#faunus discrimination

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The White Fang Problem: How RWBY Fails at Discussing Racism, Oppression,...

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Sienna Khan: Adam Short

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I know the writers said they were having trouble writing the Faunus storyline, and I think the upcoming volume might be a good way to do more of that, especially if Ilia and Sun go with the group to Atlas. Ilia would be able to describe the things that happened when she went there. And Sun seems like a substitute for the audience when it comes to Faunus things so we can see him reacting to bigotry like we would. What do you think?

I’m not sure if they will go to Atlas right away. They might spend a good bit of the Volume wrapping up things in Mistral and figuring out how to get through the border with an ancient and super powerful relic that they kinda shouldn’t give to Ironwood in his current state of mind. 

I’m not sure if Sun should come to Atlas with them. Leaving some people behind in Mistral would be a good way to reduce the cast and just from the plot there’s no real reason for him to go there. He was a supporting character to Blake’s arc, but her team should now take over again and take that role. Blake’s relationship with her team is far more important right now than her relationship with Sun which has been developed over the last two Volumes to a point where I don’t feel they could do much more with it. 

I would love for Ilia to join them, but I don’t see why she would. As a former White Fang member she might only endanger their mission. If they want someone who knows Atlas they have Weiss, so as much as I’d love to see more of Ilia, I think she will stay with the White Fang for now. 

But they still have Blake. There will definitely be the question of her covering up her ears or not and I think she won’t, which can lead to some pretty nasty comments that team RWBY has to react to. I’d love a scene where Yang smashes a fancy party Weiss-style because someone looked at Blake the wrong way. Ruby could take over Sun’s role here, reacting to bigotry she didn’t expect. 

[immortalcheesewedge]

Why you should feel bad for Yuma and Triffa (RWBY For Thought)

Okay, the last time I did this I wrote out like 5 paragraphs but the browser reset and it’s not automatically letting me retrieve it like all the support for it says it should so until I can figure that out (or get help, someone please my older version was so much better) this diet version of that idea/post will have to do.

Basically, my thoughts were;

You know how we got introduced to spider and bat Faunus who are in the white fang? Well ever considered just how sucky their lives had to be? Velvet, a Fanus related to one of the best loved animals in our world (bunnies) is publicly humiliated and mistreated.

Now imagine how badly two Faunus that are related to some of the most hated creatures on Earth; Bats and spiders. Triffa probably had an absolutely HORRENDOUS life being part spider considering how badly Faunus with the traits of loved creatures are treated. Not to mention how visible and alienating her Faunus traits are and must have been. Wanna know the saddest part? She looks and sounds like she’s somewhere between Ruby and Illia’s age. So this kid was probably indoctrinated into the white fang like the cult it is.

So yeah. Some Faunus win the genetic lottery like Illia and others lose it badly like Triffa.

Just something to think about.

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I just love Ilia so much. 

I love her backstory. Ilia trying to fit in, almost believing she’s not a faunus, then realising that as soon as they find out her friends will see nothing but the faunus in her. That she might be able to forget about it, but the others aren’t. What Blake said earlier on the show makes so much sense keeping in mind her own experiences, Ilia’s story and the countless other stories about faunus discrimination she must have grown up with: “I want people to see me for who I am, not what I am.”

I love that Ilia changes colours depending on the emotions she feels. Blue for sadness, red for anger. I love that she seems to be able to control it, but that strong emotions can make her lose control. 

I love that Ilia and Blake apparently were good friends, so close that even the Albain brothers knew about it. I love that Ilia still seems to value that somehow, just look how she refuses to hurt Blake even though she has no issue with hurting Sun. I love that there is a complex relationship we might find out more about soon. 

I love Ilia. 

[rwby-analysis]

What I really loved about the Blake character short was how they told us about faunus discrimination without just dumping the information on us. 

I mean we always knew faunus had it bad. We’ve seen Cardin making fun of Velvet, we’ve seen Weiss’ prejudices, there was a World of Remnant episode that gave us more examples of faunus discrimination, we’ve been told that faunus are not treated as equal. But obviously all the main protagonists have been rather supportive of Blake, Weiss quickly learned to see beyond the prejudices she has grown up with. Aside from a side mention by Jaques in volume 4 we haven’t really seen much of faunus discrimination. 

And then there’s Ilia. Telling the story of how her friends laughed at the tragic death of many mine workers who apparently are at least mostly if not all faunus. It seems like a small thing, but it says so much about the world Ilia grew up in. How her friends didn’t view faunus as human enough to even care about their deaths. How Ilia had to hide she is a faunus to fit in, and then that moment when she suddenly couldn’t hide it anymore. 

