Blake, another protagonist, even criticize Weiss for her racism and defended the Faunus, stating that people like Weiss and Cardin are the reasons why Faunus such as the White Fang have to resort to extreme measures to gain their rights. 

[RWBY Vol 1 Chapter 15 “The Stray”. Blake angrily declares that it’s people like Cardin and Weiss, in their discriminatory behavior, have caused the White Fang resorting to extreme measures in their civil rights movement]

So, narratively speaking, we should see that Weiss would reflect on her actions later on, and aim to remove herself from such toxic mindsets and redeem herself from her bigotry, right?

[RWBY Vol 1 Chapter 15 “The Stray”. In response to Blake’s anger, Weiss snapped back, declaring herself a victim in the ordeal with her family and the White Fang. She then recounts the deaths of the supporters of the SDC, the Dust robberies committed by the White Fang, and her father’s reaction, claiming that it had made her childhood difficult.]

Not even close. 

Call me heartless, but while I’m not condoning Jacques’ abuse of his family, I find it insulting that Weiss would see herself as the victim over an entire race of people who are still enslaved by her family, and exploited by those same board members causing them to fight back. 

Sun’s entire kingdom was drained of its resources by her grandfather and the Atlesian kingdom. Ilia, another member of the White Fang, lost her parents in Weiss’ family’s Dust mines after a collapse, then find herself without empathy from her human peers who mocked their deaths. Adam, who was another Faunus character, was enslaved and branded, permanently disabling him for life. 

To compare their lives, knowing subjugation for the majority of it because of the way they were born, to Weiss’ is straight-up stupid. She’s a victim of abuse, but she also perpetuated the cycle of hate on a group of people who were still being used by her father, instead of placing the blame at Jacques’ feet.

What’s even worse? Weiss never apologized to Sun or Blake for being cruel to them in the show canon. You know what’s even more insulting? 

[RWBY: The Official Manga Chapter 8 by Bunta Kinami. Weiss admits her wrongdoings, and apologizes to Blake.]

That apology was written in a secondary source material, by another author not directly associated with the main writing team at CRWBY. And guess what? This decision will never have any impact on Weiss’ canonical character or the main storyline. This is the same as fanfic, and we will never get that closure in canon. 

Weiss then continued to not apologize, and in Volume 7 seemingly developed a “white savior complex” towards the Faunus racism in her own home kingdom. She told Blake that she wishes that she could “take back all the years of abuse her family committed against the Faunus”, but then went to a movie with Jaune and Oscar instead of a rally in support of a candidate running against her father in the Atlas council election, who was supposedly pro-Faunus. 

Why? Why not have both of them be at this event? Sure, it went to shit, but to show the audience that Weiss has truly changed and Blake wanted to continue to fight for Faunus’ rights, it’s logical to have them go to this rally right?? No, Weiss went to a movie with a guy she dislikes, and Blake went to a club with a team she doesn’t like. Neither of them took initiative to actually change the systematic racism against Faunus in Atlas, the infamously most racist kingdom in Remnant. 

Matter of fact, Weiss and Blake rarely have any development with this conflict between them save for sparse moments that don’t amount to anything and came out of no organic progression at all. They never talk about the ongoing discrimination anymore, Blake blamed her own kind for the way they were treated and placed the responsibility of Adam’s White Fang at their feet, and Weiss never truly did anything to change the Atlesian people’s mindset on the Faunus citizens there. Hell, Marrow, the token Faunus in the most elite unit of the Atlas military, never has another conversation with them about what it’s like being a Faunus in Atlas. It all went to waste. 

Now, let’s compare that to FMA 

[Full Metal Alchemist. A young Scar faces his people during the Ishval Civil War]

The character Scar is a fascinating one; he’s a survivor of the Ishvalan people who were massacred by the Amestrian government and their State Alchemists to create a philosopher stone (a great form of alchemic power) in exchange for their lives following torturous experiments. 

Scar also lost his brother in the war, who before passing away gave Scar his own arm tattooed with a transmutation array as a legacy. Understandably, Scar was enraged by this chain of events and went on a killing spree to eliminate every State Alchemist as revenge for what they did in the war, even if they weren’t involved at all. 

[Full Metal Alchemist. A heavily injured Scar awoke to see that his arm has been replaced with his brother’s, who died in the war. His face was twisted in an expression of horror and shock at the revelation.]

But perhaps one of the most interesting differences between Scar’s story from Blake’s, and even to the rest of the Faunus storyline, was that even though Scar’s actions were extreme and he himself acknowledged it with great guilt, especially after murdering a doctor couple who did nothing but saves innocents in his grief, FMA’s narrative never invalidates or demonized his anger. 

