You keep saying you want to talk about Oz, Oscar, etc. but can't because they're spoilery. What if I say pleeeeeaaaase? :P
You’re twisting my arm, anon. D:
There’s a lot I want to say about Ozma and his hosts—in particular, how the curse works and how magic affects them—but those topics are strictly off-limits for now. They would give away major spoilers for the Relics, the gods, certain locations in the story, and important details about other characters.
But since you asked so nicely…
King Ozark was the last monarch of Vale, and Ozpin’s immediate predecessor. While opinions of him nowadays are generally favorable, he was a fairly controversial figure for his time. In life, he was an exceptional fighter (and that’s saying something, considering he’s from a culture of dyed-in-the-wool warriors). Even before the Great War kicked off, he was a source of irritation for Mistral, largely because he went out of his way to hide slaves that managed to escape Anima and flee to Eastern Sanus. He would feign ignorance whenever Mistrali diplomats travelled to the capital and demanded that he return their lost property. Apparently, he delighted in watching them fume when the best he could offer was a shrug. Ozark was also a bit of a playboy, to the endless dismay of his advisors, who regularly harped on him to get hitched and sire heirs. (Historians like to joke that dissolving the Valin monarchy was Ozark’s way of getting out of marriage.) His fabled sword—the one he carried into battle—was allegedly lost during the Great War, as no records of its whereabouts exist in the present day. Both collectors and anthropologists occasionally make the dangerous trek out to the Vacuose deserts in search of it.
Ozpin is Beacon’s Academy’s third headmaster, and currently its oldest, having held the position for over forty years. In the present-day, Ozpin is in his sixties. Like in the canon, he’s widely regarded as a prodigy.
Oscar is from the town of Ameneurosis, an important agricultural settlement between the City of Mistral and the seaport Etesia. The chalk grassland makes the area ideal for farming sheep, rabbits, and takin (the latter of which is a common mount). Oscar and his aunt (along with his neighbors) breed takin as familiars for Huntsmen. His parents died when he was six, and he’s been raised by his aunt ever since.
Ozma is the only one who I’m hesitant to talk about. I will say that his relationship with Oscar is a bit tumultuous in the beginning—there’s an incident early on that puts them both in immediate danger, and leaves Oscar with little in the way of choice regarding his circumstances. While Oscar understands that none of this is necessarily Ozma’s fault, that doesn’t stop him from being low-key resentful. (Oscar in the Redux is somewhat sassier than his canon counterpart, and he regularly tests Ozma’s patience.) Trust is something that the two of them gradually build, hindered by the fact that Ozma withholds rather important information, and Oscar sometimes doesn’t listen to him out of sheer pettiness.
-
Edit: I caved. If you want to know a little more about how the curse works, proceed.
For the meta meme: What's Iwyn's relationship to nature/'the environment'? Does it hold any special meaning for her?
I totally forgot about these, sorry Kitty! Thank you for this ask!
Iwyn is very much ‘in tune’ with nature.
Her mother is an herbalist, so she loves plants though she doesn’t collects herbs as such. I just imagine she has a green thumb. In any modern AUs, her house or apartment will be overflowing with plants.
As a hunter, she is comfortable with nature, with moving through it and being in it. She loves to track and watch animals if there is no need to hunt them - like quietly watching a fox and her kits play.
In some modern AUs I have her have a degree in Forestry, she always feel close to nature, it is a big part of her identity.
How is Salem’s faction organized in Redux? I know that for example some rewrites create a grimm-worshipping cult to fix her lack of manpower but what is it like in Redux?
To be fair, one of Salem’s lieutenants in the Redux was an active Grimm-worshipper—Tyrian. He’s not an outlier, either.
Selectively inducting Grimm-worshippers to her ranks is one of her favorite recruitment tactics. Grimm-worshippers (or archotherolatrists, as they’re technically known) are predisposed to following Salem, because they venerate the creatures that she controls. Once Salem makes her existence known, they tend to immediately adjust their reverence to centralize around her instead. After all, if Grimm are worthy of veneration, then what of the woman who is their master?