It’s such an elegant way to show faunus discrimination because we immediately feel the effects of it. We don’t just learn that some humans think a faunus life isn’t worth anything, we learn it through Ilias eyes, we learn what it did to her. The abstract concept of discrimination becomes more tangible because we have this one example, because we can picture Ilia, the faunus girl who went to this fancy school in Atlas and had to learn the hard way that she might blend in, but she can’t stop being a faunus. 

With that added layer of emotional consequences we don’t only know about discrimination theoretically happening out there, we feel it. That doesn’t only make it more believable than before, more real, it also makes it easier to understand why so many faunus chose to join the White Fang. It makes us understand why the organisation was founded in the first place and also why they became more radical over the years, why faunus join it even though they know how radical and violent it is. 

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If Bumblebee happens, I think they’d probably have something about Blake and Yang being in a Human-Faunus relationship...which will probably be commentary or subtext about/on something.

They might do that. I’m not sure if it would be a good idea because people have been concerned with how RT have handled the similarities between faunus discrimination and racism (but I don’t know enough about that to really comment on it). But it might come up. It’s definitely more likely than people making a big deal out of them now dating women.

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Is it just me or do I find the new vol5 trailer is a bit confusing? Neon Katt comes from Atlas and is literally positive and happy about who she is. Meanwhile Ilia had a bad experience in Atlas. I know that they may be differ ages but I kinda have a headcanon that after Ilia revealed she was a Faunus, maybe Neon was inspired by her and starts embraces her own identity but it still confuses me that Ilia had a bad time at Atlas and Neon might have went through the same :c (do you have any ideas??)

I think it makes sense and having Ilia and Neon portrayed that way is one reason why the trailer was so good.

The discrimination faunus are facing in Remnant is not as open as not having the same rights or laws actively opressing them. Technically they are equal, actually they’re not. Technically a faunus girl might be allowed to attend that fancy prep school. Actually she might have a hard time to get in, maybe because the headmaster just really doesn’t want faunus to attend their school, maybe because of stereotypes they’re not aware of that make them biased against faunus students, maybe because Ilia didn’t get the same chances before she even got to apply for the school. For example generations of faunus not having the same access to education can be a factor that might deny her the same chances humans have. 

With minorities it’s never like everyone has the same chances, even if they grow up in the same Kingdom and society. Ilia comes from a family of miners, growing up in a community of faunus that is probably considered the bottom of society. If we assume Neon to have a different background for a moment, maybe being way better off than Ilia and maybe already living in the capitol (it was mentioned on the Atlas World of Remnant episode that the rest of the Kingdom has it a lot harder since they moved the capitol), educated, wealthy and mostly accepted by humans as hard working faunus who seem so different than all the others, she maybe had it way easier to get into Atlas Academy without having to hide she’s a faunus. 

There are many reasons why Neon made it into Atlas Academy as a faunus and Ilia had to hide who she was. Different schools might handle this differently (this post points out an important aspect of that). Some headmasters might be willing to give a faunus student equal chances and opportunities than others. Maybe Ilia didn’t go to a school that was combat focussed but one that focussed on science and maybe those schools are way less eager to accept faunus students. Maybe Neon was just so incredibly skilled that she made it, but Ilia was just average. Also Ilia didn’t really say she would have been expelled if people found out, so maybe those strict rules were precautions to spare Ilia from the discrimination she might face once people found out. Bullying, grades dropping, all that. 

Faunus facing opression doesn’t mean that all faunus are in the same situation. 

Not to forget that we haven’t really seen much of Neon at all, so we can just speculate, we don’t even have a grasp of her real story. We don’t know how confident she is with her faunus identity, if she embraces it, when she has learned to embrace it, how she was raised, which experiences she has made, if she has faced opression and if yes in which form. Neon seems to be positive and happy, but that was a tournament fight, a situation where literally the whole world is watching her. Not the time to reaveal all that much about her struggles. Your headcanon might be true, it might not. 

What this shows is something that not many shows dealing with some sort of discrimination tackle, but what is way more realistic: Not everyone’s experience is the same. Two people from the same minority and a similar background might have completely different experiences. In RWBY we have a variety of faunus experiences. Ilia who faced horrible prejudices and opression, Blake who grew up fighting for equality (actually we don’t know about the kind of opression she faced), Sun who is from Vacuo where things are a lot different. All the faunus we have seen probably have different opinions on that matter, just look at the brief discussion between Blake and Adam - Blake still wanting equality, Adam not believing it can be achieved anymore. 

RWBY shows that there is not one situation all faunus are in, that there is no “In Atlas you are not allowed to go to school when you’re a faunus” or “everyone without exception will hate you and all faunus fight for equal rights” or “this is the one faunus experience”. They show that there are nuances of discrimination and oppression, and that gives the whole storyline about the faunus and the White Fang so much more depth.