Scar was allowed to be angry, to be hateful, to be in emotional pain after a traumatic event in his life without the narrative ever condemning such emotions. The narrative never fully condones his rampant extremism either, especially after the murder of Winry’s parents and orphaning their young daughter in his grief. And despite all of this, Scar was given more to his character than just a man consumed by wrath and blood. 

[Full Metal Alchemist. Scar places his hand on the amalgamation that was Nina Tucker and her dog Alexander, with the intent of mercy killing them after they were forcibly fused by Shou Tucker, Nina’s father, and a State Alchemist.]

Scar exhibits mercy, sadness, understanding, and empathy towards other characters throughout the series. He was allowed to be a fully fleshed-out character, with more than just the drive for vengeance and the need to destroy out of fury. And once again, he fully acknowledges that his actions were wrongful and do not excuse himself for killing innocents such as the Rockbells. And this is where another important character in his story comes in: Winry Rockbell, the orphaned daughter of his first victims. 

[Full Metal Alchemist. Scar was surrounded by the Elric brothers while Winry Rockbell aims a gun at him, racked with grief after learning that he was her parents’ murderer.]

When face to face with Winry, Scar never blamed her for hating him. He fully understood her pain and told her that he wouldn’t stop her from trying to shoot him out of vengeance for what he did to her parents. But he claims that he would not just let her, because he has a mission to complete, just like she does. 

But then, Scar’s entire ideology was flipped on its head after this sequence of events:

[Full Metal Alchemist. Scar aimed to attack Edward Elric, who threw himself in front of Winry Rockbell to protect her. Scar was reminded of how his own brother protected him and hesitated.]

[Full Metal Alchemist. Winry approaches a bleeding Scar after he told her that she can enact her vengeance. However, Winry surprises everyone by offering to bandage up his wound, claiming that he would bleed to death if he doesn’t tend to it.]

Scar was shown an alternative to end the cycle of violence from the girl who he had wronged, altering his previous mindset of only stopping the cycle by completely destroying a side in the conflict. Winry, instead of continuing it out of retribution like he did, chose mercy and compassion. But at the same time, she refuses to forgive him for the atrocities he had committed.

[Full Metal Alchemist. Winry declares that while she doesn’t want to kill Scar, he should not misunderstand her actions as forgiveness.]

Compare this to how the characters in RWBY reacted to this sort of conflict; an in-universe minority acted with extreme measures against an oppressive and murderous system, causing them to commit atrocities against innocents that affected another important character in the narrative in major ways. 

What FMA did right was not invalidating either Scar or Winry’s pain and anger, the narrative of FMA never condemned Scar for fighting back for his people, the narrative never judges Winry for not forgiving him, the narrative of FMA did not sacrifice either of their characters to progress the plot and the conflict. 

RWBY did not do anything like that. Blake lost all of the sparks that marked her as an interesting character, who aimed to fight for her people’s rights and calls out bigoted actions, even when it came from her teammates and someone who she will see as a friend. Weiss never apologized to the Faunus she had hurt, nor did she substantially change anything about the way she or her fellow Atlesians think about the Faunus. Weiss did not add anything to Blake’s story, and she never even met the greatest sin her family has committed that we, the audience, saw on screen. 

[RWBY Volume 6 Chapter 11 “The Lady in the Shoe”. Adam Taurus with his signature White Fang mask off, revealing a branding scar across his left eye spelling the initials “SDC”, permanently disfiguring and disabling him.]

Weiss never saw Adam. 

Adam, arguably the character who underwent the most racial abuse at the hands of humans, at the hands of WEISS’ FAMILY LEGACY, was made into a caricature of an abuser. Despite the fact that this proves that he was a slave, the fact that her family continues to exploit an entire race of people and treated them like property or dirt, despite all of the possibilities of these characters having more to them.

Weiss never saw what her family’s name has done to Adam. And Adam himself was made into someone the audience hated, instead of having the respect he deserved. The respect that Scar had. 

His anger was demonized, even by Blake who knows he has this brand on him, his fury was condemned by the narrative and the characters in said narrative (Ghira, Blake, and Sienna), and his trauma was mocked by the writers when Miles motherfucking Luna referred to his torture as “grab a branding iron and let him have it”. 

And the conclusion to these two narratives cannot be more different. Scar, having gained the knowledge of what truly happened to his people, aimed his anger at the one who was deserving of it the most. King Bradley, better known as the Homunculus Wrath, was the ruler of Amestris and the one who ordered the massacre of the Ishvalan people. 

[Full Metal Alchemist. Scar, using the arm with the Construction array, delivers a fatal blow to the Homunculus Wrath.]

This outcome was both narratively and symbolically satisfying for Scar’s story, as well as the Ishvalan narrative. Wrath was the one who spearheaded the ethnic genocide of Scar’s people, creating a seemingly endless cycle of violence and pain, giving birth to the man known as “Scar” who was willing to throw himself into hell to enact vengeance for his people. 