It's one of the reasons why Ozark outlawed all forms of Grimm-worship after the Great War. It was his way of directly cutting her off from a steady supply of followers.
Salem’s inner circle—much like Ozma’s—tends to be pretty restricted to just a handful of supporters. The difference here is that Ozma chooses to limit the number of people he involves in their conflict. Salem, on the other hand, would love to increase the number of followers she has, but it’s a lot harder for her to do so. Sometimes she literally can’t, and there have been a few critical points over the millennia where Ozma actually managed to cull her inner circle and reduce it to zero. There’s a reason why she has such limited access to followers, but that’s spoiler-territory for now.
Her current roster is identical to the canon. Out of her four lieutenants, Hazel’s been in her service the longest, followed by Watts, then Tyrian, then Cinder. Cinder was the one who recruited Emerald and Mercury (both of them by serendipitous accident), and it was her idea to enlist Roman Torchwick’s gang and Adam Taurus’ cult. Leonardo Lionheart is also a member of her faction, but unlike the canon, he didn’t defect to her out of cowardice. His motives are rooted in nihilism and pragmatic resignation.
Although Salem can’t easily pad out her inner circle, she does have access to a resource that Ozma lacks: the Grimm. And this story treats the Grimm very differently from the canon.
In the Redux, there’s this thing called cognitive metamorphosis. It’s a form of psychobiological growth that senescent Grimm undergo once they’ve survived enough encounters with people. Their behavior is no longer exclusively dictated by a single-minded compulsion to kill. Grimm that successfully undergo this process become smarter, gaining self-preservation instincts, theory of mind, and other traits associated with advanced cognition.
There are several individual Grimm within Salem’s forces that have achieved this state. They functionally serve as generals within her army.
It’s been a very, very long time since Ozma has seen any of them.
You talked anonymously Ozma and his relationship with Oscar but will Ozpin and Oscar’s relationship be different in your AU then it is in canon? Maybe they be more open and understanding of each other? Or is Ozpin and Ozma one in the same?
I think they would have a wonderful and wholesome relationship where they care for one another if Oz was a little more open in the beginning, will your story give them that?
I hemmed and hawed over whether to answer this question for a couple of reasons. The first is that I haven’t yet deconstructed the issues with the curse, as it’s depicted in the canon. The show frequently likes to bang on about how Oscar’s identity is being subsumed by Oz’s as their souls merge, but how it’s portrayed in the show makes it both dubious and wildly inconsistent. The writers repeatedly dodge any sort of questions about what the end result of this process will look like.
We still don’t even know if the Ozpin we met during V1 – V3 was Ozpin. You know, the man who was Ozma’s last host. The living, breathing person who at some point in his adolescence woke up one day and heard a voice in his head. Who was that person? For all we know, the character we spent three seasons interacting with was just Ozma using Ozpin’s body as his personal meatsuit. Is that the fate awaiting Oscar at the end of the series? His personality (as underdeveloped as it is) just ceases to exist, and gets replaced by the affable old wizard who drinks hot chocolate?
The other reason why I’m reluctant to answer is because it would potentially spoil important details of the Redux’s story.
Since I do want to address this issue, however, I’ve left the answer under a readmore. Hic sunt dracones. Proceed at your own peril.
In the Redux, the curse works a little differently. Ozma’s soul doesn’t merge with that of his host’s. They remain distinct, separate entities that happen to share a body (sort of like how Yugi Muto was the physical host for the pharaoh’s spirit). When the host dies, Ozma’s spirit gravitates to a new host shortly after.
That doesn’t mean that the souls of his hosts are unaffected, however. When the host’s physical body dies, their spirit basically becomes tethered to Ozma’s. They can’t “move on.” They’re bound to the cycle of reincarnation, forever trapped alongside Ozma. Although Ozma’s spirit is the one that Oscar primarily interacts with, Oscar also has access to the spirits of Ozma’s previous hosts, too. There are multiple points throughout the story where Oscar converses with them.
