#gods crit

[rwdestuffs]

The gods remind me of the Vok from Beast Wars. A bunch of selfish and arrogant bastards who had an experiment, and then the moment said experiment doesn’t go the way they want, they get rid of it despite how many sentient and innocent lives were there.

So I honestly hope that they all get their shits rekt. They’re the reason for all this suffering. All because the light douchebag couldn’t console one grieving woman.

Why people think that LG is a good guy is beyond me, but whatever.

[rwdestuffs]

I think one of the things that irritates me about Oz is how they’re trying to retcon it in that he was traumatized.

In the early volumes, his secrecy came off as more of a “I know better than you, so shut up” rather than “Hey, this stuff is very personal and traumatizing to me, so if you could just not, that would be great.” The early stuff is super weird in how it wants to go about this whole situation because I don’t think they really planned for this to be the case. Maybe that’s why I find it hard to sympathize with him, because really… His early attitude didn’t exactly say “Abuse victim” it sorta said “Arrogant headmaster.”

Like… He’s sending kids to their deaths fighting against his ex wife. He’s just as much responsible for their deaths as Salem is for her killing her own kids, but apparently, “Oz is doing it for the ‘right’ reasons, so that makes it okay” or some shit. Maybe next time, don’t side with her abusers? Salem was bumming around in her cabin by the time Oz found her! She wasn’t doing anything! But then light god are all “She’s causing destruction and mayhem. Stop her by uniting all of humanity.” Uh… Where? When? The grimm are running rampant, sure, but they’re not doing it under Salem’s command. They’re doing it because that’s their nature.

Also also: What the fuck is up with this series saying that retaliating against your abusers is a “start of darkness”? Adam does it and everyone in-universe says “Hey! Attacking the guys who branded you is going to lead you down a dark path.” Cinder does it, and Rhodes is all “This is going to be all you’re going to be.” Salem reacts harshly to the gods and then that’s treated as “She should have been more respectful and did what they wanted instead.”

Like… This series seems to want to be all “Being hurt doesn’t give you the right to hurt others” but… That kinda falls flat when that’s basically the only way that Faunus were able to get equal rights. They were hurt, so they fought back, and then they earned that equal rights thing. It also falls flat when the first people these antagonists retaliated against were their abusers.

Like… Where’s the justice for the victims of abuse? Where’s Cinder’s justice against her slavers? Where’s Salem’s justice against the gods? Where’s Adam’s justice against his abusers? All that is treated as “not justice”, but rather as “a start of darkness.”

Well, if that’s the case, then I guess every hunter is evil because they all kill grimm indiscriminately. And for what?- Because the grimm are acting on their nature as destructive beings? I guess that’s the start of darkness for all hunters.

[rwdestuffs]

Something I have recently found out is that Salem’s dad was basically a cross between Triton from The Little Mermaid and Gothel from Rapunzel. The guy decorated her cell with gold and jewels and then called it a room.

Then he went mad with power, and started getting violent whenever she brought up being allowed to go outside.

Again: The gods gaslit Salem into being the villain, and Oz fell for it.

Salem is just as much a victim as Adam was, and the show is trying to make us hate her for it.

[rwdestuffs]

CRWBY: This is Salem, a woman who has been abused, abandoned, and gaslit. She is now lashing out because of all this.

Also CRWBY: She is the ultimate villain and is irredeemable. Abuse victims become villains, and they must be stopped. Who cares about punishing the abuser? It’s the victims that need to be punished. We must demonize all abuse victims that do not deal with their abuse in healthy ways! Who gives a fuck about the abuser as long as the one who is causing the trouble is demonized and punished? The abuser doesn’t need to learn a lesson or be punished for being an abuser. Unless they are also the victim of abuse, in which case, they had better be dealing with it in a healthy and constructive manner without prodding from others or else they are going to be demonized and killed.

[rwdestuffs]

I’m going to be pissed if the gods get to get away scott free after abusing Salem and wiping out all of humanity-

Actually wait a minute. Why aren’t people demonizing them? Salem wants to do it, and she’s satan’s more evil sister in law who has to be putt down without a shred of remourse. The gods do it, and they’re the fucking good guys?

Goddammit. This fndm is sexist as hell.

[rwdestuffs]

I honestly hope that the narrative actually acknowledges that the gods are just as evil as Salem is, if not moreso, because they actually did wipe out all of humanity.

If only so that all the christain incels in this fndm would throw a fit about how “the show is pushing anti-religious propaganda!”

[rwdestuffs]

Dude Salem's name has nothing to do with her simplistic character. Salem and the gods are at fault you can't fault them more cause you simp over salem man. They're all shitty. Also salem's an abuser too you can't defend one abuser over another, wake up they're all shitty none more or less

In a setting where everyone’s name is a significant part of their character (Ex: Pyrrha being akin to “Pyrhhic Victory” or how Cinder’s name is Cinder) I’d contest that Salem’s name is a significant part of her character.

Also, all I want is for the gods to face consequences too. The way that the fndm acts, they seem to think that the gods were all good and are the ultimate good in the world.

They fucking gaslighted Salem. All I want is for that to be acknowledged.

Besides, that story was being told from the perspective of Jinn, who is a creation of the gods. So of course they’d want to make her out to be as irredeemable as possible and make themselves look as if they were the victims. They’re gods. They should be held to a higher standard.

Then again, I’m probably not the best to talk about this because I kinda want Salem to adopt me.