But Scar defeated him after altering his view on the cycle of violence, no longer just depending on mindless destruction but to truly changing for the better while never compromising on his righteous fury for his kin. But he aimed it at someone who deserved it, instead of innocents. And it started with a girl who showed him another way to live with grief. To move on. 

So he killed the Homunculus named Wrath and symbolically separated himself from that version of the wrath inside of him. Scar the Ishvalan got the respect he deserved as a character, and subsequently his story, the story of the Ishvalan the fantasy race who underwent horrific treatments that we the audience can see happening in our own real-life history, was given that respect it deserved. 

What did Adam Taurus, the civil rights fighter and the child slave, have in his story’s conclusion?

[RWBY Volume 6 Chapter 12 “Seeing Red”. Adam Taurus was stabbed by Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long during their conflict with the severed halves of Gambol Shroud, Blake’s weapon.]

[RWBY Volume 6 Chapter 12 “Seeing Red”. Adam Taurus collapsed onto his knees before the waterfall’s mouth, while Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long watches him.]

[RWBY Volume 6 Chapter 12 “Seeing Red”. Adam Taurus succumbed to his injuries and fall into the basin to his death.]

This. 

This is what Adam was given as a conclusion. Let it speak for itself. And let it speak for what RWBY truly sees about a racism storyline that the writing crew chose to write in their narrative. The narrative that they themselves claimed to be a direct allegory to the African-American civil rights movement in the U.S. during the late 60s-70s. 

This is what RWBY gave to their narrative of a racism plotline. 

#pathi's personal thoughts #long post #rwde #rwby critical #full metal alchemist #full metal alchemis brotherhood #adam taurus critical #weiss schnee critical #blake belladonna critical #yang xiao long critical #abuse tw #abuse mention / #abuse / #Faunus Racism #tw/racism #racism mention / #racism / #violence / #violence tw #racism tw #death tw #death / #my longest post yet #but I got a lot of rage on this shit #so imma just put it all here #just go read FMA guys it's worth it #anti rooster teeth #anti miles luna #anti mk #anti crwby

[starlightshadowsworld]

Elm: Oh chin up, your not like them.

Marrow: Oh there's a THEM now?

Harriet: You know what she means, your not that kind of Faunus.

Marrow: The kind that needs to be muzzled? The kind that makes you think you need to carry around "antifaunus" tasers.

All look down at them in shame.

Marrow: Yeah... Don't think I missed that when I joined.

Clover: Marrow

Marrow: So let me ask you guys something, are you afraid of me? Steps forward

Vine: Marrow that's enough.

Marrow: What you think I'm gonna go nuts? You think I might go "savage" getting closer that I might try too... Eat you!

A taser ends up pointed at him

Marrow... Looks down thought so...

Clover: Please this is all just a misunderstanding.

Marrow: Yeah, I thought maybe someone cared about me... Guess I was wrong.

Harriet: Marrow!

Marrow: That's what I get for mixing coworkers with friends, right?... Won't happen again, ma'am's, sir's leaves

#Rwby #Source: zootopia #marrow amin #Faunus racism #ace ops #elm ederne #clover ebi #harriet bree #vine zeki

[rwdestuffs]

In most media, the idea between a hero vs. villain where there is a notable wealth and class difference is that it’s often the hero who is from the lower class/income level.

Superman is a farmhand who ended up being a reporter, and his arch rival is Lex Luthor, a rich CEO who has massive xenophobic and darwinist ideals.

Spider-Man is a lower-middle class photographer who struggles to pay rent. His most iconic enemy is Norman Osborn, a CEO of a weapons company that produced a super soldier serum that made him a murderer.

Captain America is, in his own words, “A kid from Brooklyn” and he fights a fascist in charge of an army that has agents everywhere.

Now, when the hero is rich, it’s hard to make a villain for them unless it’s something that’s more of a clash of a greater scope villain or a clash of ideologies.

For example, Batman is a Rich CEO who declared war on crime after crime took his family away, his most iconic foe is the Joker, an insane (sorta) mass murderer who challenges his ideologies on order and his no-kill rule, which Batman has to grapple with as often as he does the Joker. Many of his other foes are merely challenges to his ideology, such as Poison Ivy and Ra’s Al Ghul being challenges to how industrialization can harm the planet, and that it makes it a clash of making industry jobs and manufacturing goods for people vs. saving the planet so that people can survive.

Iron Man is also a Rich CEO whose enemy is often a bunch of other more vile CEOs who manufacture weapons and don’t care whose hands they fall into. Sometimes he fights global terrorists or other people looking to turn his inventions against innocent people. Iron Man often has to grapple with the fact that he’s saving the world from the weapons he himself made, making it less of a fight against an enemy, and more a fight against his past self. Tony is atoning for his sins as a weapons manufacturer.