Oscar’s relationship with Ozma is off to a rough start when they first become acquainted. His relationship with Ozpin, however, is much more amicable, since the two of them can sympathize over their shared circumstances. After all, Ozpin was Ozma’s previous host. Oscar's predecessor. It’s much easier to relate to someone who went through the same shit as you, and didn’t have a choice in the matter. (Of course, as Oscar later learns, Ozma didn’t get a choice in this either. But that’s a revelation that comes much later.)
Oscar’s ability to access the spirits of previous hosts is dependent on his connection to Ozma. If for some reason that connection becomes damaged, or Ozma refuses to speak with him, then Oscar can’t communicate with any of them.
There may, however, be a way around that. If it ever became a problem, of course.
Will you be giving the main characters any less-represented mental disorders (beyond depression, anxiety, and PTSD, which I imagine are pretty common in their desired profession *and* after what they'll go through) or neurodivergencies?
Oh, most certainly. Depression, PTSD, and anxiety are going to be prevalent for the reasons you already specified (and in no small part because they’re conditions that I’m personally familiar with).
The current list I have going is far from complete. There are a couple things I had to omit because they’d give away major spoilers for the Redux's story. That being said, here’s what I’ve got for disabilities (physical, mental, and psychological), neurodivergencies, and medical conditions.
Team RWBY:
Ruby Rose - ADHD, social anxiety, depression
Weiss Schnee - trauma from neglect and child abuse, perfectionism
Blake Belladonna - anxiety
Yang Xiao Long - PTSD, parentification, trauma from amputated limb
Fox Alistair - congenital blindness
Velvet Scarlatina - anxiety
Team STRQ:
Summer Rose - ADHD
Taiyang Xiao Long - depression
Qrow Branwen - alcoholism, depression, cataspin-induced functional disorder (CIFD)
Salem and her allies:
Salem - [REDACTED]
Hazel Rainart - toxorhizosis
Cinder Fall - trauma from child abuse, trauma from amputated limb
Emerald Sustrai - trauma from childhood homelessness
Mercury Black - trauma from child abuse, trauma from multiple amputations, subapothymia
Roman Torchwick - trauma from childhood poverty
Neo - congenital muteness
Ozpin and his allies:
Ozpin - [REDACTED]
Ozma - [REDACTED]
Glynda Goodwitch - migraines
James Ironwood - autism, trauma from multiple amputations
Other noteworthy characters:
Penny Polendina - autism
Pietro Polendina - autism, chronic Aura degradation (CAD)
Maria Calavera - blindness (non-congenital), arthritis
Are there any characters who have different semblances than in canon? Or those who have unknown semblances actually shown?
A few characters, yeah!
Last year, when I talked about how Semblances were adjusted in the Redux, I sorted characters according to the degree to which their Semblance was modified. They got placed under one of five headings:
Characters who had their Semblances slightly adjusted.
Characters who had their Semblances completely overhauled.
Characters who had their Semblances removed and replaced with something else.
Characters with no Semblances.
Characters who previously lacked a Semblance, and were given one.
While plenty of characters (Yang, Sun, Pyrrha, etc) had their Semblances left intact, some needed to be modified to fit the new parameters that I created for the Semblance category system. Others had to be adjusted because of the out-of-context/meta issues surrounding them (like James’ Semblance being tied to ableism).
The rest of this post is going under a readmore. Potential spoilers ahead.
Ruby’s Semblance was the first one to get revamped. Instead of that weird quantum mechanics thing where she can disassemble and reassemble herself on a molecular level, she gets plain ol’ superspeed. No more transforming into clusters of petals and passing through narrow gaps. Ruby now has to work within the limitations and constraints imposed by superspeed: turning on a dime, braking and stopping abruptly, and weaving between obstacles without losing velocity. When she arrives at Beacon, she actually ends up becoming rather chummy with Oobleck because he offers to give her some pointers. The two of them share the same Semblance, and Oobleck is painfully familiar with learning how to not run headlong into things.