[rwdestuffs]

Done dirty: Gods

I’d like to make the point that the light god, the dude who killed Oz repeatedly and abused Salem to the point that she became the villainous being that we know today, is somehow on the “Heroes Wiki.”

Because I guess abusers are heroes now.

Oh, and also, I HAD TO USE GODDAMN SOUTH PARK AS PART OF MY OPENER!

Let’s get this out of the way for any of idiots out there: Salem was NOT responsible for Humanity 1.0′s death. She may have provoked these two asshats, but she wasn’t the one who

1: Loaded the gun.

2: Aimed the gun.

3: Fired the gun.

What did Salem do?- She just stood up to them and, inadvertently, gave them a target.

As far as I’m concerned, these gods were the villains of the story, and what I wouldn’t give to see Yang punch one of them in the face.

When making these “Godly” characters, it’s okay to give them flaws. In fact, that’s what makes the Greek Gods, Norse Gods, Japanese Gods, and Egyptian Gods so interesting. They have flaws, weaknesses, and more relatable personality aspects that makes it seem like we could have the guy responsible for the ocean’s tides as our next door neighbor, or the adorable little dog across the street as the one responsible for the sun coming up… and beating up a fish in a giant mech suit. Goddamn, I want to play Okami again.

I got off-topic. The point is, is that it’s okay for these Gods to give flawed advice… Provided that they gave advice at all.

See, Light God was insensitive to Salem’s plight, and in all likelihood, used the same rhetoric that her father used to lock her up in that tower as an excuse to just brush her off.

So when Salem goes to Dark God, and he does fulfill her request, it’s honestly like Salem is now picking a side. Except, it turns out that Dark God actually has to answer to the Light God.

Does the relationship between the gods seem… manipulative to anyone? Like… The Light God (Fuck it, let’s call him “Lumin” for now, I’m not typing out that whole thing) is abusive to his brother?

Acording to… I think it was Qrow, possibly in a WOR, the Dark God (Let’s call him “Ebon” because that’s a badass name, and I’m honestly not in the mood for “Light = Good, Dark = Evil” to be the underlying theme here) made his creations first. then Lumin was all “I can make something too!” and made humans to one-up his brother.

Like… Does that at all seem healthy to you?

But regardless of that relationship, Lumin basically acted like that one abusive parent who destroys all of the child’s toys just because they went to the other parent to do something that the first parent was callous in denying them to do. Sorry if that brought up any bad memories for people.

Also, can we go back to this line that I highlighted for a moment? I think I mentioned this before, but this wasn’t necessary. I’m sure that Colleen Clinkenbeard was a big name that they wanted to use as much as possible, but this narration was just unnecessary. They could have just paid a female intern $50 to just do the introductory lines and let Chase McCaskill and Bruce DuBose do all the dialogue along with Aaron Dismuke as Ozma and Jen Taylor as Salem for everything else.

Since there’s human remains there, how about when Salem shows up, instead of Jinn narrating what Ebon was feeling, Ebon himself just says “It’s been a long time since a human entered my domain willingly.”

We get a better insight to Ebon’s character, it shows just how desperate Salem is, and we don’t have pointless exposition.

Not to mention the relics. Outside of their purpose to resummon the gods, they don’t really do much. But these are literal artifacts left behind by said gods.

Plus, Lumin give Oz an impossible task of uniting humanity. It’s like he wants Oz to fail because he just wants an excuse to wipe them all out again.

Lumin treats humankind as an “experiment gone wrong” as if he’s just playing with peoples’ lives for his own amusement. If anything, Ebon is more sympathetic because he actually listens to their problems and wants to help them out.

Meanwhile Lumin is all “Sucks that your man died. Now get out.” at best.

Let’s take a look at another set of flawed gods in the form of The Norse Pantheon. Namely, Odin, Loki, and Thor. In myth, these guys were all given tasks that were basically impossible. Thor was tasked with drinking the ocean, and failed. Odin wrestled with time, and was brought down. And Loki lost an eating contest to fire. These flaws and weaknesses in regards to their hubris are part of them.

I mentioned this briefly in my “Done dirty: Oz” post, but Oz was basically brought back to cause conflict. Because… I guess Lumin was bored?

But the narrative wants people to see that Lumin and Ebon are “All good. All caring. And all knowing.”

Which is a load of bullshit. The narrative tries to paint Salem as some unsympathetic witch who couldn’t let go. When…

1: The woman was abused and locked in a tower until Oz came to rescue her.

2: She was willing to fight God to get him back. If anything, that shows true love. If you want my opinion, if you’re not willing to deck a deity in the nose for your loved one, then you don’t care about them (Take that, Abraham. Willing to sacrificing your own son just because your God told you to. Bet you wouldn’t see that from Amaterasu).

What I’m saying is that these gods are detached. Which would be an interesting aspect if the narrative had bothered to show that as being a bad thing.

Then again, this is all being told by Jinn, a creation of the Gods (Namely Lumin). So maybe there’s some bias in there where they’re trying to make Salem out to be irredeemable while the gods are the undisputed good guys- and holy SHIT!- Jinn’s in on the gaslighting.

i mean… I still want everyone to eventually realize that Salem was gaslighted into being the villain of the story. because that sounds way better than the “Abused woman lashes out and becomes evil” angle that they seem to be going at.

But given the writers’ ability to handle racism (or lack thereof), I don’t exactly have a lot of confidence in this.

Then again, the did call her Salem…

… But also again, they did write the WF plot as that horrible mess…

But they also looked into a lot of fairy tale aspects for their characters…

But…

I…