What do you think of Raven? I'm in like such a state of both anger and anguish with her, even more so now after the last episode I watched with her.
I think she is an incredibly interesting character. She’s a lot like Yang, but not in the way you think (and I will argue that Summer is Yang’s real mom/heavily influenced her until the my dying day). Yang’s trailer quote tells us that there is more to Yang than meets the eye, but it applies to Raven just as much. She’s not one-sided or easily processed; in fact so much about her is downright contradictory.
Take her semblance for example. The episode that we learn what her semblance is is the very same episode that Ren tells us that there is a connection between a person’s personality and their semblance, and Raven’s semblance? It allows her to always be with the people she cares about, and the fact that it activates with people she has a bond with implies that said bond still needs to be present for the portal to work. And yet she doesn’t actively involve herself in Yang’s life, suggesting that she doesn’t care, but apparently she cares enough to watch over her as a bird (Yang specifically recognizes her bird form) and to save her life (even if it is a one-time thing). She cares about her family, but from a distance (which I feel makes perfect sense considering her semblance).
Her dealings with Salem’s crew are also fascinating. She easily sizes them moments after meeting them, and manages to get basically their entire plan out of them all while making it seem like they’ve backed her into a corner. I’ve said before that I don’t think she wants Qrow dead (though I doubt she’ll try to save him since she now has her own goal during the battle at Haven), and only said as much to get more time and information (she also leaves out some very important details: she implies that Qrow would be alone even though she knows RNJR is with him and she literally sent Weiss and Yang to him about a week prior, both of whom are strong enough to influence an encounter, and she also flies right by Qrow’s window which let’s him know she’s there even if she doesn’t plan on warning him in person). Even if she’s pretending to work with Salem her actions are all in her (and her tribe’s) self-interest.
She also gives us a fresh perspective on the Ozpin/Salem fight as someone who worked with Oz and then left. Raven doesn’t believe in Ozpin, which is good for team RWBY to hear. Having blind faith in Oz is a bad idea, especially considering his tendency to use people (Pyrrha (especially egregious in that he didn’t tell her everything (Salem, the relics, etc.) before forcing her into a choice that wasn’t much of a choice), Ruby (accepting her into Beacon early likely so that he could use her as a silver eyed warrior), the Branwen twins (turning them into birds and while Qrow says it was consensual it’s likely they didn’t have all of the information like Pyrrha), and teams RWBY and STRQ in general (and he was likely partially responsible for Summer’s death)). The fact that he neglects to mention turning the Branwen twins into birds shows that she has a point, that Yang and her team need to be careful about trusting someone that hides so much.
She’s a terrible person with a very skewed set of priorities, but she’s also an incredibly complex character who can benefit the cast. Raven cares about her family in her own twisted way; she’s not the devil incarnate like some people like to think she is.
You didn’t ask for an essay but I have a lot of feelings about bad bird mom okay?