The Schnee Semblance (Weiss et al) got changed from being a grab bag of miscellaneous powers, to a single, definitive ability: summoning the thralls of defeated Grimm. I talk about the issues surrounding Weiss’ glyphs in greater depth here and here, so I won’t waste too much time rehashing those points. Basically, I wanted to decrease Weiss’ reliance on her Semblance, and force her to have a much more agile fighting style reminiscent of Winter’s fencing (as seen in V3.E3). It also means that when Weiss arrives at Beacon, she effectively hasn’t unlocked her Semblance yet. The fact that her family’s Semblance is publicly known makes Weiss extremely self-conscious. There’s a degree of expectation that she’s held to because everyone knows what it’s going to be eventually. The pressure that puts on Weiss frequently leaves her frustrated and insecure, in addition to overly self-critical. (It would be the difference between some random person unlocking their Semblance and getting told, “Hey, good job,” whereas Weiss unlocks it and everyone goes, “Well it’s about time. Took you long enough.”)
Ren’s Semblance is more or less the same as it was pre-V7/8, in that it allows him to cloak his emotions (along with the emotions of whoever he comes into contact with). It no longer enables him to see those multi-colored petal-things that float around people. Semblances that conceal one’s emotions from Grimm are direct responses to a sense that Grimm have, called algeaception (the detection of negatively-valenced emotions).
Raven’s Semblance, while it does enable her to teleport, isn’t tied to people that she shares an emotional link with. Instead, it allows her to move between two locations, but only if they’re places that she’s physically been to beforehand. If, for example, Raven wanted to teleport to the City of Mistral, she would have to concentrate on a specific location within the city (like a bar, or a hotel) and recall it with near-perfect clarity. Her Semblance requires a good deal of concentration in order to pull off. There were a few reasons why I ditched the emotional link component of her canon Semblance, which I’ll discuss on a later date. For now, the short version was that I wanted her Semblance to be something that she had direct control over, in the sense that Raven could choose what places she wanted to visit, in order to have the ability to teleport to them later on. That, and I was never fond of the show using Raven’s Semblance as “proof” that she still had an emotional connection to the daughter that she abandoned.
Cinder’s Semblance allows her to modify temperature and superheat things that she comes into contact with. Where it differs from the canon is that she can’t manipulate the things that she superheats (so she can’t heat sand particles into glass and then kinetically levitate them like she does in the show). By limiting her Semblance to just one specific thing, it forces Cinder to be a lot more creative—a lot more cunning—with how she goes about using it.
Jupiter’s Semblance was described as being able to turn water into vapor, so presumably, converting it from a liquid to a gaseous state. Given how oddly specific this Semblance was, I decided to tweak it. In the Redux, Jupiter and Neptune both have hydrokinetic Semblances. Their Semblances, similar to Weiss’, are now hereditary.
Marcus’ Semblance doesn’t actually enable him to “steal” someone else’s. What it does is temporarily dampen or suppress a target’s Semblance, rendering them unable to use it for a certain amount of time. However, because Marcus has been using his Semblance on Mercury for years, it resulted in a medical condition called subapothymia. Mercury’s Semblance isn’t gone; it’s just been severely dampened from long-term, recurring exposure to his father’s Semblance, to the point where the effect is now semi-permanent. One of the reasons why Mercury works for Cinder (and by extension, Salem) is because it gives him access to medical treatment through Watts. Watts was one of the world’s foremost experts in Aura and Semblance research—as such, he has the know-how to try and cure (or at the least, improve) Mercury’s condition. Changing the way that Marcus’ Semblance works created a scenario in which Mercury has a motive to stick around and help Salem, apart from simply wanting to be “top dog” in her new world.
James had his Semblance axed for fairly obvious reasons. The same goes for Hazel. Instead of giving either of them new Semblances, I opted to leave them without, because I wanted to have characters who managed to be successful fighters despite lacking them. I always found it fascinating that characters like Roman were consistently portrayed as credible threats (similar to Mai and Ty Lee in A:TLA, who were both deadly fighters despite being nonbenders), and I wanted to continue that trend with other characters in the show.