Now take Blake. Blake falls into the “Rich Hero” category. She may not be a CEO, but she still ultimately came from a rich family (no matter how much her backstory and dialogue in the first three volumes hinted otherwise). Another thing that the “Rich Hero” will often do is clash with a “Rich Villain” to contrast how each uses their money and/or position in the overall fight. Very rarely does a “Rich Hero” clash with a “Poor Villain.” And if the villain is poor, more often than not does the “Rich Hero” then use the points made by the villain to try and gain a new outlook on life.

Was Adam an extremist? Possibly. His final dialogue in Volume 2 indicated that he didn’t care about Faunus casualties during the Breach, and his attitude in the Black Trailer implied that he didn’t really care about civilians at all. A person who is reckless and is willing to hurt bystanders and their own people to get what they want is a legitimately good idea to roll with… That the writers didn’t do. Instead the writers decided that the “right” thing to do was to uphold the status quo and try to obtain equal rights through nonviolent, though explicitly ineffective protests.

And at the end, they got rid of the only member of the WF that was making sense. Blake said “Never fight back because it makes us bad” while Adam was saying “We should always fight because we won’t get anywhere otherwise.”

Sienna was saying “Defend yourselves, your fellow person, and your communities, but don’t actively seek confrontation.” Sienna was basically saying that doing things in such a way that would eventually point out that the fight shouldn’t be Faunus vs. Human, but Rich vs. Poor. Given recent political events, I think it’s safe to say that if a Faunus could have been someone exploiting other Faunus for the sake of profit, that they would easily and rapidly side with the racists.

The racism subplot was more than what the writers could handle, and that can be said until the heat death of the universe, but that isn’t to say that there was something there that could have been said.

In fact, the overall story could have been one of priorities. Do our heroes focus on the looming threat of Salem who is trying to destroy the world in one big cosmic attempt at suicide, or do they try to help the disenfranchised so that there’s a world they’re willing to go back to if they’re able to save it?

The story could have been one where Adam is a rich villain willing to use his position of wealth to get people to throw away their lives for the sake of revenge while Blake could have been one who doesn’t want to sacrifice people.

Blake could have easily been the “Poor Hero” wanting peaceful resolution in the name of her (honestly should have been deceased) parents, while Adam could have been the “Rich Villain” who just wanted to expand his wealth by merely pretending to be on the side of the Faunus.

There was no need for the racism subplot, but if the writers wanted to do something, they should have gotten information from somewhere OTHER than some white karen’s blog about how minorities “should” behave.

The main point of this is that the writers ultimately fucked up by making Blake the princess of Menagerie. This could have easily been a clash of ideals from two people on the same class. Adam, the one who disregards civilians, and Blake, the one who wants to save civilians. Both from the same lifestyle, but with vastly different outlooks. And making Adam be branded is also a massive mistake because there shouldn’t have been any kind of scars like that unless there was some on Blake as well. Put them both through the same ordeals, but come out with different perspectives.

There’s a quote from Justice League Crisis on two Earths that I want to put here that should have summed up the difference between Blake and Adam:

“There is a difference between you and me. We both looked into the abyss, but when it looked back at us… You blinked.”

The story could have easily been Adam blinking in the face of oppression, turning into what he sought out to destroy; while Blake looked at it unflinchingly, turning into someone who wanted peace, no matter how hard it was to attain. Two people whose stories aren’t that different, ultimately coming to vastly different conclusions as to what their ideologies are.

Would it had been perfect?- Far from it. This sort of story is always hard, no matter who is writing it.

But would it had been decent, or dare I say… Good?- Probably.

#rwde #blake crit #adam crit #writers crit #Faunus Racism

[fanstuffrantings]

In developing them as individual characters they've all come to matter to me a lot. So enjoy team CRDL sketches while I toil in my rewrites for them.

#team crdl #rwby #cardin winchester #russel thrush #dove bronzewing #sky lark #weiss schnee #rwby rewrite #rwby fanart #ive removed faunus racism in my au #cardin is just a normal level asshole now #who gets a redemption arc because hes a teenager who can change #molten tarts

[baneonn]

Blake: grew up fighting for her rights at a young age, had to hide who she was so she wouldn’t be discriminated against going to beacon, was emotionally and physically abused by a man growing up and was left by her parents in an organization they knew wasn’t going in the right direction 

Some people in the fandom: Blake grew up privileged and had no struggles because her parents now have a big home

For the love of god people Blake never grew up in the big house her parents have now. They didn’t get their big home until Blake was in her teenage years and even then she still didn’t live in it. Not to mention her parents worked to get their home now, nothing was handed down to them. And having a big home doesn’t automatically mean you grew up privileged, especially when your apart of a group whose rights have been taken away and are actively being discriminated against 

#the amount of times I've seen people call a person who is actively discriminated against privileged will be the death of me #nothing was easy for her growing up with racism and discrimination against the faunus #her father being chieftain doesn't absolve all of the hate and discrimination she faces as a faunus or how they're treated #her parents now having a big home doesn't mean life was easy for her growing up when she had to protest for her rights as early as a kid #rwby #blake belladonna

[invested-in-your-future]

What's wrong with Attack on Titan's depiction of racism?