Sienna no longer has a Semblance, partly because her canon Semblance no longer fits under the category system that I created for the Redux. The other reason why I nixed it is because Sienna is now a non-combatant.
While there wasn’t anything wrong with Coco’s Semblance, strictly speaking, I wanted to get rid of it in order to have more characters who manage to get by without them. Despite only being a Second Year student, Coco is widely regarded as one of Beacon’s strongest fighters. It’s a fact that gives Jaune and Weiss some comfort, since at the beginning of the story, neither of them has unlocked theirs yet. For them, Coco is proof that you don’t need a Semblance to be dangerous.
As I mentioned earlier, Oobleck now has a speed Semblance like Ruby and Harriet. Port was given an intangibility Semblance, a power which allows him to render himself (or things that he comes into contact with) temporarily untouchable. Saber was given a terrakinetic Semblance, while Joanna was given an absorption Semblance (like Yang and Adam). Russel now has an invisibility Semblance like May, Dove has a pyrokinetic Semblance, and Sky has an acoustic Semblance (which allows him to amplify or increase the intensity of sounds that he makes, or of the things that he comes into contact with).
Maria and Marrow are both getting new Semblances, but I haven’t decided on what these will be just yet. Maria, because her canon Semblance is nearly identical to the extrasensory perception that’s already a built-in feature of Aura (see: Pyrrha’s speech to Jaune during the Emerald Forest, where she describes a function of Aura as “[feeling] like you were being watched”). Marrow, because it makes me really uncomfortable that an in-universe minority—a literal dog Faunus—activates his Semblance by using a command given to pets.
There are a few characters (like Tai and Summer) who I haven’t changed because I’m waiting to see if the canon will eventually unveil what their Semblances are (or if they ever had one to begin with). For now, those characters are TBD.
The only characters whose Semblances I can’t talk about are Qrow, Clover, Pietro, Penny, Ozma, Ozpin, and Oscar.
In the case of Qrow and Clover (who both have probability Semblances), it’s because it would give away crucial aspects of Qrow’s character arc.
In the case of Pietro and Penny (who both lack Semblances), it’s because it would reveal the circumstances of Penny’s creation.
In the case of all of Ozma’s hosts (who all lack Semblances), it’s because it would give away major changes to how the Redux handles magic (and by extension, the effects of the curse).
How do you feel about the Branwen Tribe? Were you satisfied with their portrayal in canon, or will Redux make significant changes to them?
I am so happy you asked me this, anon, because I’ve been wanting to talk about this topic for a while.
The short answer to your questions, in order: meh, no, yes.
The long answer (with emphasis on long) boils down to a handful of factors:
Why do the tribes exist? This question can be answered from both a storytelling, meta, and worldbuilding perspective. Basically, it’s discerning the intentions/motives of the writers, either definitive or presumed.
Do the tribes add anything meaningful to the story? As in, can we quantify the impact that the tribe had on character arcs and plot development. If we were to remove the tribe from the story, would their absence noticeably affect how it’s told?
Are the tribes being used to their fullest extent? It’s worth pointing out that the tribes are, functionally, a writing tool, and therefore a resource at the writers’ disposal. Can we imagine different ways that the tribes could be interacting with the story, but aren’t? What reasons are preventing the writers from doing so?
Does the worldbuilding for the tribes justify their existence, or enrich the lore? As in, does it make sense for the tribe to exist within the context of the story. What sort of forces within the world—cultural, economic, political, natural, or otherwise—created the ideal conditions for bandit tribes to emerge?
Do the tribes complicate/contradict the story, or create noticeable plotholes/discrepancies in the worldbuilding? When we look at the tribes critically, we have to ask ourselves what about them does or doesn’t make sense. How the tribes operate, how characters interact with them, and such.
Before I go any further, I want to preface this post by saying that my thoughts were sort of everywhere. This will be less of a structured essay and more of a bulleted rant, in part because all of my grievances with the tribes (not just the Branwen) intersect and can’t be neatly compartmentalized.
And yes, tribes, as in plural. Because in case any of us forgot (and it’s forgivable that we would, since we only ever see one throughout the series), Mistral has at least a few of them running around.
“Wandering bandits are another threat. These groups of usually fairly-skilled fighters travel the lands, never settling in one place. They often prey on convoys sending goods between Kingdoms. That's not all. These raiders will often wait for a town to be at its weakest—maybe after a Grimm attack or while its fighters are out hunting, before finally moving in at night and striking.” | Source: World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 5: “Between Kingdoms.”
Now, the technical reason why we only see the Branwen Tribe is because of contrivance. Raven is, after all, Qrow’s sister, Yang’s biological mother, a former member of Ozpin’s inner circle, and the Spring Maiden. The production team isn’t going to waste time or money writing and animating other bandits, when Raven already fulfills several roles within the story.
The drawback here is that reducing their existence to a few throwaway lines, and omitting them from the story, creates a vacuum. And it doesn’t take long for questions to fill that newly-created space.
1. What exactly are the tribes?
For once, I swear, I’m not asking just to be pedantic. RWBY gave these wandering bandit factions a unique designation—a tribe. Not a gang, or mob, or ring, but a tribe. And that word has a very specific meaning:
tribe /tɹaɪb/ n. a socially, ethnically, or politically cohesive group of people; [1] a social group composed chiefly of numerous families, clans, or generations having a shared ancestry and language; [2] any aggregate of people united by ties of descent from a common ancestor, a community of customs and traditions, adherence to the same leaders, etc. [3]
It’s not some arbitrary label. Tribes have a commonality, something which links its members together into a distinct, recognizable entity. We know this because “tribe” isn’t used interchangeably with other criminal organizations. The Spiders aren’t a tribe. Roman Torchwick’s gang isn’t a tribe.
This word was chosen by the writers deliberately. Granted, the writers could have called them “the Branwen Tribe” in order to make them sound more threatening (which has its own not-so-great implications), but there’s no ignoring that this term is selectively applicable. In RWBY, tribes refer to a group of semi-nomadic reavers who inhabit Mistral.
That, coupled with Raven’s survival of the fittest creed, [4] sounds a lot like the Old Way practiced by the ironborn in A Song of Ice and Fire. If this is true, then it’s entirely possible that the tribes aren’t just a loose coalition of marauding criminals, but a distinct cultural and ethnic group.
That’s a massive revelation from a worldbuilding standpoint, one which holds up surprisingly well under RWBY’s framework.
Let’s keep using the ironborn as an example. In ASOIAF, the ironborn hail from a storm-battered archipelago known as the Iron Islands. The climate of the region has significantly influenced the geography, rendering the soil nutrient-poor, stony, and unsuitable for farming. The only resource that’s readily-accessible is fish. It makes logical sense that the Old Way (their reaving culture) emerged as an outgrowth of their dependence on piracy.
Mistral’s bandit tribes occupy a similar niche. Canonically, the tribes wander from place to place to avoid Grimm. A non-sedentary lifestyle makes agriculture difficult, and thus creates a predisposition for raiding towns and villages in order to survive. Give it a few generations, and it’s easy to see how this practice could have been integrated into the bedrock of their culture.
That, in turn, could lead to all sorts of worldbuilding and storytelling questions: Would certain legal sanctions or concessions have been granted in order to preserve their culture, under the assumption that the tribes represent a protected minority? Are there any tribes that voluntarily gave up aspects of their heritage so they could avoid being arrested? In which case, how would they have adapted to changes in their way of life? If the tribes collectively refused to relinquish their raiding culture, then did the Mistral government retaliate? Would all members of the tribes’ ethnic group be recognized as criminals on-sight? What traditions or customs are exclusive to the tribes? Do they practice their own religion, or speak a language separate from mainstream Mistrali? Do children born in the tribe undergo rites of passage, like going on their first raid, or killing someone for the first time? How would that sort of cultural immersion have influenced Qrow’s and Raven’s childhood? What if someone wanted to voluntarily leave the tribe, and eschew their way of life? Would they be ostracized? Would the tribe do something as drastic as put a bounty on them? How would a person who grew up in a culturally-isolated environment like theirs navigate society? Would it be similar to the trauma faced by ex-Mormons who were excommunicated?