Beyond AoT fumbling its metaphors hard (and landing somewhere in this weirdly centrist middle of "things bad"), one of the most unfortunate things one can do in terms of allusions to real world racism is to make your disenfranchised minorities "dangerous because of their magic".

I mentioned it before but that's one of the OLDEST stereotypes when it comes to variety of different cases of racism. All the urban myths about bloodletting, all the rumors about Romani people wielding "magic" and the long-running stereotype of black characters in the supporting cast having "magical powers" and serving as advisors to progress the plot. And that's just few examples.

Bigots LOVE those kinds of narratives to justify their hatred of the Other - its unfair to them you see, the deck of cards has been stacked against them from the start because "They" are running the world you see.

Sometimes the narrative manages to avoid it, like a lot of X-Men books highlighting how illogical racism towards mutants is in a world filled with cosmic beigns, superheroes, magic and literal gods. AOT is not that.

Rest is beyond the cut because obviously AOT spoilers

Within AOT lore you have a nation that literally holds the AOT world's equivalent of WMD in their blood. As in they literally have the power to end the world within their genes. Stressing the "literally" part here because the power literally activates via blood.

The Author then flip-flops between different cycles of racism where they are either victim or perpetrator, leading to "current " situation where they are essentially confined inside one concentration camp.

Let's ignore the troubling thematic ideas of centrism of how "minorities will go too far" for now. The story does.

Because that's not enough you see - the author then adds another flip where the MC, part of the said magical race living within a concentration camps, turns into basically Hitler who uses the hurt pride and grievances of his people to essentially kickstart apocalypse.

Now, given that would work real well to highlight the dynamics of authoritarianism and how people like that prey on the insecurities of other and how unresolved insecurities and rage can turn into something destructive and something awful.

Ironically, half the audience(readers and viewers) are caught by his charms and his rhetoric, just like it happens in the real world - using the show's equivalent of the hitler salute without even a single thought of what it actually means. People are angry that the rest of main cast are AGAINST this transformation of the MC.

Part of this sounds great right? The author had tricked audience into experiencing the allure of fascism and is just few steps away at pulling the rug from beneath them, right?

Except by the end of the final arc the MC, after doing the equivalent of setting off nukes through the world to destroy everything but his "Chosen Race", gets a pat on the back because somethingsomething magic bloodlines simply left him with no other choice you see. The show leers just few steps away from thanking the MC for doing genocide for the characters sake (and actually does that in the source). Its all the fault of alien magic powers that a special magic race of humans had now and not his.

So would the story now explore the actual power dynamics and how oppression and racism uses those power structures? No.

The very ending delivers a blanket statement that is basically "nukes bad and the world should do better to not be this way or everyone dies".

The ascent of authoritarianism of the lead character? The complex nature of oppression and generational trauma and rage? Doesn't matter because of time-traveling prophetic destiny-binding magic blood.

Not only does the story give the "magical minorities" the literal WMDs and has one of them become Hitler, but it also somehow manages to leer REALLY close to the WORST parts of Ken Levine's Bioshock Infinite where everything grows into thematically wishy-washy entertaining strawman arguments of "what if the minorities went too far"

The story blatantly uses and misuses allusions to real world racism and oppression and then handwaves it all away without making any clear-cut stance beyond "nukes".

It merely uses a harmful stereotype as a prop to deliver a milquetoast statement and walk back on any sort of stronger sentiment and also treats the part of audience (that missed the point it originally had made with the MC's direction) with kid gloves.

#rwde #tagging this because this tangentially relates to the ideas of making Faunus have genetic advantages #And because the way WF has been used in the show veers pretty close to the same vibes of centrism #And because I'd fully expect RWBY to also just dump every perceived human flaw on the Two Gods now if it were to ever conclude #SomethingSomething unchecked capitalism racism bigotry and other things are not at fault - the relics and the gods are

[constantvariations]

One of Hello Future Me's videos on revolution brought up an event from the Philippines back in the 80s: the dictator sent a battalion to crush a supposed revolt, only for the soldiers to be met with nuns and children offering food and water. The majority of the army defected as a result

I'm going to use rwby to try hammering this abstract concept into a coherent thought, but this incident got me thinking about how nonviolent protest is theater