Do you have to be born to parents in the tribe in order to be considered a member? Or do the tribes actively recruit from outside sources? Maybe it’s like in One Piece, where Nami was made a member of Arlong’s crew because she demonstrated a valuable skill (cartography). Or perhaps the tribes recruit survivors from their raids, similar to Davey Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean 2, when he invited the helmsman from the scuttled ship to join The Dutchman after the kraken attacked.
…You know, looking back on the examples I used, it might not be a coincidence that all of them are pirates.
Anyway, the issue here is that all of the worldbuilding I posited hinges on an assumption: that “tribe” actually means something in this context, instead of Rooster Teeth just throwing a dart at the dictionary and picking whichever word it landed on. Without any sort of elaboration, the bandit tribes are left rather vague, with Raven’s group being the sole representative.
All we’re left with is the canon.
And that’s where things start to break down.
2. The way the bandit tribes operate doesn’t work.
Did you know that the Kingdom of Mistral only has ten settlements?
No, seriously. Ten. As in, I can literally count to that number with both hands.
To give you an idea of what those settlements are like, I’ve gone ahead and categorized them.
Major industrial city: Argus, Kuchinashi, Wind Path, City of Mistral
Backwater podunk village connected by dirt roads: Higanbana, Shion, Unnamed Village 1 (V4.E1), Unnamed Village 2 (RWBY #3)
Gone, but not forgotten: Oniyuri, Kuroyuri
Of the ten places I listed, four are massive cities with standardized defense systems that can repel Grimm (and are more than capable of resisting bandits). The other two are derelict villages that were destroyed a long time ago.
This leaves us with four small villages that are susceptible to bandit raids.
Oh, wait, scratch that. Shion was destroyed by Raven as of the second episode of Volume 4. My bad.
That leaves us with three small villages that are susceptible to bandit raids.
Although bandits will attack supply convoys and travelers, destroying towns [5.1] seems to be their primary means of survival. Here’s what that looks like in practice:
The destruction of Shion. | Source: RWBY Wiki contributor user:ChishioKunrin.
But there’s a problem with this business model: it’s not sustainable. With villages falling as soon as they pop up, [6] and typically not lasting more than a year, [5.2] it doesn’t make sense for bandits to systematically wipe them out.
Especially when there are only three villages left.
Especially especially when there are multiple tribes in Mistral all competing for the exact same limited resource.
A more feasible and pragmatic solution would be for the bandit tribes to implement something like pizzo, the protection money that the Mafia extorts from local businesses. In exchange for “payment,” the businesses are “protected” by the Mafia. Think of it like paying your taxes, only instead of your taxes going toward schools and infrastructure, they go toward the Mafia not breaking your kneecaps.
Not only would a system like that be more viable long-term for the tribes, but it would be harder for the Mistrali government to track and put a stop to. After all, smoking rubble is a lot more obvious than, say, a nondescript guy walking into a fuel station/restaurant and collecting lien from the owner.
Just Rite. | Source: RWBY Wiki contributor user:ChishioKunrin.
Wouldn’t you agree?
3. Qrow should have changed his last name. (Bet you didn’t see this one coming.)
While we’re on the subject, I’d like to bring up this exchange:
Bartender: So, what brings you around these parts?
Yang: Thanks. And I'm, uh, looking for someone.
Bartender: Not too many people come out here. Too far from the Kingdoms. Only person worth notin' around here is…well, Ra—
Yang: Raven Branwen.
Her tribe—the Branwen Tribe—is known by name across Anima, despite the fact that they regularly pick up and move their camp. The bartender is terrified by the mere mention of them.
Enter Qrow, whose reputation not only precedes him, [7] [8] but whose legal name on his license is the same one used by an infamous gang of thieves and killers.
Seriously, how has this not backfired on him? I mean, for Christ’s sake, he was a teacher at a school. You don’t think there weren’t students whose parents read his name on the faculty list and didn’t immediately have heart palpitations? Or, like, bars in Mistral that caught a glimpse of his license and didn’t immediately call the cops?
What about instances where Qrow sees a group of people in danger, so he jumps in and whips out his license to reassure them that he’s there to help. He wouldn’t be able to get the first three words out before the people around him started panicking because oh my god it’s a bandit from the Branwen Tribe we’re going to die.
Or what about victims that might have survived encounters with Raven, and forever bear a grudge against her? Branwen is undoubtedly a hated name in Mistral, and could be a sore subject for someone who overhears it. Why would Qrow risk his safety and invite unnecessary conflicts by hanging onto a name that’s a relic of his past?
For that matter, it’s a relic of his past. Qrow defected from the tribe to serve Ozpin, and do some good in the world by becoming a Huntsman. Why would he want to continue identifying with the name that represents a source of trauma and pain? I find it hard to believe that Ozpin, if asked, couldn’t have used his status as headmaster and pulled some strings to get his surname changed.
There’s so much more I could say about the tribes, and how I think they’ve been underutilized (especially by Cinder et al) but this post is getting long. Suffice to say, the tribes in the Redux are getting overhauled big time—their culture, their history, their relationship with other criminal factions, how many tribes there are, how the Mistrali government deals with them, how Salem uses them to meet her goals, and so on.
[4] Volume 4, Episode 4: “Family.” Raven: “The weak die, the strong live. Those are the rules.”
[5] World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 5: “Between Kingdoms.”
[5.1] Qrow: “This is also why bandits never stay in the towns they conquer.”
[5.2] Qrow: “If you don't have at least a few of those, then the chances of a town lasting more than a year isn't great.”
[6] World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 1: “Vale.” Qrow: “Welcome to the world of Remnant. Not the best place to live, but depending on where you're staying, it can get a little easier. You've got towns and villages that pop up as fast as they fall.”
[7] Volume 3, Episode 4: “Lessons Learned.” Qrow: “Hey, I know everybody to some extent. [Team STRQ was] pretty well known back in the day.”
[8] Volume 4, Episode 7: “Punished.” Tyrian: “As I live and breathe, Qrow Branwen. A true Huntsman has entered the fray!”
May Devon d’Atlas née Marigold was formerly the eldest child of Victor Marigold and Agatha Royce. The name that she currently bears, d’Atlas, was assigned to her when she lost the legal right to her former surname, through a process known as élagage, or the Law of Disownment.
I haven’t had a chance to talk about the Kingdom of Atlas, other than a few offhand mentions here and there. Calling Atlesian culture intense oversimplifies things to a pretty extreme degree, but it’s an accurate way of looking at it. Disownment (or pruning, as it’s sometimes called) is an archaic law that’s a holdover from before the Great War, in which the heads of a family can formally remove a member from their house. The individual subjected to this process is no longer recognized by their old surname in the eyes of the government, and is instead given the toponymic appellation d’Atlas, or of Atlas. The individual has their claim to their inheritance revoked, along with any titles they previously held within the family.
In centuries past, élagage could also include exile and expulsion from the community. While that’s no longer the case today, the social and economic backlash for those who face disownment can still be severe.
May was formally disowned after her family discovered that she was trans, back when she was a student at Atlas Academy. None of her extended family (with a few notable exceptions) speak to her, let alone acknowledge her existence. It’s considered taboo to do so. If someone were to press May’s parents about the subject, they would quietly yet firmly reply, “Our son died years ago.”
As far as some Atlesians are concerned, anyone that’s been legally disowned is pretty much dead to them.
There’s been talk of repealing the law, but it’s never gotten anywhere past the discussion stage. Many of Atlas’ old families—who often hold political clout, either through wealth or nepotism—have intervened in the past to prevent it from happening. Despite disownments being relatively uncommon nowadays, certain Atlesian families insist on the practice remaining legal, usually under the claim of “preserving their cultural heritage.”
Disownment can only be initiated when the intended recipient is still alive. It’s illegal to posthumously strip a person of their name. Otherwise, Watts’ family would have done it years ago.