If a similar event were to occur in rwby, for it to be successful, the protestors would have to be the cutesy faunus types: rabbits, cats, dogs, and the like because they're non-threatening. Attacking a sweet cat faunus would be akin to attacking a child or nun, paragons of innocence and virtue respectively. Only a monster could cut them down, and no one wants to be seen as a monster

A scorpion faunus, though? Their mere existence is a threat. That tail is dangerous, a weapon available at all times. Bull faunus have horns they can use to gouge out eyes and organs. Claim they attacked and most people would agree that killing them in self-defense is justified

Because nonviolent resistance relies on public perception, people who could possibly taint the image of the movement will get left in the dark no matter how important they are. Bayard Rustin was the one who taught Dr King about civil disobedience and was an organizer for many major events, but he opted to ride to events in the trunk of people's cars so his status as an openly gay man wouldn't harm the movement's image

There would be little wonder why the White Fang would be more popular with the "scarier" faunus. Public perception is already against them, so it's not going to change much for them if they join a violent organization, but this in turn will be seen as justification for discrimination against these types of faunus. A hellish self-perpetuating cycle

These faunus would also be far more likely to experience violence at a much younger age, akin to how black children are treated as adults even if they're literally six years old

The strategy behind nonviolent protest like the ones Dr King did is to show the world the mistreatment of the innocent, but when your existence is deemed a threat, there's little hope that you'll ever get enough support to change the system. This is why bigots constantly spew the "queer groomer" and black crime "statistics": by portraying someone's freedom as a danger to the innocent, any level of violence is justifiable defense. The police aren't attacking queers, black, and brown folk discriminately, they're attacking dangerous criminals, so it's okay!!1!

Theater can't save those already condemned and to try is wasted effort

#rwde #antiblackness tw #<- in the link #Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat a whole 9 months before Rosa Parks yet wasnt the face of the movement #good choice considering she was only 15 and shoving a teen into the racist public eye is Not Good but her pregnancy was also a major factor #idk hopefully i got the point across #somewhat related is the trend of the privileged being the biggest advocates for peaceful protest #while the ones who've endured violence - both economically and physically - are the ones who call upon violence #which almost always means violent *self defense* #the few occasions ive read where there were actual attacks its been targeted like the BLA ambushing cops #cant say i blame them considering the mcfucking everything the cops had going on #the bpp was basically destroyed by the police and fbi at this point and that was probs a major factor in their decision #and targeted violence was exactly what the white fang was doing before cinder showed up and ruined everything #literally nothing the wf does in the show is actually for faunus liberation bc its all cinder/salems orders!! #and no one is allowed to have a brain or personality or anything so no one questions why theyre suddenly switching targets #gr8 discussion abt activism here shawluna. love that you reduced the anti racism movement to mercenaries to avoid saying anything at all #ffs they even fucked up weiss's side of the convo! obvs the fumbling of blakes ball is much worse but come the fuck on #'the wf may have assassinated company board members and family friends but were teammates now so who cares!! team rwby go!!' #fucking barf

[lilithfairen]

The small-brained HTDM: "Faunus culture what Faunus culture nyeh"

The big-brained FNDM: "Blake being proposed the option of 'simply' being a human or a cat refers to the origin myth of The Judgement of Faunus where the Faunus were created when feuding humans and animals were both turned into Faunus~"

#the htdm's ideas on race/racism couldn't even fill the shallow sea #rwby #rwby critics #faunus #rwby spoilers #rwby v9 spoilers

[lesbianneopolitan]

Random funfact about my Neo. When they got to Vacuo the vacuo civilians called Neo and monster and was ready to kill her due to her arm, but team RWBY,JNRO,Cinder,Emerald and Qrow were ready to fight that entire kingdom

I know that at some point, my own Neo gets looked at and rejected the moment she starts to try and accept her own scars, but it didn't get to this level of DANGER...

#Ask #Headcanon #waltat04 #Neopolitan #if Faunus are still rejected and there's the racism #I can't even imagine how they would treat someone that has MORE features than a Faunus #or the more grotesque-looking features like the ones of your Neo

[unofficialadamtaurus]

Oh I see how it is. When Neopolitan beats one of the mains to a bloody pulp it's forgivable because she looked a little sad but when I ADAM TAURUS do the exact same thing it's suddenly unforgivable. /heavy j obviously but the double standard is absolutely insane.

Hmmm what’s the difference between Emerald and Neo and Adam…it’ll come to me but hmmm I can’t figure it out…hmm…hmmmmm

#invincibleweasel #unofficial adam answers #adam taurus #rwde #purely in the world of the show the double standard for characters is wild #Neo perpetuates atrocities and takes glee in inflicting pain #but she’s got an uwu sad backstory and lost someone she loved so she gets an ambiguous ‘death’ that isn’t really a death #based on what the show just established with Ruby #emerald likewise perpetuates atrocities but expresses minor qualms with it #but faces exactly zero repercussions for switching sides out of her own self interest #adam gets stabbed in the front and back in the first bloody on screen murder in the show #then plummets over a cliff #smashes into rocks on the way down #and finally hits water #minutes after revealing his WAY MORE TRAGIC BACKSTORY #the racism is insane #the difference is he’s a Faunus and that’s it /s

[bafflement]

Deaged Oz AU - Making New Friends [And Maybe a Few Enemies]

For @maskyartist since you wanted to see just what happens when Tip gets angry. :P

"HEY, FREAK!" An angry yell echoes off the narrow walls of the alley. Lily just ran faster, hoping that she'd be able to outrun her bullies for once. It had happened before, even though it hadn't lasted long in the end. As a Faunus in Mantle, though, she was used to this sort of treatment.

She tripped, stumbling and catching herself on the wall which was all her pursuers needed to catch up with her. Bracing herself for the blows she was surprised to hear another yell from the other end of the alley.

Glancing up, she spied a small, silver haired human boy who looked absolutely furious. A blink and he'd vanished, though. Maybe he was with the others? She hadn't seen him before but there were always more where they came from.

Her main tormentor bought a fist back for the first punch, but even as he lashed out, a figure blocked her sight. It was the boy, but why would he get between her and the bully?

Tip let the older boy hit him, glancing in concern down at the small Faunus girl they had been chasing. He knew how bad things were in Mantle of course, but knowing wasn't the same as seeing. The tiny girl looked half starved, yet these idiots were planning to beat her? No. Not on his watch.

"What exactly do you think you're doing to ny friend?" He spat, feeling a cold anger rising in his gut and not even bothering trying to suppress it. The little girl looked shocked, but he tried to shoot her a reassuring smile in between glaring at the bully. One hand strayed down to the hilt of Old Regrets, and he pulled about an inch of the rapier out of the sheath, knuckles a tight white with fury.

The bully, seeing that, stepped back a pace.

"Who the hell are you and what is she to you? You're not her friend, she doesn't have friends! She's just a filthy Faunus, she doesn't deserve them!"

Tip stomped one small foot, feeling himself start to shake again, though this time it was definitely anger fuelling it.

"She has me. I'm Winter Schnee, by the way." He said it flatly, hoping the split second decision wasn't going to come back to bite him.

"Why would a Schnee care about something like her?"

"I do. Now go away or I'll show you just how well i can use this." He shifted his stance, standing protectively over Liy and drew the blade fully, his eyes afire.

The bullies looked at each other, looked at the small boy wielding what was obviously a Huntsman's weapon, then thought better of the situation, backing away before taking off running.

There was silence for a few seconds, then Tip moved nearer the little girl, who backed up as far as she could, staring up at him with wide, scared eyes.

"Please don't hurt me?"

"I would never do that." Tip's voice was shaking, too, now. He hadn't really been expecting that, and looking back... had he almost thrown a tantrum? He blushed slightly, embarrassed, but just held out a hand to the girl, waiting.

After a minute or so, she took it, bracing herself for another blow. Tip just helped her to her feet, smiling gently.

"I'm Tip. Tip Pine, and you are?"

"But... you said you were a Schnee..."

"Ah, yes. Well, I thought it might make them think twice and it does appear to have worked, so... ready to get out of the alley?"

"You talk kinda funny."

"I'm not from Mantle, therefore my accent is slightly different. Have you learned about kingdoms yet?"

He smiled as this seemed to unleash a torrent of questions from the small girl and he led her out of the alley, grinning up at the others who didn't look massively impressed.

"Pocketsized... you can't just run off like that, what if you'd been hurt?" Jaune sounded worried but also more than slightly resigned at this point. After all, it wasn't the first time Tip had gone off somewhere.

"I wasn't. And I was just in time to stop someone else being hurt so I would count that as a victory, personally. Guys, this is... I'm sorry, i don't think I ever got your name?"

"Lily." She muttered, shyly, staring around at all the armed teenagers in front of her. Blake had elected not to come on this particular excursion and Weiss tended to avoid Mantle, but the others all just smiled at her in welcome.

"Hi, Lily!" Oscar greeted, bouncing slightly. "I'm Oscar, Tip's my brother. It's okay, you're safe now, nobody's going to hurt you while we're around!

"Aww, Pocketsized, are you making new friends without us, now?" Nora cooed, winking at a still visibly embarrassed Tip.

"Maybe? She needed help, Nora, I couldn't just leave her there, they were about to hit her!" Tip's voice rose in pitch slightly as he spoke, though from the way his eyes widened, it had been unintentional.

"Regular knight in shining armor, huh, kid..." was Yang's contribution, though she looked amused.

"I think it's cute." Ruby said, grinning over at Tip who would rather like the floor to swallow him now, please.

"You can stay with us for awhile, if you like? It might mean the bullies stay further away for a little bit, why were they following you, anyway?"

"They don't like that I'm not human... it's Mantle, though, mummy said I needed to get used to it."

Tip's eyes went strangely hard at that. "Thinking about it, there's someone I know you should probably meet. The problem is, he's in Atlas and your family would be worried if we just took you! Would you be able to show us where you live? If nothing else, we should check that it's a safe place to be."

Jaune sighed a bit at that, but they all followed a nervous looking Lily as she led them to her home. it wasn't too bad to look at, really. Unlike the dwellings on either side, it appeared well maintained and hopefully that meant that the walls were solid against the sheer cold that Mantle tended to exude.

An older woman in a tattered apron opened the door, then screamed in real terror as she stared at the humans on the other side. Lily rushed to her, clinging to the apron.

"It's okay, mummy! They're my friends, they rescued me from the bad boys!"

"... oh?" The mother sounded suspicious, scanning over the group of young hunters, gaze briefly lingering on tip, who shifted slightly.

"Thank you for rescuing my daughter." She said, eventually, though she still looked suspicious.

"We're hunters, ma'am, it's what we do. I was wondering, however, whether it may be advisable to gain a meeting with Marrow? I'm certain he would want to help as much as he could."

The woman blinked. "You can just casually contact an Ace Operative, can you?"

"Yes, ma'am, I can. I'm Wintertip Pine, by the way." Tip held out a hand, but she didn't take it, scanning his face again. Her eyes widened and her tail twitched in sudden realisation.

"... Winter?" She sounded strangely choked even as Tip's own eyes widened too. Had he known her, somehow?

"Yes, ma'am?" he asked, his voice as level as he could make it.

"Thank you. Just... thank you. Do you have contact information, at all? My husband will want to thank you himself."

"Of course." Tip murmured, rattling off his contact number.

"You can really get us in contact with Specialist Amin?"

"I can indeed, ma'am."

"Foxglove, not ma'am, young one. I have questions, but not today, I suspect? I'll be in contact." She smiled and shut the door, behind it they could already hear Lily start her rapid fire questioning again.

"You do realise that that's gonna spread, right? You just... I really hope you know what you're doing."

"Yes, well. So do I."

#deaged oz au #ozpin #he smol #and angry #and protective #new friends #faunus #rwby #fantastic racism #jaune arc #nora valkyrie #oscar pine #ruby rose #yang xiao long #li ren

[the-path-to-redemption]

Fucking hell, the whole Faunus thing is just a walking contradiction.

"It's racist to compare Faunus to their animal trait!!!" *has Yang use a lazer on Blake, a cat Faunus* *has Blake behave like a cat* *has Robyn called Marrow a racist nickname* *has Sienna Khan tattooing herself with tiger stripes*

The last part could have been part of what a fantasy racial story like the Faunus actually be portrayed. Not as an allegory, but something recontextualized with example researches from real life.

Maybe predator type Faunus like Sienna was persecuted unfairly because they were assumed as "dangerous". Some refused to show their traits, but some like her embraces it.

Maybe prey type Faunus, like Velvet, were considered too weak or cute to actually be part of a system like Huntsman Academies.

Have actual history and culture unique to Faunus, as well as subcultures for different types of Faunus. Aquatic Faunus have a long history of fishing, marine history, and myths surrounding bodies of water. Avian Faunus takes prides in their feathers, and the ability of flight is a topic of pride as well as colorism within their community against those who can't fly

Literally anything but "black people with animal traits", which has been an ancient Anti-Black rhetoric that still prevails today. Ffs.

#rwde #anti faunus racism #rwby critical #pathi's personal thoughts #goddamm when anime #something that weird xenophobic anti-RWDE calls “conservative” #handled racial discrimination better than their diet anime ever can #you know they be tripping

[starlightshadowsworld]

They really said but not all Faunus are bad and yet...

Blake and her family along with Illia were part of the Fang.

Yes they changed it around but blood lingers on its name and they've all committed crimes.

Sun was introduced as a theif.

Neon was introduced as an antagonist.

Marrow was part of the Ace Ops and was an antagonist, albeit a reluctant one to the others.

Leo became a coward and a murderer.

Tyrian and Tock were/are allied with Salem. And Tock blinded Maria.

Adam was allied with Cinder, part of the fall of Beacon and injuring Yang. Killing Sienna who was very much for violence and destruction.

Tukson was cool but he's dead.

I'm not saying a lot of the people here haven't changed, just that they were introduced as antagonists. Or part of the Fang, it seems like most Faunus have a dark past or appear antagonistic.

The only ones that don't appear that way are Velvet and Fiona

One who's been gone since volume 3 and 1 more recently introduced.

Just saying... As the fictional minority group why do they follow this pattern?

#Rwby #Faunus #Faunus racism